Selling house to move across country. Next move?

Question

Hey all,

So my wife and I bought a house in Chattanooga in May 2016 for $191k and still owe $186k. Have put a lot of work into it, new flooring and paint throughout, got rid of the popcorn ceiling and did the flat painted ceiling, new interior door handles and stuff like that, updated bathrooms and nice open floor plan, and totally redid the exterior and increased the curb appeal ten-told. A house about 4 doors up just went up for sale for $240k, same size but not updated. I think we can sell our house in the $265k range for sure.

So we just decided that we are leaving Chattanooga and moving to Denver for a few years so I can go to school there. I was originally thinking that we could rent our house out and start like that, but we have a pool and I really really don't want to rent a house with a pool. So we are thinking that we will sell and take the money that we make on it and buy a multi-family. Denver is a lot more expensive than Chattanooga so we are wondering about trying to invest long-distance and buy in Chattanooga or try to invest in Denver when we move.

Any advice would be very helpful.

PS. We plan on renting in Denver for ourselves and using most of the money we make on our house here to start RE investing for our future. We both have goals of leaving our careers as soon as we can to do this full-time in several years and keep growing it from there. But we have the first one coming up and hopefully about $75k to work with.

Thanks.

Nathan Recchia · Answer

I'm kicking myself right now for not logging into bigger pockets this week. And I can't figure out how to get notifications to my phone when someone messages me. Now that the wife and I have decided we are definitely moving to Colorado we are hitting the last few things hard on the house to get it ready, so our kitchen is torn apart to paint cabinets and I'm simultaneously finishing up the stairs treads. I've been lazy about bigger pockets this week. I'd still like to meet if you would. Could I buy you a cup of coffee one morning this next week so we could meet and talk real estate? Any day except Monday morning would work for me if you'd be interested. @Jeffrey Holst

Jeffrey Holst · Answer

Here's the link for this Thursdays meet up

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/642977-november-chattanooga-investor-happy-hour?page=1#p3815575

Brian Levredge · Answer

I both live in, and invest in Chattanooga in addition to owning a property management company here as well. A couple things to consider in answering the question you laid out. First, how much of that cash will you need to maintain for cost of living? Second, once you've identified how much is left to invest with you'll need to talk to a couple lenders to see what you qualify for. This will be somewhat murkier as recent move/change of income will not positively benefit you. Regardless, once you know how much you have to invest with (the lender will want to see what you will keep for reserves) you can then identify asset classes and areas of town where the prices are a fit. Once that is known you have to decide if you have the tolerance to invest in those asset classes and areas.

The big issue for you as I see it is finding something at a discount while still being out of market and having limited capital to work with. There are of course ways around all these things but in the beginning they can be discouraging/daunting.

Jeffrey Holst · Answer

Don't think I can tag you unless we connect first or if you already commented on the post. So I sent you a colleague request.

Nathan Recchia · Answer

@Jeffrey Holst forgot tag you in this earlier this morning when I wrote it so not sure if you saw it or not. Still getting used to this whole website.

Nathan Recchia · Answer

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I'm not quite sure on my schedule yet but I think I would really enjoy sitting down for a cup of coffee and learning more about investing. And about that November investor meetup, yes, please tag me in that. I would also enjoy going and seeing what happens there and meeting other investors. I'm really trying to soak up information.

Jeffrey Holst · Answer

This is the link to the October one. I don't think there is one planned yet for November.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/629733-october-chattanooga-investor-happy-hour

Jeffrey Holst · Answer

I do. We have a monthly biggerpockets meet up usually last Thursday of the month. I'll check and see if there is a post about the next one and tag you in it. Also I am always willing to talk real estate. I'm in Hixson and would be happy to meet you for lunch or drinks sometime.

Nathan Recchia · Answer

@Jeffrey Holst we wouldn't necessarily want to move back into this house. As far as syndication goes, I will look into that but really don't like the idea all that much, purely because I would like to have some more control to learn about RE investing. I feel like that would just be very similar to investing in the stock market and having a financial advisor do it for you. I would obviously like to make money on this first deal but really want to learn, even more, so we can continue on with investing in the future. My schooling won't be super intensive so I don't think that's going to be much of a problem.

Do you know of any RE investing clubs in Chatt that I could start showing up to? I think that was basically going to be my next step, I desperately need to start networking, I don't really have a network at all in this space.

Selling house to move across country. Next move?

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