Stay at home Mom wants to learn how to invest in rental properties

[Cassandra Boyett]

Hi, I am Casey and my husband and I live in the Antelope Valley (Palmdale) in California. We own our house and have built up some equity in it and since I am fortunate enough to be able to stay at home with our 2 little ones, I figured I should spend nap times/preschool time investing our money (real estate) but I have very little idea how to do it. 

We will be doing a cash out refinance that will be giving us about $30k to work with and I am trying to decide where I should look. We are thinking either locally (prices here are much cheaper than in LA- an hour from here), or Hot Springs, AR. We have family there so we visit that area but I have no idea where to get started. Open to looking anywhere, but I hear distance rental properties are tricky.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!! 

[Robert Leonard]

@Cassandra Boyett how can you possibly consider long distance investing if you are a "stay at home mom?" Won't you be stuck at home? <sarcasm> ;-) I'm just picking, because I really think the term is a passive derogatory term for "full-time moms" which is what we call my wife. 

Please excuse my "off topic" ice breaker, but you can start listening to the BP podcasts and watching some of the BP youtube videos.  A good book I always recommend is "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor" by Gary Keller.  Many of the podcast guests have really good information on their websites that you can find in the show notes or if you take notes during the podcasts.

The hard part for new investors can be information overload.  The podcasts can help with that if you just go and start from the first one and work your way through them.  Sooner or later, you will come across a strategy that you are drawn to, that will fit your market or solve your problem if none seem to fit your market.  And when you have questions, search for it before you post, there are lots of good questions that have created very informative discussion if you just search for them!  Welcome to BP!