Ready, Aim, Aim, Aim......

[Trevor Lohman]

Hey Everyone,

So I've been starting a few threads on here lately to try and learn a bit about "passive" investment opportunities, and wow its amazing how much you can learn from this website and its members.

I'm at the point now where I think it's just time to finally become a real estate investor. I might not make the perfect first deal, but I know my 10th will be a whole lot better than my 1st, and I'll never get there if i just keep googling and reading into the late night hours.

So, I've landed on out of state income property investing... I know I know plenty of reasons why you should stay local, but even the "cheap" areas within 2 hours of me are expensive (in absolute terms), have bad demographic trends, and are a little rough (I know this last one isn't a big deal, but combined with the first two...)

So, there are a couple areas I'm interested in and have been talking to some local Property managers in the two areas I'm considering (and they're BP members which seems like a plus). I'm starting to take the first real steps towards making my first investment and thought I'd throw a couple questions out.

I had completely ruled out LLC's because in California they're more or less cost prohibitive for small investors. Should I reconsider since I'm now thinking of investing in other states? (Indiana and Tennessee)

Any tips on finding a deal out of state? Its tough to do anything but look at MLS homes with a real estate agent from way out here. What about property managers who are also real estate agents? Anything wrong with buying through your PM, assuming the deal looks good? Again as far as you can tell through pictures etc.

It seems like either way you have to put a lot of trust in your PM, which is why I'm looking to start small, but it seems if you find a good one then out of state investing (for me at least) is the way to go.

Well BP, looking forward to what you have to say.

Thanks for the feedback,

Trevor