If You Haven’t Picked A Rental Market Yet, Nothing Else Matters

[Brian Ellwood]

Do you want to invest in real estate, but you live somewhere that’s way too expensive?

Have you been “dabbling” in other markets, casually looking at cheaper deals and thinking about pulling the trigger?

This seems to be the case for a large amount of the people I talk to right now. Their market is too expensive and competitive, so they’re sort of stuck in a holding pattern, waiting to see what happens.

They are possibly even envious of others who are still investing in more affordable markets.

I know I was.

When Nashville dried up, I did the same thing. I got mad while simultaneously watching other investors move to other markets like Clarksville, Chattanooga, and Huntsville. They were still succeeding and I was stubbornly hanging around trying to pretend like Nashville could still work as a rental market.

It wasn’t until I decided to stop that nonsense and model what they were doing that I was able to start buying houses again. I quickly bought about 15 properties in these other markets, and I was back in the game.

More importantly, my mindset had shifted about what was possible for me. I realized that I was the one who had been holding myself back.

I also realized that I would never be hurting to buy deals again, because by learning to invest virtually, essentially the entire United States could become my investing playground.

If you are sitting on the sidelines and casually exploring other markets, you are partly on the right track. You know that you’re going to have to invest elsewhere if you want to keep doing deals.

Intuitively, you feel the need to shift your strategy.

But in reality, what you are doing isn’t actually working. Meaning, no new passive income or net worth is being added to your bottom line, because you aren’t pulling the trigger on any deals.

The solution? Plant your flag. Stop looking in every area that has cheap houses. Those areas aren’t necessarily a good place to buy. Do some research, and pick a solid rental market, and burn your boats.

I wrote another post here on BP what makes a good market, called the 6 Pillars Of A Great Rental Market. Use that to decide where you will invest.

You need to pick a solid market, but you don’t need to overanalyze this to death. You’re losing more money by NOT doing deals than you would by not picking the “perfect market”.

You’re so close to being back in the game. All you need to do is stop dabbling and DECIDE where you will invest.

Then, you can deep dive into that market, learn the neighborhoods, zip codes, meet other RE professionals there, build your team, and start doing deals again.

To your freedom,

Brian