Exploring Options in Durham, NC

[Dave Olverson]

I am just starting the process of looking at real estate investments in Durham, NC. Here's a little background on my situation:

• Currently live in NYC and will have to stay here for the next two years as my wife is in grad school.
• Currently own 2 properties in Indianapolis. I purchased these in 2014 through a turnkey provider. They are doing pretty well, but to be honest, I haven't ever built a team in a different city from scratch before, so I still have a lot to learn in that regard.
• Many years ago, I went to school at Duke, back when we students didn't really venture too far out into Durham. My wife and I fell in love with today's Durham after visiting 3 times recently. I have scoped out the city and I particularly like the Golden Belt district of downtown. At this point, I only have a tenuous grasp of the different neighborhoods since I don't live there full time.
• In two years, we plan on moving down there. I really think that Durham is on the rise (I realize that this has been said in the past, a few times before, but it feels much more real to me this time).
• I am interested in buy and hold investing.

At this point, my questions are:

1. I am feeling the itch to start investing now. Perhaps in a multi-family that we could move into one unit of when we move down there. Should I really wait until I get down there, or if I dig in, might it make sense to purchase something that cash flows now?
2. If it does make sense to move now, how would people go about building a team in the Durham area? In Indy, I found the turnkey provider and I recently had to research and find a property manager, so I have some experience there, but not much experience with a real estate agent/investment partner on the ground or finding a good contractor/rehab crew.
3. I see the great groups around such TREIA. And I imagine if I move forward with this investment, I will be making trips down to Durham. However, I want to vet as much as possible digitally before I start committing to burning some jet fuel. Would going to one of these meetings be worth it? Or should I continue to network on BP first?

Thanks all! Very excited about these prospects! Sorry for the long post!