buying rental properties

[Tony Sepassi]

I have been looking into buying muiltifamily rentals and the area I have been looking into is Chesapeake VA area. Found one building , it is a 4 unit and owner says it has a monthly of $3100 which is not bad.

My agent tells me the area is not the greatest and he had investors lose money there.  I have been looking into DC but the prices are just to high and it feels like a bubble about to burst.   I have been jumping from one state to another looking for deals and it does get frustrating.

Do you guys have any advise?

[Chris Seveney]

1. Do not rush into it. Be patient
2. There are affordable areas within 2-3 hours of DC which are B areas which are lower priced where you can cash flow. There are very few opportunities but they do exist, even on mls. I have acquired two mls listed properties over last 9 months but they also required a lot of work and were foreclosures.
3. Need to do your own marketing. Unless you are ok with 1-2 deals per year you will need to send out letters to people.

This is my 2 cents. I believe DC will continue to grow and will have its ups and downs and there are still areas of DC proper where deals can be had, but you are competing against some of the best investors for those properties.