First Deal - Afraid to make a move!

[Theresa Reynolds]

Hi everyone! I am a newbie in Montana and wanted to see if anyone on here is familiar with the real estate market Montana, who is willing to share their experience and teach me some cool stuff :) 

Currently shopping around for rentals in Helena/Great Falls/ small town Montana, preferably Helena but would also be open to partner up with someone more experienced on a flip or two to increase my budget.

I am particularly struggling with just making a move! I spend all my waking hours on zillow and see potential listings but can't get myself to move forward. I've been doing my homework and studying up on rental investments, but I am afraid of taking risks and don't want to mess up. I am also currently looking to buy a house for myself as I am living in a crappy rental, and want to be able to to that as well. I am a first year teacher, so don't have a lot of income but I have about 40-50k from selling my old house to play with, without jeopardizing my personal savings. Can I buy two properties with that? Ideally I would like to find propertied with a cashflow of 200-300$/month. Am I aiming too high? 

I would love to hear your "first deal" stories and would appreciate any input or mentoring!

[Daniel Juliano]

I agree with what @Dion McNeeley is telling you.  That is a great route to go.  The only thing I want to point out is that the numbers may not look attractive if you aren't careful about how you are accounting for the fact that you are effectively living in the unit for free.

As an example, if you bought a duplex, lived on one side and rented out the other, then the property as a whole may not have positive cash flow.  But to fairly analyze the numbers, you should look at them as if you were charging rent for all the units.  So if you could charge $1000/month rent, but instead are living there for free, then the arrangement is instead allowing you to save $1000/month into your bank account, in addition to the equity you are building in the property.  So even if you aren't seeing positive cash flow from the property as a whole, due to occupying half of it yourself, that may be fine.  In a couple years you will have saved enough cash and built enough equity in the unit (and gotten enough experience) that it will put you in a position to get another property.