Flow of Buying Rental Properties

[Lisa Daconta]

Hey guys/gals,

I'm new to real estate and want to have 1 rental property before I head off to another state in a little less than a year. I feel like I don't have a good handle on how everything is supposed to flow from beginning to end. For example, You search for a good location to invest, you contact a recommended real estate agent/property manager to fine tune your search, next, you choose a house to bid on, etc...

I'm looking to see if someone has a good timeline flow-sheet for rental properties from beginning to end. A few examples are: When do you apply for a loan? When do you contact your contractor when your bid is accepted? When do you create an LLC for the property?

I figured this is common sense to a lot of investors so I figured it wouldn't hurt in asking professionals before I become one.

Thanks guys and happy hunting!

Jesse

[Karen Rittenhouse]

@Lisa Daconta

There are a lot of assumptions in your question. For example, assumption 1 is that there is a "flow" for buying rentals!

There are as many ways as there are investors. But I've written a post here about getting started with investing:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/02/2...

Attend local investor meetings (as laid out in that post) to learn which attorneys, contractors, lenders are in your area and which areas are best for rentals.

The most important thing is that you buy well which, for me, always means at significant discount. Don't pay retail or you'll get hurt when the market turns down if you need to lower rents. 

I think everyone should own rentals so congratulations to you for jumping in and starting to learn.

To your success!