New Member in Minnesota

[Bruce Harding]

Hi All.   My name is Bruce.   I live in the Minneapolis MN area.  Don't have a pic in my profile yet.

I have been comtemplating real estate investing for years and years.   Was originally considering single family or duplex properties.  What held me back are the laws here in Minnesota regarding tenants.  It takes 6 months to go through the court system to get them out should the decide not to pay.  In the meantime they can tear up the place costing 10's of thousands of dollars.  I viewed that as high risk.

I found this forum about a week ago.  As I get older I have looked around and real estate still seems to be the best business to get into as opposed to starting an online blog or youtube channel.  This forum got me thinking about multi units.   

After looking at this forum I decided that my goal (if this is reasonably possible) is to own one or two apartment complexes with a positive cash flow after all expenses and repairs over time of $8000 per month.

If done correctly I figure there is less risk if one tenant moves compared to a single or duplex unit.

I figure two multiunits  x $4000 each might be doable.  Or is it ?  Well I have this goal to start anyway.

My financial position is I have approximately $50K cash saved up.  

I own a property in the Phoenix area that I paid $190K for back when the market was high - about 11 years ago.  I have not checked what the value would be now but I would say $170K.   There is $140K left to pay on it.  My wife's son rents it out.  So lets say $30K in equity for now.

I have about $400K in retirement accounts - IRA , 401K.

I have $150K equity in my townhome.

I am guessing I probably have enough financial leverage to get started.

I am going to read the information weekly on this forum as fast as I can.   I also will be looking for a mentor.

I have always heard you make your money when you buy.  I believe good deals take a lot of work to come by so I am looking at this realistically and not trying to rush.

Minneapolis has been good for investing I have read however recently they are building a lot of capacity in the downtown area and the article said investment potential will revert to "normal."

I have a friend that purchased a 15 unit building in a smaller suburb that he says provides $4000 per month cash.  Don't know if that includes all expenses - people are not always accurate with figures.

Are my assumptions correct and are my goals reasonable I guess is the first thing I would lke to ask ?

How long would it take me to get up to speed to learn about multi-units (I know a very imprecise question) ?  I have no experience with tenants, contracts, how to evaluate the property etc...

The other thing I would like to mention is my plan would be to find a C building in a B neighborhood and fix it up over time.

Thank you.