Another New Dallas Investor!

[Jay Newman]

Hi! My name is Jay and I’m from the Northwest Arkansas area, but have been living in Dallas for a little over two years. My focus is on buy and hold multifamily properties. Ideally my first deal would be a fourplex that I can house hack. I like this idea because it allows me to offset my living expenses, build equity, cash flow, and get some experience land lording. From there it will be much easier to set aside more cash to put toward further investments.

Growing up my parents owned rental property in Fayetteville, Arkansas and I always thought that it was strange that everyone didn’t own property that someone else paid for. Now I understand the difficulty, but I think that initial line of thought is what really got me thinking about real estate investing at a young age. Fast forward to now, about a year ago I picked up Millionaire Real Estate Investor and read about half of it before I lost interest. Fortunately, I got as far as the net worth tracker, which keeps me thinking about growing my net worth on a regular basis.

In April, my mother came to visit and she mentioned that her old boss told her about Bigger Pockets and she suggested that I check it out. Until recently, I’ve been inconsistently looking at deals and learning about real estate until I listened to Podcast 157 with Hal Elrod a couple of weeks ago and have found his morning routine to be really energizing. The podcasts’ emphasis on spelling out your goals, getting some exercise, and then reading (I just finished The One Thing) to help you achieve your goals is something that keeps me focused and motivated. If you haven't given the Miracle Morning a shot I would highly recommend it.

Currently, I’m analyzing 7 deals a week, learning more about multifamily investing, and starting to network with others involved in the real estate industry. One challenge that I’ve run in to seems to be lack of potentially good deals. Most items listed on Zillow, LoopNet, etc don’t really make sense, although I am sure that will be remedied as I hone my ability to analyze deals and start to reach out to real estate agents. The other issue that I have run into is that I’m not super familiar with the DFW area, which means I am not sure which parts of town both have good deals and aren’t overly crime ridden. For now I’m focusing on areas like Euless, Bedford, Mesquite, Forney, Duncanville, Balch Springs, and Lancaster as the properties north of Dallas are more than I'm looking to pay until you get out of commuting range - I currently work in Midlothian.

Questions:

1. Is the Trulia neighborhood crime heat map a decent indicator to filter out definite no-go properties? I don't have to live in a nice area, but I would like to be able to walk around at night without worry. 
2. What are some areas, other than the ones listed above, that I should be considering for a good deal on a house hackable multifamily? There are many positions in my company located in Grand Prairie so something in that area would work as well.
3. Who are some real estate agents who have experience with small multi-family real estate investors that you would recommend? If you would like to recommend yourself please feel free to message me!

Thanks for reading my wall of text! It’s great to finally be a part of the Bigger Pocket community, and I look forward to hearing from everyone!