New to BP from Huntsville, AL

[Charles Hirst]

Hello, BP'ers!

I'm new to the site and looking to learn as much as possible about REI. Long-term goals are to replace W-2 income with passive through a primarily buy-and-hold strategy. I'm initially looking at SFR and small MFR, but am also looking to eventually expand into larger MFRs.

I've been in Huntsville, AL for about 2 years and absolutely love it!  I'm interested in investing locally, as well as OOS, and am starting the search for contacts to form teams.  Specific non-local areas of interest (at this point) are Birmingham, AL; Atlanta, GA; Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando, Brevard County, and Fort Lauderdale, FL.

I look forward to meeting many of you in the future.  Thank you for your time.

Charles

[Daniel Reeder]

Welcome @Charles Hirst!  I live in Birmingham and provide investment property insurance for in and out of state investors all over Alabama.  I’d love to be a part of your team and serve you anyway I can in the insurance arena! 

[Darren Lenick]

@Charles Hirst welcome! I’m in South Florida and happy to work with others.

[Dmitriy Fomichenko]

@Charles Hirst

Welcome to the BP family! Good to have you here! Here are some recommendations for you:

Find and connect with other BP members that are in your area:
https://www.biggerpockets.com/search/users
Set up keyword alerts to be notified of the topics that interest you: http://www.biggerpockets.com/alerts
Read Beginner’s Guide: http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investing
Check out BP Podcasts: https://www.biggerpockets.com/podcast

If you wish to tag someone in the conversation on the forum, type @ followed by their name and then select the name of that person which should appear below the comments box. He or she will be notified of being tagged so that the conversation will continue.

Wishing you the best!

[Maureen McCann]

@Charles Hirst Welcome to BP! This is the BEST place to learn all you need to know. You're actually one step ahead of a lot of people here tho - you already live in an AMAZING cash flow market!  Our company recently expanded into Huntsville from Birmingham and I can't tell you how excited we are about it. Your city has got it going ON and the future is looking pretty bright. 

If you've only lived there for two years and are new to BP, I get that you might not quite know how to analyze a market yet. Huntsville is a lot like Birmingham was a few years ago, just really getting its renaissance going. But the Big Picture plan for Huntsville's next 50 years is ambitious, future-focused and pretty much guaranteed to boost values, rents, and demand: https://bigpicturehuntsville.com/

What's more, Huntsville's internal and external (including, crucially, foreign) business investments are FANTASTIC. Jobs growth should only continue to ramp up as the projects currently underway get completed and new jobs hit the market. Unemployment is already crazy low at 2.5% https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HUNT601URN AND it has a diverse economy with no one industry accounting for more than 30% of jobs, which means it will be resilient if one industry takes a hit. https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.al_huntsville_msa.htm

[Maureen McCann]

The way you invest in Huntsville (ie DIY using a BRRR method or flipping, or using a turnkey company to keep it as passive as possible) will depend on your goals, your time, and your interest (because we're all better at things we enjoy, so if going the DIY route doesn't sound like FUN even though its hard work, then consider whether you'll actually stick it out).

So since you're already in such a good market, you sort have one MAJOR thing checked off your list already. Your focus needs to be on nailing down your goals, in writing, for your REI both short and long-term and then having a serious come-to-jesus with yourself (and your partner if applicable) about how much time, money, enthusiasm, and brain-space you can reliably dedicate to building your portfolio week after week. The answers to those questions will point you in the right direction – after that, BP has pretty much got you covered resource-wise.

Good luck and CONGRATULATIONS on this awesome new adventure!

[Tim White]

@Charles Hirst  Welcome to Biggerpockets.  I am also a local Huntsville investor. There is a ton of information to help you get started here.  I would also suggest meeting up with other local investors at the Real Estate Investment Associations.  You can find them on Facebook groups and Meetup.com.

[Caleb Jordan]

Originally posted by @Charles Hirst:

Hello, BP'ers!

I'm new to the site and looking to learn as much as possible about REI. Long-term goals are to replace W-2 income with passive through a primarily buy-and-hold strategy. I'm initially looking at SFR and small MFR, but am also looking to eventually expand into larger MFRs.

I've been in Huntsville, AL for about 2 years and absolutely love it!  I'm interested in investing locally, as well as OOS, and am starting the search for contacts to form teams.  Specific non-local areas of interest (at this point) are Birmingham, AL; Atlanta, GA; Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando, Brevard County, and Fort Lauderdale, FL.

I look forward to meeting many of you in the future.  Thank you for your time.

Charles

 Welcome to BP. Wealth of info here on the forums. I peruse them everyday and am always learning something. You can also take advantage of meetups local to you listed here on BP. 
It seems there are multiple markets in Alabama that are great for brrrr.  Some of our clients are in the Alabama and from the deals I've seen it seems like a good place find cash flowing rentals.

[Cody Martin]

Welcome @Charles Hirst, I’ve learned a lot myself from the BiggerPockets podcast and also a lot locally by setting up Huntsville in the keyword alerts. You can also learn a lot by searching Huntsville and reading through all the old forums post that mentioned Huntsville. Good luck 

[Gorden Lopes]

@Charles Hirst

Welcome to BP! I am a OOS investor with few cash flowing properties in huntsville! I really love Huntsville as a market and being local will definitely be of great advantage! The huntsville/madison REIA is really very active and you can start by attending those!

BP has been a complete game changer for newbies like us. I have learned a ton by just reading the blog posts and podcasts! 

[Gorden Lopes]

@Maureen McCann

Those stats are just amazing! Thanks for sharing this! 

[Charles Hirst]

Thank you all for the warm welcome and advice!  I am / will be following the links and threads you have sent in my further education.

@Maureen McCann, I'm getting my wife on board.  It's a process, but she's coming around to the potential.

Thanks again!

[Maureen McCann]

@Charles Hirst hahaha yes getting the SO on board is often a little bit of a hiccup at first if they're not as obsessed with cashflow as you are. BUT taking the time to show them the data and work through some math with them usually helps things go down a little more smoothly – I've had several clients who started out with a recalcitrant spouse who later became THE family evangelist for turnkey investing lol. 

Plus the slight delay is going to be WAYYYY worth it in terms of marital harmony, which is, in the end, the most important thing. Just keep showing her the data, no starry-eyed predictions of the future, just compare numbers to what a 'normal' investment could do (based on actual historical data). When you account for the tax benefits of owning rentals, especially, paying fees to some mutual fund and then also paying taxes on your gains may seem like the lesser option (whiiiich it is!).

 Good luck!

[Maureen McCann]

@Gorden Lopes my pleasure! the best part of BP is how supportive and sharing everyone is so I always like to participate in the exchange of data when I can !

[James Wise]

Originally posted by @Charles Hirst:

Hello, BP'ers!

I'm new to the site and looking to learn as much as possible about REI. Long-term goals are to replace W-2 income with passive through a primarily buy-and-hold strategy. I'm initially looking at SFR and small MFR, but am also looking to eventually expand into larger MFRs.

I've been in Huntsville, AL for about 2 years and absolutely love it!  I'm interested in investing locally, as well as OOS, and am starting the search for contacts to form teams.  Specific non-local areas of interest (at this point) are Birmingham, AL; Atlanta, GA; Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando, Brevard County, and Fort Lauderdale, FL.

I look forward to meeting many of you in the future.  Thank you for your time.

Charles

Welcome to the site Charles.