New Member from Kettering Ohio

[Keith Fannin]

My name is Keith and I am a new member here on the BP forum. I have listened to the pod casts for several months now so I thought I would make a profile. I have lived in Dayton all my life and will soon be finishing my final masters degree and moving to Vermont. I have always been interested in real estate but have lacked the time to get involved with grad school. I am soon finishing and will hopefully land a professional career, my wife and I will soon be nurse practitioners. Our plan is to pay cash for properties over the next several years and to hopefully snowball any profit back into the properties. We live very simple lives and intend to keep it that way. We have have no desire to be slumlords but rather offer high quality rentals with nice finishes that are durable e.i. ceramic tile, granite ect. We also are very invested with improving the community where ever we own property. Ideally we would want to rehab anything that is even mildly dated (most of this I can do independently) and provided a very nice property and ideally keep maintenance down since ill be out of state. 

I have been doing lots of homework on where to invest but am a little confused. We have saved a solid amount of capitol to get into real estate (for our age, <30) and have very good credit. We have interest in the multifamily segment for the long haul with aggressively paying off any property we own as fast as possible. The problem here is where to invest. I have lived in Dayton all my life and know that the area has several places that meet the 2% rule with a low entry price comparatively to the rest of nation. I have interest in Kettering, west carrolton, miamisburg and surrounding areas but am hesitant to invest since we are moving and I dont known what it would be like to own property 12 hours away. Can any one shed light on this?

We have looked into investing in Vermont once we move but the area is much more expensive to get into. A house that is 150,000 in Ohio would be 450,000 in Vermont with a 200% increase in property tax. For example, a duplex in burlington is 400k with property tax of 6k per year. Rents would be roughly 1300 per unit on a 3 bedroom. Heating is also another factor. Plowing is another factor. 

Has anyone had a portfolio out of state? Did it work?

Any recommendations for a good property manager (local only, no big conglomerates)?

Any property managers you would stay away from?

I have also looked at Utica NY (listed as a top 20 for ROI by Realty Trac). More particularly whitestown