Noobster in Southwest Ohio (10 minutes from East Indiana)

[Tim C.]

Hello BP,

I am a 24 year old school teacher working in Eaton, OH, living in Oxford, OH, who is from Franklin, OH and looking to invest wherever I can find a deal in Southwest, OH. I'm thinking Dayton, Hamilton, and Fairfield might be good places to learn about. I would also consider investing in East Indiana (College Corner, IN, Richmond, IN, etc.) as they are close to me.

I bought my first property in Oxford, OH at 19 years old and learned the hard way how to make home improvements (to just about everything!). With this experience I am most interested in flipping cheap properties into rentals. Once I've educated myself enough to feel confident I'd like my first rental to be rent ready for less than $30,000. *I am open to first time investor strategy suggestions from those of you with experience.

A goal that would make me feel proud is to make $200 a month and receive a 20% percent cash-on-cash return. I'm going to be extremely tough on my first rental purchase, because I want to build a motivational snow ball that propels me forward to success.

I am grateful to have found this free resource, I'm not one to join forums but I can tell that BP is full of good like-minded people and I look forward to meeting some of you!

Best,
TJ Chasteen

[Shawn Holsapple]

Welcome to BP @Tim C. !

Having strong goals are great but just don't over analyze your first rental and end up not doing anything. I see this happen all the time. I made that mistake as well. It took me 2 years before I bought my first rental. Once it was bought, I kicked myself for waiting so long.

My suggestion is to not buy anything that rents for less than $650, preferably $700 per month. This will weed out a lot of rough tenants immediately. Also, try to stay with simple homes that don't require much upkeep. For me, I like the post war ranch. These 50's & 60's built homes are the work horses in my portfolio. Cheap to buy & fix plus, you can always sell them retail to a first time home buyer. I have went down the road of owning the old [turn of the century] big homes and ended up paying a lot for that education. You will never get one to the point of low maintenance [even with a full rehab] there is always something that needs fixed on these big old dinosaurs.

Another thing I highly recommend is having a quality property manager - even if you only have one property. Like all professionals [CPA, Attorney, Realtor, etc] are worth every penny they charge.

I hope that helps & good luck!

If you haven’t already, please read/listen to these books ASAP!

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Rich Dads Cash Flow Quadrant

Rich Dads Increase your financial IQ

The Real Book of Real Estate

The ABC’s of RE Investing

The ABC’s of PM

Rich Dad RE Tax Advantages

The E-Myth

The 4 Hour Work Week

http://flip2freedomacademy.com/ - free e-book

Flip2freedom episode 77 - podcast - LISTEN TO THIS TODAY!

BiggerPocketsPodCast

Wholesaling101 You Tube Channel

Kent Clothier - Memphis Invest channel