where to hunt

Question

so I am active army and for the last year have become obsessed with real estate to say the least.  I am mostly interested in buy and hold and am looking in and around fort stewart savannah area. Question is I am currently I am in fairbanks, alaska and will be heading down in marchish. What would be some of the best sites to hunt for properties online or to start networking with other investors in the area thanks in advance.

Michael Owens · Answer

Ammon and Travis thank you both for your insight.

Ammon to answer your questions I would like to focus on cashflow and as for calculating costs and things for rentals I feel I have a fairly good grasp of what needs to be done considering the abundance of the information age and I'm becoming pretty adept in google. As far as financing goes it's not that I don't understand it more than I don't have a lot of it, but I guess that's everyone's problem right. I have used the last year to pay of 75% of my debt and have about 3000 saved and can personally access about another 2 not a lot but hopefully a start. I have been looking into manufactured homes for rentals since the cost of entry would be lower and around military posts shouldn't be to hard to rent out. I would like, just to get going 5 properties and around 1500 a month cashflow to get over the power curve, you know the best way to learn is by doing. Thanks again and am looking forward to the knowledge of successful doers.

Travis McCaughey · Answer

About once a week I hit up the following

1. Zillow

2. MLS

3. Craigslist

My most recent investmet hit up a real estate agent and let them know what you're looking for sfh duplex ect. Best think I would say is find an area, know it so you know a good deal when it comes up.

Ammon Brimhall · Answer

Aloha Michael

A sincere thank you for your service!

As for your question -- there are a million things I want to say assuming that you are just beginning because your strategy out of the gates is so important. Are you buying for cash flow or appreciation? Do you know how to calculate ALL the costs of a rental? Do you know how long most single family home rentals (SFH) take to start to cash flow? How well do you understand the financing? How many properties do you want in how many years? How YOU answer those questions would better help ME to give you some ideas.

That said, the "where to start looking" is easy once you know your strategy and focus. In fact, there are no secret places to begin searching your strategy is solid. Here are a few suggestions:

1)BP Marketplace - although I'm new here and don't know how good the deals are there.

2) Call realtors and ask them to start sending you what they find that fits your parameters.

3) Realtor.com

4) Zillow.com

5) Trulia.com

6) Craigslist

7) Hudhomestore.com

8) Property management companies

9) Contacting wholesalers in the area (be careful, some wholesalers will sell you junk)

Again, there are no secrets, just lots of cool websites. I think those are some of the most common. There are also some auction websites, but those are slightly more tricky and you would want to make sure you understood the rules before bidding as sometimes there might not be inspection periods and there are additional fees to purchasing. Thus warned -- two of the most common auction sites are auction.com and hubzu.com

As for networking --- THAT would be a best first step so that you are well connected and get a lot of good advice about strategy, location, and goals before you purchase. To network you can:

1) BP of course, which you are already doing! Great work!

2) Call property management companies and ask them about areas of town and strategies that work in the area

3) Attend reia meetings -- you can find them on creonline.com and reaiclub.com and meetup.com.

4) Find landlord associations by googling them or asking your property managers or calling the organizers of the clubs I just mentioned.

5) Find the number one or two eviction attorneys in town and ask them for good connections.

There are a million things I could have said and there is a lot of clarification I could have added to things I did say. However, I hope I gave you what you asked for while encouraging you to make sure you've answered some key questions before you make your purchases (if you haven't already asked them)

I hope it helps!

To your success