Seeking for Advice on my First Investment Property

[Neil Damayo]

Hey everyone! My wife and I have recently started to really dig in and consider investing in real estate (finally). We’re really interested in investing in a Duplex (we’re currently renting right now, and we like the idea of living on one half of the duplex while we have the other unit rented), but couldn’t find a decent one where we are. We live in Missouri and we love the area that we’re currently in right now. Should we consider building? Or maybe looking for something in a totally different area/state? 

Any input would be much appreciated! We are completely new to all this and are willing to learn even more.

Thank you in advance!

[Nathan Gesner]

Exercise patience. Just because you're made the decision to invest doesn't meant that today is the day, or even next week or next month. First, this is a very hot market with everything selling for top dollar. Good deals are harder to find. Second, interest rates are low so there are more buyers getting into the game. Third, we're seeing a major migration of people with money leaving certain areas of the country and moving to more rural areas, which is depleting the inventory.

Keep thinking about what you really want. Keep studying the market. If you know what you want and what you can pay, you'll find something eventually and be ready to pounce because your homework is done.

One thing you should consider: driving for dollars. Spend your Saturday mornings (or whenever) just driving around with your wife. Really look at the communities you're interested in and see if you can find any duplexes, triplexes, or fourplexes that are NOT on the market but that may work for you. Go home and research them. Find out when it last sold, if the owner is out-of-state, etc. Try to find a property that's been owned for 10+ years because that means the owner has plenty of equity and may be ready to exit the rental game. If the property was owned for 30 years, then you have an even better chance. Anyway, you identify properties that meet your requirements, then track the owner down and simply ask them if they would consider selling. I've purchased 12 properties in a community of 9,500 and every one of them was not on the market for sale and I didn't do any mass-market campaigns or sit on the phone all day. I knew what I wanted, I told everyone so they could help me look, and then I asked.

It's called "driving for dollars" and you can find a lot of discussions on BP. @Ryan Dossey is an "old" pro at this and has some great information on his YouTube channel: