Question for OOS rental investors.

[Terry Louwerse]

Hello all, 

I've been learning about REI sporadically and lurking on this forum on and off for a few years. I'm now in a decent financial position to look deeper into OOS rental investments and making the most of all this precious free time. I plan to buy my first property by the fall of 2020.

After doing a lot of reading about areas where numbers make sense, I have chosen one particular city where I will be looking into buying (Pittsburgh). I have two questions for OOS investors in rentals:

1) When you were at my stage (newbie, self-educating and ready for your first purchase ever), how did you choose the area/city where you ended up buying your first property?

2) What were your main fears/concerns at that time? What did you do to overcome them?

Thanks for your feedback!

Terry

[Shain Ismailovski]

Frankly, the answer to both your questions is research. The obvious fears were not being close by to deal with issues or be as hands on as I like to be, but eventually finding peace by having a good team in place. I read a lot on up and coming cities and looked up their stats. Citydata.com is a good resource. You want to look at areas that have healthy job markets and a solid rental market. If unemployment is high or median income is low you should skip it. Start by narrowing down your markets by towns instead of states. Once you have a couple in mind start analyzing deals. Eventually you will start to see numbers that make sense in more areas than others. Before you pull the trigger I would suggest having a team in place ready to go to run the property for you since you won't be present. This starts with a good real estate agent who is familiar with the area and working with investors. Next, you need to find a good property management company. Working with a local lender, like a small bank is often a plus as well. The research and team building phases are essential, but ensuring you narrow down your search will keep you focused. Read David Greene's book on long distance investing if you haven't already.