New Member from DFW

[Steven Loveless]

Howdy all, new member from the DFW area here. I've been reading through the forums for a few months and thought I should join finally!

For a little bit of background, I'm a 31yo engineer with a major company in the Dallas area. I've been interested in acquiring a rental for a while, and have a decent windfall coming this summer that I'd like to use to get started with a SF rental.

My main goal is to diversify my investments with something other than stock/bonds, as well as to start to build a business that I can use to keep me busy when I retire (hopefully in 20-25 years). My job throws off some relatively significant non-schedule income every year, so I hope to use that to continue to invest in real estate in addition to my normal market investments.

Main things I am interested in learning from the BP community:

1. Analysis & experience with costs, income, value of rentals (I'm very data driven, and have already started some modeling, would like to get better inputs for assumptions).

2. Tips & experiences with property managers & realtors. (Like I said, I have a full-time, a 2 year old, and one on the way - so I don't plan on doing leg work/managing myself).

3. Learn a little bit about what makes a good rental. I don't need to live off cash flow, but a better deal is always a better deal.

Looking forward to learning more, sorry for the long intro!