Long term holds

[Sarah B.]

Hi all,

I've been flipping for the last few years here in Northern California, but im ready to shift some focus to long term holds. I have been looking into buying a couple SFR's around 30k-40k in the Tampa Bay Area. I am familiar with the area as I grew up there, which I feel is an advantage when investing out of state. I have never done out of state investing or long term holds so I'm definitely taking a plunge into the unknown and am a bit nervous. The properties I'm looking at are in decent areas with at least $800/mo in rents. This is an opportunity that isn't available here in California and seems almost too good to be true, but doing the analysis of numbers it's all there in black and white. I think I'm going to take the plunge.

Any advice??? Tips? Things to consider? Anyone in the house from the Tampa Bay Area with experience in this? 

[Doug Merriott]

I would be wary of $40k houses in Tampa Bay. You would either be looking at a minimum of $20k in rehab and a bad area or just a really bad area.