22 Y/O with $20,000 to spend

[Matthew Gangi]

Hello, 22 year old trying to get my feet wet in REI. I have $20,000 to spend. I currently live in Boston, MA which is a super expensive market so i was thinking of out of state investing. Turn keys did come to mind. Should I just keep on saving, or dive in? Thank you

[Michael Ealy]

Originally posted by @Matthew Gangi:

Hello, 22 year old trying to get my feet wet in REI. I have $20,000 to spend. I currently live in Boston, MA which is a super expensive market so i was thinking of out of state investing. Turn keys did come to mind. Should I just keep on saving, or dive in? Thank you

 Matthew,

I am a strong proponent of investing closer to home specially for your first deal.

I have acquired over 1,000 apartment units and most of them I did right where I live - in Cincinnati Ohio. The rest of my properties are in the Midwest but I do have partners in cities (outside of Cincy) where I have my properties.

Having said that, I understand Boston is quite expensive.

Option #1: is to invest in areas, say 1 hour away from Boston and hopefully not as expensive as Boston. 1 hour is close enough that you can still monitor your investment but not too far that you waste so much time on travel.

And yes, with the technology nowadays you can monitor your properties from a distance. But if you decide to invest out of state, you got to find someone trustworthy as your "boots-on-the-ground" team. Also, you need to visit the city for a few days to really have a "feel" of the place before you invest.

So, Option #2: invest out of state but before you buy, spend time understanding the market and build a team first.

Makes sense?