New Investor from Beaverton (Portland), Oregon

[Randall Hicks]

Hello BP Community,

My name is Randy Hicks and my wife and I are interested in getting started in real estate investment. This is something that we've been committed to for a year now. We've read a lot and feel like we have the background knowledge and now it's time to take action! Must get past the point of analysis paralysis! Our goal is to have our first property by the end of the year. Our local market is a seller's market and the purchase prices, in most cases, are not bringing in rental income proportional to expenses. Even if we found an ideal property locally, we're not sure that we would want to jump into our first property at $300,000+. So we've been looking to invest out of state. We're both from originally Indiana and still have family there. That brings us to our area of interest: Indianapolis. Like many others, we're drawn to that market for the attractive income-to-expense ratios. If we're going to make mistakes- and I've heard that everybody does at first- we'd rather do it on a $80,000-$100,000 property than on a $300,000 one. 

In some sense, I'm still a newbie, but I've been on BP for several months (just finally getting around to posting a formal new member introduction!). I listen to podcasts (I'm addicted now), I've scoured the forums and have contributed where I can, and have reached out to investors in the Indianapolis market. I have been connected to an investor-friendly local agent and we have been formulating plans to acquire our first rental property. Initially, we're looking at SFH anywhere in the city that offers roughly B-class assets. Although I'm fairly handy and like getting my hands dirty on remodeling, that's not going to happen in this case as I'll be 2,000 miles away. Still, we'd like to find a property that is a candidate for the BRRRR method. Maybe that is realistic from MLS properties, maybe we need to find something outside of MLS. Either way, we'll need a local team, particularly a reliable contractor and property management.

On the bigger picture, I also need to find an investor-savvy attorney and/or a CPA to help set up business entities and systems. If anyone in the community has connections to qualified people in the Portland area, I would appreciate referrals.

Thanks,
Randy