Buying rental properties when not located in the local area?

[Account Closed]

Hi all,

First time poster - been listening to the podcast which has been great.  Many people who I hear on the podcast or read articles on are very familiar with the areas they're buying rentals in as they more than likely live in the area.

Unfortunately for me, I live abroad at the moment - though originally from Seattle.  I'm wondering options there are for investors like me?  My strategy would be buy, remodel, rent and hold rather than flip them - looking at the cash flow instead of depending on appreciation.

It would be difficult to manage a purchase of a property from a broad and tenancy agreement, but even more difficult to manage a remodel!  Thoughts?

Thanks!

[Bob E.]

@Account Closed   We live in phoenix and have done rehabs in Mi, IA, WI and IN, most of the properties we did not see before purchasing because we were buying defaulted notes so we could not get in before we foreclosed.  This can be done but you need to have good partners that are local, get a rehabber and realtor that can walk the property and and give you a rehab estimate.  

We now partner with a wholesaler that looks at the property, inside and out and does the rehab for us and split the profit when the property sells, we have a strong relationship that works well for us and we are happy with the results. We structured our deals a few different ways, 1) in our IRA where we funded a mortgage to purchase with a profit split, and 2) directly purchasing the property in our name with a profit split.