Looking to get into rental properties in Kansas City, MO

[Thomas Holman]

Good afternoon, everyone!

Like many of the others who post here, I'm new to the real estate game. I'm a pretty frugal guy, been saving my whole working life, investing in stocks and bonds, etc. Now I'm ready to step up my investing game by branching out into some real estate.

I'm still in the process of reading through every real estate book I can get my hands on, and I'm very excited to start making deals in the near future. Although we are currently living in the Southern California area, my wife and I are thinking that small multifamily properties around the Kansas city area (her home town) will be our best bet. We are a dual military couple and will need to rely heavily on a good team regardless of which market we get into, due to deployments, busy work schedule, etc. 

Through my early research, KC looks like a great market for achieving good cash flow with small multifamily rentals. I also hope to leverage some of my wife's contacts in the area to meet good people with whom I can work. I am planning to use @Brandon Turner's BRRRR method to get a little bit of leverage going to eventually branch out into larger properties, which will ultimately help me reach my goal of amassing $800k of net worth by 2021! I realize this is an ambitious goal given some of the schools of thought out there on the real estate market and the dangers of getting overleveraged, but with a level head, hard work, and a little luck I think there is definitely money to be made here.

Long term, if things work out, I envision branching out into larger multifamily properties and syndicated deals. I may even look into flipping. Right now I'm really just hoping to offset my rental costs with some good cash flow and equity building; thus, my short-term goal of reaching $2k of cash flow within two years. Just let me know if this sounds a little too irrationally exuberant!

But for the moment, I'm just focused on learning the basics of researching markets, analyzing deals (including how to estimate rehab costs), how to assemble a good team, and financing options. I have realized in my readings (and listening to the awesome BiggerPockets podcast)  that who you know is about as important as anything in this business, so I look forward to making as many contacts in the KC market as I can. I also look forward to leveraging this amazing online community to learn as much as I can! Cheers!

[Steven Silva]

@Thomas HolmanYou have to get the butterflies and push through them. I just closed on a flip today actually. Very nervous, like I may be missing something. I know I haven't, as my strength is analysis. I look at everything, use multiple flipping calculators and rules of thumb, I got 2 quotes from 2 different gc's, had 2 different investor friends go to the house with me and run numbers and scenarios with me. 

Fear is just an emotion. 

I almost backed out of this one. However, my investor friends encouraged me. They remind me that you cannot know EVERYTHING and also how they would've jumped into my deal at the proverbial "hello", while I'm still wondering what's up and well past "meeting the parents". 

It helps when you have other eyes on your deals and a good mentor. I probably wouldn't be doing any investing if I didn't have multiple people always telling me, "Forward!"