New Investor from Southern Maine

[Nick Hamel]

Howdy! 

My name is Nick. I've been lurking on Bigger Pockets for a while now, reading the books, listening to the podcasts and of course perusing the forums for almost 2 years. After all of the reading, listening, talking and planning, it's time to act! 

I live in Southern Maine with my wife and 2 young sons. My wife and I are committed to purchasing at least one buy and hold investment property in 2019. After a little while on the forums and listening to the BP podcasts, it was a bit surprising  that little-ol'-Maine gets so much attention from investors from all over. I guess we're in the right place anyways!

Initially our focus is small multi-family properties within an hour or so of our home, so Southern Maine/Seacoast New Hampshire area. Single families aren't out of the question either if the price is right to cash flow. In addition to becoming active here on BP, we are interested in local real estate meetups and networking with like-minded people around us. 

My "real job" is a direct sales rep for a communications and software manufacturer, so I am pretty much always "driving for dollars"...  I love what I do, so although financial freedom is the ultimate goal, I'm not looking to quit my day job quite yet.  

I look forward to becoming an active member of BP and hopefully meeting some of you out there!

-Nick

[Matt Lefebvre]

Congrats @Nick Hamel on taking the leap and publicly committing to buying your first property!  I learned a lot from listening to BiggerPockets podcasts and reading the forums... there's a lot of great resources here... especially with analyzing/gut-checking if a deal makes sense or not.  

I can't speak as much to the Southern Maine market, however speaking to the market in the New Hampshire seacoast, it varies wildly depending on how far you travel away from the whole 18 miles that make up the NH coastline.  For example, property values in the Portsmouth/Hampton area are some of the highest in the state and it can be very challenging to break into that market.  Moving up Rt-16, the Dover/Durham/Somersworth area tends to be more affordable but still has climbing prices because of the economic growth in the region.  Further north in the Rochester/Farmington area, prices are fairly low, rentals are more frequent, but appreciation is minimal and the market has been "on the edge of growth" for decades.  Every market has its nuances there and I think a deeper dive into that by discussing with more local investors would be helpful.  

As @Harrison Smith mentioned, there's a meet-up in Southern Maine that can help you understand that market.  I've seen a few posts over the years for a NH seacoast based meeting (here's a recent one: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/60...) that you may want to check out.  Further out in Manchester, the NHREIA meetings (www.nhreia.com) usually have a showing of 60+ people and may be worth the trip sometime.  We've had a few seacoast folks attends every now and again.  

Overall, the best advice I have is that, while its great to commit to buying a rental property this year, make sure that you focus on the numbers and don't oversold on the hype of owning a property.  Its all about the numbers!  

Best of luck and feel free to give me a shout if you have any questions :)