Seeking angles on a NJ buy and hold strategy

[Eric D.]

I live in Maplewood, NJ and did buy and holds in the past year - I own a 2-family in Maplewood and a 3-family in West Orange. I bought both off the MLS with conventional 30 year loans and 25% down.

I find, however, that it is very difficult to find a good deal off the MLS. Owners will offer multi families in North and Central Jersey for prices where you cannot make any cash flow with traditional financing like I have. And yet there are people who pay all cash for these properties.

I want to keep investing in real estate so that I can eventually stop working or at least scale back, as I am now 45. But I am intimidated and nervous at the thought of going out of state to PA or even further away. I feel like it is just too big of a time commitment to search for properties there when I have a family in NJ, and that I would have no control over the property after purchasing it. I can imagine headaches with tenants and repairs and it not ending up well.

I just do not see good opportunities here, and I am totally unfamiliar with off-market properties. I have never been to a foreclosure auction. I am not familiar with wholesaling. I am not averse to buying a property at a good price and fixing it up, but have never worked with a hard money lender. Also, it seems like the bargains that do exist are in depressed areas. People have mixed opinions about them. For instance, I know someone who lives in E. Orange and he is not happy there. Yet others have no problem investing there. I do not want headaches, however. And I would not want to put more than a total of 100-175k of my own money into a property.

Any advice on a strategy for me? Anything I am missing or have incorrect with my outlook? Thanks!