In state or out of state

[Teresa Thomas]

Hello! My husband are debating buying our first property locally to be close to it (we live in Madison, WI) so looking to buy in a small town outside Madison because it’s so expensive here. Thought about Janesville, Racine, Beloit area. Milwaukee is really a hit or miss. Been in WI my entire life, I know Milwaukee very well, great prices, but the neighborhoods are NOT good.

We have also been looking at turnkey companies, most out of state, and have the company manage our properties. I’ve seen some really good PM/Turnkey companies out there.

We will have about 20k to invest on our first property and 5k in reserves. Want small, multi-family or single family that cash flow at least $200/month.

What would you do as your first, newbie experience?

[Will Fraser]

HI @Teresa Thomas, this is a fun question to consider with you!  My recommendation would be based off of this:  where do you want to go in real estate investing?  What would ideally be true in 10 years?  How about 30?

If you have a high-income job and you're simply looking to deploy some of you excess cash into real estate because you know it's a good (and diversified) asset class, then turnkey is a great solution.  I think it's possible to basically do The Millionaire Real Estate Investor process through a quality turnkey provider.

If you're looking to be more involved or if you someday want to be fully employed in your real estate business, then I'd say this:  don't waste your money on turnkey and shortcut your self on the learning opportunities.  Turnkey has a purpose and a value, but the training wheels that it offers (which makes it simple and easy) ALSO is like learning to ride a bike with training wheels.  If you need them to get started then great!  If you can started without them then you'll probably be up to speed quicker (through a few more ouchies, but those usually go hand-in-hand).