Newbie moving to suburbs of Minneapolis

[Jessica Wood]

Hello!

My family and I are relocating to Minneapolis in December and we will be lucky enough to be investing in real estate full time.  We are looking to invest in the western suburbs as well as the Edina/Calhoun area.  Neither of us will have W2 incomes but we have investment income as well as rental income.  

Our plan right now is to pay cash for a very modest primary residence and refinance when we get up to minneapolis. We would live there for two years and then rent it out. Assn docs say you need to occupy for 2 before renting. While we lived there we'd put in new showers, flooring in kitchen and bathrooms and paint kitchen cabinets white, etc. Make it a more appealing rental unit. 

I have one rental property in Edina that is paid off. I've been renting it out for about 4 years or so & lived in it prior to that. I've spent about 4 hours of work on that place in 4 years so I've been really lucky as far as tenants go. 

Are there specific banks in the Minneapolis area that will be better at lending based on net worth vs. verifiable income?  I currently bank with Wells Fargo but am open to developing relationships elsewhere. 

Our primary goal will be to get single family homes cash flowing ASAP. 

Since cash flow is important to us, we are considering putting as much as 50% down on these properties. Thoughts?

We are leaving a farming operation in Iowa and going into this full steam ahead. Wish us luck!