Newbie buying in Milwaukee from San Mateo, CA

[Kody Crouch]

I'm a software engineer at HouseCanary, which makes real estate software such as the ComeHome app. After starting my new job I just had to start investing in real estate.  My favorite part is all the people I get to talk to and interact with, so much different from my head-down professional life.

After a few months of scouting a dozen cities to potentially invest in, I picked Milwaukee, not because it was the best place to invest but because it was the first place I got a realtor to engage seriously and start sending me decent leads that matched what I described in my intro.

I like to send out 1-2 offers per week even if I don't think they will be accepted, as long as the price would make it a great deal. 

[Matt Maurice]

@Kalen Jordan I've found discussing COC returns relative to SFR in any market can be incredibly challenging, primarily because no two proformas are the same. I've seen Milwaukee folks boast anywhere from 20% to "infinity" COC returns, but those are the same folks that don't factor in Cap-Ex and tend to be social media all-stars.

I personally feel most areas of Milwaukee represent a 6% COC when truly 100% passive (you've hired out management, maintenance, and brokerage).  The more interesting conversation relative to Milwaukee comes to play with the national affordable housing crisis.  Milwaukee has culture, entertainment, great food, low traffic, two major sports teams (Bucks are best in the league currently),  freshwater, emerging tech startup community, a handful of fortune 500 companies, the DNC in 2020 AND you can buy a house for $100k.  I'm not sure how many markets in this country have comparable potential, but I'm betting big on MKE.