Investing out of town? Am I Crazy!?

[Robert Lasko]

Hello friends! My name is Bob Lasko and I just joined BP yesterday. I'm amazed at the depth of knowledge on this site. My wife and I fell into the real estate investment game by accident. We own a 3 bed 2 bath brand new ranch single family home in an excellent community in Martinsburg, WV, which is in the fastest growing county due to its proximity to Washington, DC and Baltimore. I was hired by the FAA as an air traffic controller in 2011 and that required us to move to Florida for a couple years. We were able to rent the house out to where we just broke even. The tenant is great! He only calls when something is wrong, pays in certified check every month, and takes care of the place! Even though we aren't cash flowing anything, we are building equity by debt payment and appreciation. Our plan is told hold onto it for another 5 years when we can sell it for a larger gain.

A few months ago, I was lucky to get transferred closer to Martinsburg. We live in a town called Bealeton, VA which is about an hour and 15 minutes from Martinsburg. I started looking in Bealeton for buy and hold deals but since we are close to DC, the prices are too high to support that type of investing. I was discouraged since I have been eager to start investing in rentals for the last five years, but wanted to be settled down before I started. Now that I am settled, I live in an area that doesn't support it. I

I have been thinking a lot about investing back in Martinsburg but the distance makes me nervous. Usually I wouldn't consider being that far from our investment, but the market there is super attractive for buy and hold. Another reason I'm considering it is because we have had zero problems in the last 3 years with our tenant in the 3 bed 2 bath rancher. When something needed to be fixed, he would call the repair man and deduct it from his rent. Also, my wife is a stay at home mommy and frequently travels an hour and 15 minutes back to Martinsburg to visit family and would be able to address any "non-emergency" problems the tenants have. Also, my wife has a few people in her family that live in Martinsburg and are contractors who have said they would take tenant "emergency" calls for me.

My goal is to have a handful of nice rentals that will be paid off when I retire at 50 (I'm 29 now). I already have a nice retirement from the government so the rentals would just be gravy money. I won't consider leaving my job to be closer to a good real estate market. I love my job, it pays too well and has too many perks for me to leave.

I'm looking for comments by people who have done this, who are doing this, or who are thinking about doing this. Please share good experiences and bad ones. Any advice is truly appreciated! Thanks!