Newbie from Oahu Looking to Invest in Rentals or Flips

[Don Mangiarelli]

Aloha all,

I am from the Island of Oahu I Hawaii. I am a newbie investor who bought a flip in Ohio 7 years ago in my 401k with seller financing. I had no idea what I was doing. I am now getting divorced and had to file financial documents and to my surprise noticed that my investment had doubled in value. I then decided that I wanted to pursue real estate investing. I'm not exactly sure how I stumbled onto this site, but I did and have since been listening to the podcast and several audio books by Brandon (who I learned lives on Maui and I will need to look him up) and David G. as well as the audiobook Crushing It in commercial real estate, which references this site often.

I own an IT service business with a focus on big box retail stores. Some of my clients include Louis Vuitton, Macy's, The Home Depot, Costco, Safeway Stores, State Farm Insurance and many more. I recently began a merger with another company and at the end of five years plan to become a full time REI. I am interested in flips and rental properties with a goal of owning 10 20+ unit apartment buildings in the next 10 years. I am looking for distressed properties which can be had at 70-80% of full value, that can be rehabbed and rented and refinanced (yes BRRRR) and can pull the equity out to use to buy other properties. I am looking to buy long distance as the cap rates here are ridiculously low due to the limited supply of land and thus housing. I would love to hear about your experiences and where you think the hottest, and not hottest, places to invest are located. I have the money to be a cash buyer as well as to finance my first deal. I am currently searching the Cincinatti, OH area and Northern KY. I am interested in looking at other places as well.

[Michael Borger]

Welcome to the island scene, Don. I live in San Diego now but do a fair amount of flips and wholesales in Hawaii, mostly Oahu. I've never purchased a property at auction. It just takes diligent marketing, and the auctions are only one place to find deals. That's the never-ending game of flipping - marketing for deals and raising capital to buy them, rinse and repeat.