Turn Key Advice for a First Time Investment

[David Smith]

For a quick background my wife and I are based out of the Seattle area, in our mid 20’s and currently both work full time W-2 jobs with relatively high incomes. 

My wife and I currently park our investments in Index Fund's and obviously we average an 8-9% ROI. Lately I have been doing more research into real estate and like the idea of the passive income that comes from investing in rental properties and would like to pivot our portfolio into this market.

My wife and I are planning on having kids soon and the idea of cash flowing monthly to supplement her income while she stays home more with the kids and to reinvest that cash flow appeals to us. The cross roads I am meeting is that it appears the Seattle market is a difficult one to cash flow in due to the rapid increase in property values over the relatively short time and sky high home prices which would cause us to only be able to afford one rental property if we did find one that made sense numbers wise in the first place.

The above issues has led me to believe it would be wiser to invest in an out of state market where cash flow makes more sense. My wife and I currently have 25-30k sitting around that we want to use as the 20% down payment on a property which leaves us searching for homes in the 125k-150k range. 

Now to get to my questions. I’ve been researching into the Kansas City market which seems to be a strong fit the type of investment I am looking for as it appears to cash flow well and property values steadily increase. I am wondering if anyone would provide insight as to why I may be overlooking some downfalls into that market due to this being my first step into real estate investing, and if so what other markets should I begin doing more research in. 

Seconds question, does anyone have any recommendations into Turn Key Providers that has worked well for them in this market or other markets I could begin doing further research in to? 

Third and last more specific question. I have been looking at Bridge Turn Key after listening to a BP podcast the owner spoke on (which operates in Kansas City) and want to know if anyone has reviews on them and what questions I should be asking them (and other Turn Key’s) beyond the basics that I should be asking to make sure they are a good fit.

I appreciate any assistance/advice ahead of time.