Newbies Getting started (out of country)

[MaryAnne Burrows]

Hello, my name is MaryAnne my husband and I have decided we want to start investing in real estate. My husband is active duty Air Force and we are currently stationed in Japan, and I am a stay at home mom (both of our girls are currently in school ages 9 & 6). Since the girls are back in school I have more time on my hands, so when I am not at the gym I am educating myself as much as I can on how we can start this new chapter in our lives! 

My husband and I have both started to read several books, watch/attend online webinars and analyze houses everyday. I love working with numbers, so analyzing houses is what I really hope to become an expert at. We only have about $20,000 currently to get started, so as you can see I have more time then money to start. We are really interested in rentals for single family and multi family homes. What we are stuck on is finding the right location to get started. 

Tips from various sources and what they say about getting started with investing, and tips to consider when buying outside of your area: 

1. Look at your current location (right now, that doesn’t work for us)

2. Look at where you grew up, this gives you a place that you are familiar with along with the possibilities of already having connections in that area. ( My husband is from a very small town in PA and I am from northern IN)

3. Places we have been stationed at (Rapid City SD, Colorado Springs CO, Dover DE)

4. Look at the Employment Growth, Population Growth, Increase in home values, and Rental yield for cities your considering investing in 

I have started to educated myself on places but can’t seem to convince myself the information I have found is enough to go off of. We have also considered turn key rentals (but the numbers are not what we want, yet). We have also looked at other military bases, other then the ones we have been stationed at and considered those areas as possible investment opportunities. 

A list of places we have considered:

-Indianapolis IN (3 hours south of my home town)

-Dover DE but the housing market doesn’t seem to be increasing

-Colorado Springs, we may find it difficult since we don’t have much money to start off with and it is very competitive from the research I have done

- Homes near Whiteman AFB in MO, I have read a lot about Kansas City MO and the growth. 

-Waco Texas, & San Antonio

-Charleston SC

I am looking for any more tips, tricks, or suggestions to help us understand the market better so we make great choices. Based on the places I have listed, am I understanding the market correctly and looking at the right places? How would you decide where to invest in if you were in our situation? Once we pick a location then do we contact an agent, or can an agent find houses outside of the state they live in? Would it be beneficial for me to become an agent? 

Any other helpful information is welcome. Thank you so much in advance.

MaryAnne