Selling a house to reinvest in multiple properties

[Lisa Hill]

We bought a small house in San Jose that we outgrew.  At the time we couldn’t offload it so saved for a second house.  We rented it for a time and have used it as a very successful Airbnb since 2015.  Now we have about $500k equity and Airbnb in the area is saturated so we have decided to sell it and buy cheaper properties to rent.  

We plan to put it on the market in March.  Considering listing it flat rate.  Any suggestions on this?

Areas of interest to purchase include Fresno, Merced, Visalia, Cincinnati, Detroit.  Also consider Artesia and Clovis NM.

How does one buy a property if they aren’t sure where to buy but mainly interested in deals?

Would definitely consider Airbnb again in an area not so saturated.

Any suggestions appreciated!

[Jeff Zimmerman]

@Lisa Hill, great questions. first, off I'd really advise you to spend time in the area you want to invest in, I've heard too many horror stories of people who bought something sight unseen and then had a rude awakening when they actually visited. Some investors do it this way and have success but it's a pretty big risk, so when you talk about buying a property at a distance, that's the first thing to do...visit and research.  

2nd, make sure you have a team in the area that you trust, especially if you can't drive there on a weekend to check on it.  After you have your team in place (agent, manager, etc...) you should be pretty good to go.

As far as FSBO of your current property, it just depends on how competent you feel in the sale of your home. If you know what you are doing and understand the sale market, negotiating, ethics, and the typical way transactions are done in your area it could be a nice way to go and the money you save in paying for a listing agent is truly a saving. If you don't feel competent then you could leave quite a bit of money on the table by not using RE pros to handle the sale. Really good real estate agents pay for themselves and then some while helping to take a lot of liability off your plate. It really just depends on your own competency level.

If I can help further in giving you some questions to ask agents when/if you choose to interview them or if I can tell you anything about Fresno I'm more than happy to do that, feel free to message me.