Newbie here - Help needed finding rental properties!

[Lakshman K.]

Hello everyone!

When I say newbie, I have never owned a home for living or investing, that's how new I am to this. As I live in a rental property that is way cheaper relative to the current market, I have decided to continue living here for now and get into real estate investing to make some dough on the side. 

I live in Tampa area in Florida where the real estate market is hotter than the Sun and keeps getting hotter. I looked at some properties a year ago, the numbers didn't make sense, so I gave up and spent a lot of time learning about real estate investing. As they say "You make profit when you buy", and the local real estate market has been rallying up for many years now, I could never get into this with my limited skills. But I think I'm ready to get my hands dirty now. As my goal is to become a passive investor, I want to go for 'Buy and Hold' for the strategy, but been having difficulty finding properties that fall under the 2% rule category. I have been looking on websites like Redfin and Zillow manually so far. I just asked a realtor friend to set me up on MLS for automatic alerts. But, I think there's got to be a better way at identifying opportunities better and faster. So, here, I am seeking advice on how to find a rental property that has a decent cashflow potential after all the expenses, which has been a major roadblock for me so far. I have a decent job and income, zero debt and clean credit history, so getting a loan won't be difficult.

I don't have a good network and starting my journey alone, so I can use any other advice and tips that you can send my way as well! Thank you in advance, I need your blessings!!!

Regards

Lakshman

[Damien Pulvino]

Hello Lakshman,

Curious, are you looking to invest only in the Tampa area or are you willing to invest out of state or remotely? If you are priced out of the market in the Tampa area then I would recommend you investigate out of state investing and finding an area where you get more for your dollar. 

I'm sure you've seen it as well, but "popular" markets to get into right now seem to be Columbus Ohio, Indianapolis Indiana, Memphis Tennessee, and a bunch of others. There are a bunch of resources out there that will assist you, like David Greene's book "Long Distance Real Estate Investing" which can be found on this site under the bookstore. Personally, I think the "trick" is to find a market that is worthwhile that not everyone has sunk their teeth into yet, which is what I am looking for myself, with minimal success so far.

Regardless of the route you take, I wish you the best of luck on your REI journey!

Damien