Newbie investing while transitioning out of the Military

[Benjamin Hazlett]

Hello Everyone! I'm a newbie investor looking for some advice as I transition out of the Military. I'm currently stationed in Korea and looking to retire in 18 months. I'm interested in picking up some Single Family/Duplex units back in Oklahoma/Fort Sill area, but my wife and I are not super comfortable purchasing property while I'm overseas. The idea of not walking the house and driving the neighborhood before a purchase is a little scary. We currently have 1 rental unit, but see the opportunity to purchase more in this fast paced market. Looking for some advice on either biting the bullet and getting more properties or just saving capital till I retire back in the US? I'm looking forward to meeting people on BP, if you have experience with military investment areas and VA loans please hit me up.

[Doug Spence]

@Benjamin Hazlett Welcome to bigger pockets! I'm also on active duty and have purchased 3 investment properties sight-unseen. 

Here's my take: unless you're a professional home inspector or appraiser, what value do you bring by walking through the property and assessing it? That's why I hire an inspector to walk through the home before I buy it: they actually know what they're looking at! Regarding the neighborhood, you can learn A LOT about a neighborhood via the internet. This is also where having a great agent is helpful - he or she is likely a local expert (which you are probably not) and can give you much more info about the neighborhood than you can even know by driving around. 

It's all about having the right team and getting past the emotional discomfort of not walking through a house before you buy it. 

Before you invest in stock in a publicly traded company, do you tour the facilities? Do you interview the C-suite? Do you pore over the financial statements of that company and dig deep into everything? Probably not. This is one of my pet peeves: people are not comfortable buying real estate sight unseen but will put 50k into a company they know nothing about because a buddy told them about it or they read an article online. 

Best of luck with your decision! I'm always happy to chat more about RE investing with fellow military members. Make sure you check out David Greene's book "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing" if you haven't already read it.