It can't be this easy, right? Out of state investing

[Jose D.]

So, I went to see a local multifamily property yesterday. The numbers looked great, affordable enough for me to get into the game, everything seemed perfect...turns out it is run by a slumlord and needs way too much work. The tenants were actually super nice, humble people but you can tell the owner is taking advantage of them. 

Anyways, I've turned my sights to out of state. For the same price range of the local duplex I visited yesterday, I've seen much nicer properties in the Midwest. The things is, I feel like I'm missing something because in 45-60 mins of quick research after work and just looking through Zillow and Realtor...I found a property in the Indianapolis area that is within my price range, tenanted on yearly leases, exceeds the 2% rule, and looks to be in good shape. The neighborhood is C class comprised of solid, blue collar people according to the BP community.

Am I missing something? Are deals really this good and easy to come across in the Midwest or is it almost certain that an inspection will reveal major problems? All I hear is "there are still good deals out there in this market, you just have to put in the work to find them" but this literally took almost no effort.

[Alexander Felice]

Lots of things look good on paper, which is often misleading. You're definitely missing information. 

What's more likely, that you do a 1 hour search of a property on Zillow in an area you know nothing about and find a killer deal while ALL the other investors in the area are sleeping. 

or

you found a deal that no other investors want at that price because they know something about that property or neighborhood that you don't.

The internet has made deal analysis priority number 1 in property purchasing but that does them a disservice when they forget the first and most important part of real estate: LOCATION.

I guarantee there are a ton of investors looking at deals no matter where you go. All the low hanging fruit in real estate is gone so if you're finding low hanging fruit, it's probably poisoned ;) ;) 

Also, finding the deal is just one small step of OOS investing. Who is going to manage the asset? do the rehab? who are your backups when you find the first people unreliable? 

Buying profitable OOS rentals is easy, yes, but no where near as easy as you're thinking and if you're not regularly driven to drink by the frustration of competition then you're not trying to buy anything worth competing over.