Aspiring Investor in Tucson, AZ

[Natalya Murphy]

Greetings from the desert.  I can best describe myself as an aspiring real estate investor.   Although I'm currently the landlord of 2 mixed-use buildings and 1 single-family home in Papillion, NE (a suburb of Omaha), I still consider myself very much a newbie.  You could say I'm an accidental landlord, since each of the properties we own were originally purchased for our personal use.   Through a series of events, all three properties became fully leased to others.

After filing our tax returns this year, and seeing the tax benefits of our real estate holdings, I decided I wanted to explore the world of real estate investing more closely.  As a former business owner, I also wanted to make sure that I could put any research I conduct to good use, so I'm building a website where I'll be posting various items related to real estate investing.

I have a fantastic property manager for the single-family rental, but am currently remote-managing the commercial properties.   I tried contracting with a commercial property management firm for the commercial buildings when we moved to Tucson, but they turned out to be nothing more than glorified check-cashers.   I  fired them at my earliest opportunity.

We're getting ready to close on a single-family home this month.   We plan on living in it for the next year or so and then turning it into a rental property when my husband's military career moves us elsewhere.    

My most immediate information needs are:

- Which updates are most important to make to our home to make it appealing to renters when we move

- How to find a good property manager for the home when we move

I'll be asking lots of questions in various forums and will do my best to contribute to conversations where I can.