Montana?

[Trent Fisher]

I was curious if anybody in the bigger pockets family owns any buy and hold properties in Montana? If so what areas of Montana are a good market for that type of an investment? What is the ROI like and is there more of an interest for single family homes or multiple units per property?

[George N.]

Belgrade is just outside of Bozeman which is basically a beautiful, quick growing, hip college town. Very pricey, lots of wealthy out of state vacation homes/resorts. I bought a couple quads there during the recession and made out very well. Selling one now and wouldn't pay what the buyer is paying. It's a great long-term/appreciation market but if you want cash-flow look elsewhere.

I'm up in Great Falls. Military base town, very blue collar. Numbers work a lot better here cash-flow wise but appreciation is slow moving. Long term growth prospects? Not so hot, and if anything should happen to the base... man. But otherwise quite a tight rental market and stable recession resistant economy.

Helena is a government town, somewhere in-between the two markets.

I'm a fan of Missoula. Hip fast growing college town in a beautiful area like Bozeman but more affordable. Kalispell is in a similar boat. Gorgeous town, smaller economic base but growing very quickly.

Billings is blue collar but has a solid diverse economy and numbers work OK. It's the economic hub of the state, good long tern growth prospects.

Butte? Numbers work well but weak economic base, stagnant growth, and no real draw.

Eastern Montana was hot a long with oil. I'd be afraid of it now with the oil meltdown though I suppose when it's hurting enough there could be bargains. But it's a flat wasteland (I call it West North Dakota) with no population base and little growth prospects outside of oil. In my opinion it's an oil play.

Overall I'm a fan of MT. Pro-growth policies, swaths of beautiful country that people fall in love with (lots of out of state people visit/stay), and a strong/steady economy.