Would You Own a Rental Property that's 200 miles Away?

[Michael Eastland]

I am a new potential investor. I'm still lurking, reading, learning here. My long term goal is to take early retirement from my company within the next 2 years, and buy a couple of multi family properties to supplement my income.

My situation is that I currently live in CT and have a get-away place in New Hampshire. I am considering making my investments up there since the long term goal is to live there at some point but I am staying in CT for the foreseeable future due to family obligations.

My questions is, is it wise to try to be a long distance landlord? Especially since it would also be my first time? I have connections up there that could handle minor repairs and stuff like that and I am close enough that I could run up there if something big came up or there was a major tenant issue.

Any thoughts?

[Chris Winterhalter]

@Account Closed

Reply back to the group after you have owned several dozen units for multiple years.

Income producing property can be hands off with the right property, property manager, and team set up. However the people that never deal with property issues probably own something that is more A class with much lower returns (think 4-5 cap). They spend more money to pay the right people so they can be extremely hands off. That all lowers returns and isn't really inline with most investors on BP or most small/mid size investors in general.

If you are buying B to C class real estate, your rentals will not be hands off even with a great property manager. Unless you hire someone full time to manage your portfolio & property manager (not possible on small scale) you will have to be involved with the property beyond cashing checks.