Out of state Multifamily

[Luke Henderson]

My background:

I'm a 33 year old engineer that has one 4-10 job and does contract work on the side for an average of 65hrs a week. I have $150k cash to invest in, I have an open line of credit for $250k with a great rate, and I have other investments I could pull from if needed. I live in California and have been house hacking my property for several years which more than covers my mortgage. In the short term I'm planning on quitting my day job and solely doing contract engineering to make time for real estate and to have a life...

What I want:

I want enough relatively passive income to cover day to day expenses, and only work for fun or on projects I love. My main goal is to have more free time, so I don't want to trade a full time job for full time property management, but I also don't need an investment to be entirely turnkey. I don't have a door count goal, but a good end goal would be to net $15k a month by 2030. I want to invest in properties I'd live in, and net at least $500 per month per unit to be worth the work.

What I don't want:

I don't want to flip houses, BRRRR, or make life miserable for my tenants. I have yet to have an unhappy tenant and I don't want to start now.

My thoughts:

Where I live properties are far too expensive to turn an ROI for buy and hold, so I'm looking at Tampa and Houston markets (I have a PM friend in Tampa already that I trust). I'm mostly thinking of muti family homes in middle income areas. With the cash on hand and the line of credit, I think I could offer cash for a MF and then refinance to pull out 80%. Then maybe do a conventional for a second. I've had a hard time finding decent ROI anywhere but I know they are out there. I'm mostly using DealCheck to analyze properties.

My request:

I would greatly appreciate any and all advice on how to realize my goals; areas to invest, investment types, financing options, etc.

Thank you all for reading my small novel, and for taking the time to help a fellow investor.

Sincerely,

Luke Haberkern

[Abel Curiel]

Good morning Luke!

Excited to read these posts as it seems you're on the right path to designing your ideal life. Glad to hear the househack is working for you. 

I totally understand where you're coming from...NY and CA share the same problems with respect to high price-points, tenant friendly laws, and low ROIs for rental deals.

That being said, Tampa is a great option to look into although there aren't many MFRs in middle-income areas. I'd recommend chatting with @Steven Torres who can share some insight on the SFR and MFR options in Central Florida.

Best of luck to you moving forward!

Abel