Newbie searching for rental investment property in Edmond area

[Crit Tyson Williams]

Hello everyone, 

     My name is Crit Williams and am a newbie investor who is hungry for knowledge and experience in the real estate world. I am currently in my last semester of college at the University of Central Oklahoma where I am majoring in Business and Real Estate. Also. I am an apprentice with a commercial real estate investing group here in the Edmond/OKC area, from whom I am learning A TON from! All of this is exciting but the more I learn the hungrier I get for my own first investment deal. 

     So, I have decided to begin my search for my first deal with the hopes of finding a cash flowing rental property that would probably need some rehab in order to put in my own sweat equity in. Learning from my apprenticeship has lead me to feel capable of handling some of the labor and juggling contractors. With that being said, I would love some insight on the area, specifically around UCO's campus, and on the big issue for newbie investors: Capital. I am currently reading Brandon Turner's "The Book On Investing in Real Estate With No and Low Money Down", which gives me great ideas, but would love to network and feed off of some of your knowledge/network as well! Thank you all so much and good luck on all your future real estate endeavors. 

[Cassi Justiz]

Hey @Crit Tyson Williams, 

Welcome to BP! Congratulations on getting a real estate internship. That's such a valuable thing to finish out your college career with. I agree with what @Dylan B. said about Edmond. It's a really hard place to cashflow. The purchase prices are higher and rents are equal to lower than other parts of the metro area. The only investors that are consistently buying properties in Edmond are buying almost retail priced properties in cash or with large down payments to make the cashflow numbers work. There are the occassional "deals" that pop up in Edmond, but they are hard to find and they almost always go to the first cash buyer that can get their offer in. That's most likely not the strategy that's going to work for you. 

What I would suggest is to start saving up money and working on your credit now. As soon as you land your first full time job out of college try to get a foreclosure to live in and fix up while you live there. I'm not going to go into full details but typically owner occupants get preferential treatment on those houses. If you buy it as an owner occupant you can get in with a low down payment and lower interest rate. You can get roommates while you live there to help pay your mortgage and then when you are ready to move along to another house, you can have a great cashflowing rental.  I think that's one of the best strategies for new investors, especially in the OKC market.