How to find a clear mindset & goal

Question

Recently it seems like everyone has become a lifestyle coach, each with their own blend of advice. I recall Brandon Turner mentioning how he used a vision board to hone in on his focus for goals that he had. I've also heard people say to imagine your ideal end result, your 'why', and work backwards from there.

My question is, how do you decide whats ultimately important for where to relocate/choose to invest. Buy a van and tour the country for a year, or through a dart at a map?

Clay Lehman · Answer

@Dean Colias @Mark Fries is right, Ocala is a great area for investment. I’m a native Floridian and have been involved in real estate throughout the state for the last 10+ years. The major metros have become overbid, Ocala provides better yields and has a stable distributed employment base.

Mark Fries · Answer

@Dean ColiasSounds like you want Ocala FL. It has lakes, hills, trails, a great upcoming market, 1 hour from the coast and an hour from orlando and Jacksonville, but its still rural and quaint. Jacksonville doesn't have hills, lakes, or good trails.

Dan Weber · Answer

@Dean Colias I think it's definitely the right move to start with the end in mind, your future goals and work back from there. However, you ask a great question. If you could do a couple strategies in multiple locations that would all result in achieving your end goal, how do you decide what to do? My first question in response is, what do you plan to do for work while you execute your real estate strategies? Will you be an online entrepreneur that can work from anywhere? Or do you have a very specific/narrow degree that has a very defined and clear career path? Based on your profile, it sounds like the latter. I would suggest researching good areas of the country where job demand for your major and your skills are strong. Once you narrow that down to 3-8 locations, I would think about what's important to you. Rural setting or urban setting? Small city of 65k people or do you want to live in a city of 400k+ people? Midwest or coastal area? Do some research here on BP about how the investing is in those cities. From your research, maybe you can narrow down the list to 2-5 cities. I'd then go and visit these cities as you plan to relocate and live there. OR, buying a van and touring the country is an option too!

Dean C. · Answer

Are you talking $1000 per room or your avg 3/2?

Mary K. · Answer

I can't think of a $150,000 house that would only rent for $1000 a month here either. It's getting harder to find a nice apt for that amount. Plenty of people that belong to our local REIA are also on BP; they could also chime in on that. Many investors who look at Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville end up choosing Ocala instead for its ROI/cash flow.

Clay Lehman · Answer

@Dean Colias the $150,000 sounds about right, but $1,000 is low. If you buy a decent house for the $150,000, you should be renting it for $1,350 or $1,400, in most areas of Ocala. It is hard to come by triplexes that make sense numbers wise because it is such a popular product, lots of offers when any of the mutli-unit properties are available.Sounds like a well thought out approach, Jacksonville is a great area, good luck with your purchase!!

Dean C. · Answer

I feel like RE as a whole is overbid currently. I'm looking for a dip in the market come the end of the moratorium as I'm sure there's a lot of investors that will buy as support waiting on the sidelines. Also, I'm mainly going to be looking for off-market deals for my first house-hack. I'm primarily looking to invest in at least a triplex for cashflow reasons among building that equity up relatively quickly to BRRRR in the future using a HELOC or hard money. The way the VA Home loan works is you can invest in what ever your DTI to PITI supports, but the second use of leftover entitlements puts a cap depending on the county. So it makes sense to invest it an expensive market. BP Insights shows the avg home price for 2020 is about $150,000 in Ocala, with the avg. rent coming in at around $1000 a month. This puts the city 4 tenths shy of the 1 percent rule which doesn't necessarily seem like a good trade off even if it has hills and lakes.

Antonio Cucciniello · Answer

@Dean Colias Great question. Usually people pick a location to invest based on emotions. "Oh I really love Austin!" (This is me talking to myself trying to sway myself from not picking this city to invest while I am living here now ..anyways)Instead of picking a city based on emotions, or spending a year traveling, you can pick one from your own living room, because the data is available to make a decision. First, come up with a list of cities, which you can brainstorm yourself, or get some input from seeing where other people are investing on here.Second, look up the data and get a good idea of the crime rates, the schooling, the insurance rates, tax rates, price to rent ratios. Once you have done that for one city on the list, do it for the next and the nextThird, compare the cities together to get a really good idea of what cities will give you the best shot based on real information.Feel free to send me any questions you got or more detailed version of the process I take.

Dean C. · Answer

@Dan Weber that's great advice, the problem for me is I have basically been trying to narrow things down. My only problem is I'm the type of person who likes to have his cake and eat it too. I'm torn between the coast, and more rural amenities, such as trails, hills, and lakes. I'm also aware of being objective and just looking at the numbers, I just want both. Just maybe there is a compromise. I think Jacksonville, FL would be what I'm heavily leaning towards, but It's flat land from what I hear.