All Forum Posts by: Alis B.

Thank you Paul! I took your mention of looking at Craigslist and viola I found a superb home in a great rental location. Three days on the market. Priced in low 50/sqft range when other homes are mid 70-80s/sq ft. I immed called my realtor friend to help collect data and set up appt and she was told it just went under contract. It's VA owned. My realtor agreed it would make a great investment if rest panned out (no damages, etc).

All that to say THANK YOU.  I'm glad to know that I'm on the right track with my research.

Congratulations Rebecca! I'm very new to this and therefore extremely excited for your first "intentional" acquisition. I hope to post about my first acquisition soon. 

Thank you Paul - I am reading the online book (full of great info) and researching property data in our area. One of the many things I'm doing is looking at local rentals and getting an average of the listed rental $/ sq foot for our area.

I have not used craigslist info yet. I'll also call prop management companies. i have a few acquaintances in that dept so I I'll reach out to them.

I'm diving into a crash course in real estate investment  so please forgive me as I learn the lingo.

My current situation is that I plan to acquire a residential property in my town of residence or in the neighboring town.  That being said, I don't want to reinvent the wheel and blindly search when so many of you have already had the successful experience of acquiring your rental properties - so I would greatly appreciate hearing your suggestions on how to find residential (hold to rent) properties.

Next topic to tie into this is what makes a better investment rental property: single or duplex? (No, we will not live in one side of a duplex, both sides will be rented.)

I'm sitting in front of my computer, full cup of Peet's Italian Roast in hand, eagerly waiting to learn! Thanks ya'll! 

Thanks Shawn - apologies! I'll head over there. I'm always looking for the best price (borderline cheapskate) so I was wanting to shave off as much $ from the sales price and thought a good way to do that would be to dwindle down to one agent.  

I'm brand new to this so kindly use single syllable words in your responses (I'll most likely Google your lingo). 

That opener should let you know how green I am to this. I live in central TX and I would like to invest in a local rental property (single or possible duplex).  There is a large hospital in the area & I hope to rent to medical residents. 

What are my first steps in locating my potential properties?

1) Do I look to purchase a property that is already listed?

> should I look online (zillow for example) & then go through just the listing agent (in hopes of shaving off the full 6% commish) when I find a property that I am interested in?

2) Drive around and find neighborhoods that are well groomed and have a history of low crime THEN look for listings in that area?

Thank you!