Living in Mississippi moving to Salem Oregon

[Chris Powell]

Hello everyone I moved to the suburbs of Jackson, Ms (Brandon) almost 4 years ago from Colorado. We ended up purchasing a newer house(2009) which we decided was too small for our growing family a year later when we found out we were having twins. I decided to rent it out and buy another. It worked out great, had a great tenant and was charging 1350.00 on a house we bought for 160k with low property taxes, expenses etc..Currently my mother in law lives in it so she can help with taking care of babies so we aren't making anything on it right now. The current house we live in we bought for 193k a few years ago and we are going to be moving here in the next 6 months. So far my experience with having an investment property has been great, but I know this always isn't the case.

When we move I plan on getting my real estate license, but also have a passion for rehab and woodworking (counter tops, furniture) so may want to get into some flips.

Maybe not the right place for questions, but I keep going back and forth whether we should continue to rent the property that my mother in law will be leaving and rent our current home, sell one or both and not have to worry about managing properties from across the country. I like the idea of building up our real estate portfolio and also believe the area is still growing and both houses are in desired areas with minimal available rentals. Just having some trouble deciding which route we should go. If we sold I think we would just about break even after associated costs.

Thanks for reading this and any advice you may have.

[Susan Maneck]

Renting property long distance in Madison County might work because it is such a high demand area. Someone you might consider working with if you want a property manager or you decide to sell is Sherry Azordergan.  Her father was a brain surgeon (seriously) who bought a lot of property in Madison County near the lakes when there was basically nothing there. His son took over his brain surgeon practice and his daughter took over his real estate business. She is really, really good. The only reason I don't use her myself is that I focus on cheap SoJo properties.  Although she advertises foreclosures, etc. on her website (I go there first to find them) she really doesn't like dealing with them anymore. Here is her website: http://www.sherryazordegan.com/

I'd talk to her before you decide on anything.