Northern New Jersey (Bergen and Hudson county) market

[Eric Nguyen]

Hi fellow BP,
My name is Eric. I live in Edgewater in Bergen country. I am married and just purchased our first condo. We do have some cash reserve and would like to buy a rental property for long term hold. I am totally aware of the crazily high property tax in NJ that may eat up a big junk of profit (or even eat up 100%).

I've been searching through NJMLS for last few months, scanning through condos for $50-$150K but then when I looked for the HOA and property tax, it doesn't make any sense to invest.

I am here to ask for your opinion on this specific market:

1) Do you think the idea of holding a rental property in Bergen/Hudson country is crazy and I should simply drop that idea ?

2) If you think there is still opportunity to do, then can you please list out 2-3 big points that I should follow (NJMLS seems not have any good deal). As said, I am only interested in buy/hold strategy since I don't think I am able to do wholesaling or flipping

3) Last point, I tend to think that I should investment near where we live only. Out of state investment seems too troublesome to deal with. Maybe I should reconsider ? My bro lives in Orlando and seems to know fairly well the market. In the past, I have considered investing there but I didn't in the end. So your opinion on this point is very welcome.

Thanks for your time and I look forward to hearing from all of you here.

Eric