New investor from South Central Kansas

[Travis Tannahill]

Hey!



I grew up in Overland Park (South Kansas City Suburb), went to school at K-State in Manhattan... now my wife and I live in Hillsboro, KS(about an hour north of Wichita)... I own a successful insurance agency in Newton, KS(30 mintues north of Wichita). My wife and I are looking to get into investment properties within 6-9 months. I'm trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible between now and then. They'll be self managed at first. We really have a passion for our small little communities. They are full of great hard working people and I just hate to see people living in dumps. Our motivation is to help clean up some of these properties and towns and give people a rental they can be proud of. We love our small town of Hillsboro (pop. 2900) and wouldn't trade our small schools and community for anything. Obviously the numbers have to work and we need to make money, but there's definitely an emotional "save rural america" motivation behind everything. Our plan is to start with single family dwellings... our potential markets are basically Wichita, Newton, McPherson, Great Bend, Salina, Hutch, Emporia, Manhattan... that also includes all the small towns that surround these larger cities.

We're young (25 & 27)... we own our current home... no kids(yet)... and I'm hoping to have the ability to semi retire at 40. I love to hunt and travel and honestly I want to travel the world with my family hiking mountains and catching fish and shooting animals whenever I choose to. That is our dream. I'm the kinda guy that will probably never fully retire because I do love to work and I love what I currently do, but working only when we want to is why the semi-passive income of buy and hold real estate is so appealing to us.

Wish me luck and I'll be reading and chiming in when I think I can offer some value. Thanks!

[Matt Lowery]

@Travis Tannahill I'd love to hear more about this house and see what I could do to help you get started.

I personally don't play for appreciation here. It's a nice benefit, especially when you refinance, but when the average home is $105,000 in my market and most rentals are going to be in the $40,000-$65,000 range, there's not much to be made. Cash flow and tax benefits is what I look at more.

I also highly recommend the new book from @Scott Trench that just got published by Bigger Pockets, it would have a lot of relevance to your situation. I've been giving away several copies as graduation presents and to young investors I've been meeting.