My initial investment plan (open for suggestions)

[Angelo Van]

Dear people,

I'm a fairly new user here and if you like to know a bit more about me I encourage you to click on the link below.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/55/topics/656...Introduction

That being said I am a bit lost. I'm listening to podcasts, reading articles, reading posts, reading books from the BP community but also financial theory etc. As always there is a lot of contradicting advice which is logical since we all live in different parts of the world with different skills and situations. 

However I tried to come up with a plan myself as I don't want to be that annoying newbie that asks these horrible open questions as "what should i do". I try to build a plan that is pretty solid and low risk for a newbie. Once i have proven to myself I'm made for this world and feel i have the confidence I can try out something else. But for my first investment I like to keep it simple even if it means it will yield a bit less than a higher risk property.

I have no detailed or specific plan yet but after some initial reading and own thoughts I was thinking of the following.

-Rental properties

-Single families

-Medium sized city in my country (~150-300k)

-City must have a university.

-Buy and hold

-Either families or students

-Take it slow on rehab

-Partner up with my friend

Let me try to reason my choices. 

I chose single family dwellings as I have little to no experience at all and it will be hard enough to finance a single family dwelling let alone a multi. I chose medium sized cities in the hope they are less prone to vacancy (we have some areas that vacant due to no education and ageing of the population). On the other hand I feel medium sized cities are less susceptible to bubbles (i.e. Amsterdam). Furthermore due to the potential target group and vacating I think it will be good the city has a university for future growth and appreciation of the city. I prefer a little distress but nothing I can't handle. As I told im just starting out and want to try slow and safe even if this means this property won't make as much as a successful rehabbed place. Then I want to partner up with my friend to get the down-payment and share the workload in our spare time. Not sure though what is wise to do here. I read Brandon's advice on LLC's. Sometimes it's not worth it. It's just a general outline of my plans here. I'd love to hear any comments.

My plan is flexible and is open for modifications as I progress with my life. I hope you guys can give me some advice on my plan and if my reasoning makes sense. I see myself as rational and rather doom scenario than dream scenario thinker but my enthusiasm can motivate me to still find a good deal. My partner is the complete opposite which I hope will be a good counterpart.

Thanks for the help in advance!

Regards,

Angelo