Sort of a newbie looking for advice

[Chris James]

A little background. I have a full time job that provides me with a good positive cash flow. I currently own and live in a multi-family unit in the New York metropolitan area. I pretty much bought it at the top and although I'm not currently under-water the market here hasn't gotten hit so hard as other areas and as long as my rents pay for my mortgage and all other housing related expenses I'm not too worried about it (I plan on keeping this property for a long time). I've been able to accumulate a god amount of liquid money these last few years and am definitely interested in trying to put it to work for me (a little north of 6 figures).

I would like to invest in my current area since that's seems to be the best strategy. Invest in the area you know. I know the Brooklyn RE market pretty well. The problem is the price points are so high. You can throw the 2% rule the window. THe area might have other things going for it though. Higher chance of appreciation since many areas are gentrifying, some areas have seen major appreciation the last 10-20 years. The problem with that is you're looking at not much cash flow if at all (hoping the rents basically just cover the mortgage). I also have a local contact that runs an HML shop (50% LTV) and promised me returns of 12-14%. I think I'd rather put my money in the stock market then be "guaranteed" 12-14%. Anyway I know that there are many ways to make money in this business. I do have experience as a landlord but have gotten real lucky with all my tenants these 3-4 years. I'm also not someone who you would call handy. I have accesss to a pretty skilled labor pool that's willing to do good work for not that much money so that hasn't been too big of a problem.

I wouldn't mind possibly investing out of state if I could find the right deal. It just seems much cheaper and easily to develop cash flow in some areas.

Anyway I've been busy with work and personal stuff (just had a baby!). So haven't had too much time to devote to this as I would like. Things have been getting less hectic lately though. I plan on looking into a local Real Estate investment club.

Any advice I can gather from the knowledgeable people on this site would be greatly appreciated.