Slightly unique situation

[Daniel Creech]

Hello BP! 

I have a bit of unique situation, I fly planes up in rural Alaska for 1/2 the month and have travel benefits that can get me 'home' wherever that happens to be. I currently don't pay rent and am getting rid of all debt other than my student loans (CC, etc). My thought is to pick up a 4-plex with a FHA owner occupied loan as soon as practical. The location can be anywhere there's a decent sized airport. Since I'm gone for 2+ weeks a month I would like to find a market that's also a good candidate for airbnb and rent out my unit as time allows to help fund the 4th unit. Also, I want to have this managed by a property management so I can be as hands off as possible.

Long term goal is to trade up to a couple of 16+ unit apt complexes in the next ~15 years to enable me to have the ability to retire if I want/need to. I see myself being able to do this by acquiring a new place every 2-5 years.

I'm from Bellingham, WA. I have been looking at Anchorage as a potential market but knowing where to start research and what neighborhoods to be in seems to be a daunting task. I'm interested in any potential tools to help select market and ideas for minimizing my time to realization of my apartment goals. I'm also very open to other ways to realize a $10-20k/mo "passive" income to take over for my current means of employment.

Thank you for such a community, I look forward to many hours of research. Any suggestions for research/tools are greatly appreciated. I'm downloading podcasts as I type :)

Daniel

[Shaun Hatton]

Daniel congrats on having some great options! I'm in a similar situation. I work up in Prudhoe Bay 3 weeks on and 3 weeks off. I bought a duplex in Homer, AK a couple years ago and have taken the same approach you're considering. I rent out the downstairs apartment long term, live upstairs and STR it when I'm at work. I also expanded and renovated an existing shed into a cabin that I rent out for the winter and then STR in the summer. I'm sure you'll do well with an Anchorage short term rental in the summer. Maybe some Anchorage STR owners could chime in on the seasonality of that market.

I'm thankful for what I have going in Homer, but I would definitely recommend considering a year round destination.  It's pretty easy to get used to that extra money coming in during the high season.  

@Lee Ripma definitely had a good suggestion with the "Where do you want to be?"

Best of luck 

@Lee Ripmaundefined