New Member Looking to Network

[Kevin Laurion]

Hello,

My name is Kevin Laurion and I want to introduce myself to the Minnesota forum group. You can take a look at my profile for a quick background on my family and I as I don’t want to bore you with that. Haha.

My wife and I are new to the real estate investment game and we're looking for advice/help/pointers for people that have been there, done that. We are looking for a property at this point to purchase and hold. We want to go SFH or Multi family, but we'd be open to either if the property/location/numbers are right. We live in the northern metro suburbs so we would want to keep the property semi close (within an hour) to us as I'd like to manage it ourselves, to start at least.

I have been watching the public markets for some time now to get a gauge on what type of properties are listing for and also selling for. We are very fortunate in that we can save ~$4k a month and have saved ~$80K, thus far in which we are comfortable spending ~$65K of that for the initial purchase/reno upfront costs. We would then look to do traditional financing for the remainder with a purchase timeframe being this late fall/early winter as this is a little bit “better” time for buyers.

Questions I have for current investors/rental owners:

• -Will the amount of money listed above be able to get use a decent semi-fixer upper property that will have some cash flow after a few years? Not looking to get rich over night, but don’t want to be losing money long term.
• -A number of the listed duplexes in the MPLS/STP area are mostly pre-1930 era. What are the major pitfalls with these properties? I am comfortable doing general reno and maintenance, but not full renos with the electrical/plumbing/etc.
• -I want to learn as much as possible before my purchase, so doesn’t anyone recommend a podcast/book that will help me as a first-time buyer?

I’d love to and will attend some of the MN Meetup get togethers to shake some hands and meet others in the industry. Please message me or comment if you have any insight or 2 cents on the aforementioned questions. Your time and knowledge are greatly appreciated!

Kevin

[Alyssa Strom]

Welcome @Kevin Laurion! You've come to the right place and yes definitely try to attend as many local networking groups as possible. You definitely have enough cash saved so kudos on that. If you are looking for a single-family BRRRR I'd join a few wholesaler lists to see what's going on outside of the MLS. Many of those properties are overpriced with a generous ARV but you'll be able to run the numbers, review comps and act quickly when you find the right deal on or off the market.

From a rental perspective, more doors are better to account for any vacancies. That being said, many of the small multi-family properties are in Minneapolis and Saint Paul and tend to be older. Each property has its quirks and in general older properties tend to come with more of them. The age of the property shouldn't make or break a deal but definitely something to consider when deciding what type of rental portfolio you'd like to build. You can always back out after inspection if there are major red flags due to age.

The BP podcast is probably the best one for beginners. Since there is endless information out there pick a few areas you want to learn more about and focus there. (i.e. screening tenants, finding off-market properties, rehabbing, etc.)

Good luck!