Where I am in looking for a rental to buy

[Craig Browning]

Hi, I own a rental house in poor condition in Phoenix. I'm interested in selling it as-is, for about $195K, and using the funds to buy something better, somewhere.

Some of the questions I'm looking at:

- Where in the US should I buy? #1 priority is expected appreciation over the next decade. #2 is other rental-friendly qualities such as higher rent and reliability of renting and ease of ownership (I want to have a property manager and ignore the property).

- How much should I and can I borrow, to buy more with leverage, instead of just buying a $200K property for cash? I might be able to up to double the $200K with other funds.

- What kind of property should I buy? Single family home(s), multi-unit properties, even consider commercial (unlikely)?

- Am I right to sell my property to an as-is buying flipper? The property manager - who works at a firm with real estate agents - game me their best estimate of the value at $88K. So when I got a postcard unsolicited with an offer of $160K - it turned out to be legitimate, contract offered, after inspection - I got a few more bids from as-is buyers. They came from around that $160K value to $195K and $192.5K without much negotiating. (The property is a .47 acre biggest-on-block lot in Phoenix).

I called a seller's agent thinking they could get me the highest price, but even the early discussion, when I'd expect them to be overly optimistic to try to get the business, they said $150K, and if I got an offer for $160K+, he suggested I grab it.

Once I have these answers, it's probably time to find a realtor in the area and see what they can find, and a property manager.

I'm probably looking for a like-kind exchange, to avoid triggering tax on the sale. That'll need about a week of patience by the seller apparently for the exchange to be done.

After that, I'd just like to have the property as an investment that appreciates as the main return, and for the income - ideally perhaps saving enough from the rent to even consider buying another, but just for expenses for a while mostly.

Why don't I just keep the property I have? Apparently it needs about $100K in repair if I do it, and if I do, the potential rent doesn't seem that great compared to other investors. So why not let the people who do that do it, and get the better investment.

Just thought I'd lay all this out in case anyone has any suggestions, before I just google some more on good areas to invest (Houston i being hyped, as is Columbus, or Florida, and even Phoenix is up there) and arbitrarily picking something and getting an agent.