first investment in iowa or san antonio

[Carlos Esparza]

hi everyone

newbie  ready to make my first investment. I'm having a trouble of where to start my first investment. In San Antonio my pops has done a pretty profitable flip by buying a huge piece of land and putting a manufactured home in it. So i kinda want to go that route. On the other hand, i have a pretty honest team set up in Iowa (construction work wise) from plumbers, dry wall people, electricians , and much more. What does the BP community suggest i do? i know I'm asking really general questions but if any investor out there wants to show me the ropes, I'll put up all the money in return for some advice and guidance through the process. I obviously need to see the numbers work from one of the BP calculators (and undertand it) before I DO ANYTHING. So, thanks for taking the time to read this guys, any investors in Iowa, please hit me up and maybe i can make out to one your RIE group.

[David Faulkner]

 All of my advice comes from personal experience of investing in state and out of state over the last 15 years. I have nothing to sell anybody and do not profit one way or the other. If I could do it again, I wouldn't have invested out of state. What to do: learn to invest locally. What not to do: go out of state to try to invest as a newby. Some of the logic of this advise is described in my previous post above.

Also I would add that there are a million and one ways to make profits in this business ... so many, in fact, that a skilled local operator can make good and consistent returns in any Real Estate market in the USA ... their strategies may be vastly different from one market to the next, and their strategy may shift as the market changes, but returns are out there to be made. So, to me what makes no sense is going half way around the nation or more looking for greener grass on the other side of the fence when the grass is plenty green in your own backyard, where you are familiar and have complete control and opportunity to learn this business hands on, which is the best by far and lowest risk way to learn. Learning how to run the numbers different ways, and selecting a property and executing a strategy is what makes you a better investor, not handing a stranger a pile of money and keys to your rental house and saying "Here, you take care of it, and send me the checks". If that is what you really want, then buy a damn REIT and be done with it ... at least then you will have top notch professional management, with a verifiable track record, whose profit incentives are not 180 degrees out of alignment with yours, and a fully diversified REI portfolio.