Aspiring Out-of-State Investor from NYC

[Derek Zacarias]

Hello everyone! I have been reading through the forums and blogs as well as listening to most of the fantastic podcasts that Josh and Brandon have been putting together and figured it was time to introduce myself. I am a 25 year old living and working in NYC. I have been working for the past 3 years in finance and have finally saved enough to start investing.

Why real estate? Because of my industry, I am not able to invest in ANY individual stocks and therefore only have a few options open to me: real estate, ETF’s, mutual funds, bonds and private investments in private companies. Given my 401K is heavily invested in ETF’s and I’ve already made one illiquid investment in a private company, I figured I’d take a peek at real estate.

That’s when I found BiggerPockets and a few other blogs on the industry. The more I read the more intrigued I became. So much so that I couldn’t stop talking about it to my girlfriend! Exasperated, she threw Rich Dad, Poor Dad at me and told me to read it. I was hooked (not the response I think she was going for so she either forgot what it was about or never thought I’d actually read it).

So what are my goals? Right now I am focused on learning as much as possible about how to start out and make sure I have a fully baked plan going forward. I have read the Ultimate Beginners Guide and have picked up some books based on Brandon’s list of must read books. Within the next year (preferably 6 months), I’d like to have made my first investment out-of-state in a 2-4 unit multifamily with the plan to buy and hold.

The markets I am currently thinking about are Dallas, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Tucson and Phoenix. These are all locations where I have family or friends (and thus am likely to visit annually anyways). If anyone has insights into these markets, I am very happy to listen and at the end of the day I’m very open to any market, so long as the investment makes sense (healthy cash flow, potential to appreciate, etc).

P.S. Sorry for the long winded post. Just wanted to get it all out there.