Distant Investing: Buying REO's For Flip/B&H

[Steve M.]

Hey Everyone,

So far, I only have experience investing in the Memphis, TN market (buying my first duplex just 3 weeks ago). Although its a great market right now, I don't want to put all my eggs in the same basket, and would like to diversify my very small portfolio to date :-)

Been looking at the Indianapolis, Ohio, Texas, Missouri, Atlanta, and Las Vegas areas over the past week or so.

My question is this. For those that buy REO's that need rehabbing in area that atleast 500-1000+ miles away, how do you go about finding decent contractors, and taking care of business in general.

For instance, if I found an excellent REO in Las Vegas, that can be purchased at $25k, and need roughly $10K in rehab (from pictures seen) what would the next steps be? Also, has anyone ever completely purchased, rehabbed, and either flipped or B&H, never actually seeing the property in person without the help of an investment group, etc...?

Appreciate it guys and gals!!! :-)

-Steve

[Ted Harris]

I should add I did quite a bit of research and due diligence before finding my current out-of-state contact which included ....
* 3 trips in the last 6 months to Vegas to meet prospective contacts
* let 2 previous agents go after they proved 'ineffective'
* called references and checked with BBB and local real estate board
* met in-person twice and spent significant time with them including looking at properties to make sure we were on the same page
* had many, many email and phone conversations

In other words, you will probably need to visit your out of state investment area a couple times as well as make many phone calls before you can feel comfortable and have a good team in place ... at least, that's been my experience.