All Forum Posts by: Alex D.

@Brent Coombs Thank you for the insight! Yes i really wish I knew what I knew now and have used it as a lesson to education myself a lot more thoroughly. I honestly don't even think I would have done any research had everything happened in my favor and assumed the next place that looks good on paper was a steal. 

Hey BP!

I did a little research but it was a little difficult to come up with consise steps or others experience so I wanted to ask!

Let me provide background! I purchased my first primary exactly a year ago. I had the intention of staying in the property long term. I had a million things going on as well as being sent on deployment training spontaneously while searching for a home. With that being said, I allowed emotion to take charge and instantly fell for a condo at the same time making a ton of costly mistakes on TOP of it being a condo.

I caught the real estate bug hard and have been doing research, finishing up a virginia license, etc. Problem is, i'm looking to rent it out and make it my first rental but can not do so without being negative each month with a PM. 

This particular property is in kapolei, hawaii and I was thrown on orders to be in the northern virginia area. I will have to do everything long distance. I managed to get the place tenate ready however wanted to know if some people felt it was worth paying the extra to have it managed or did it long distance? I would have to hire people I have never met considering the contacts I've had outside of the agent, no longer reside there.

Any guidance would greatly be appreciated! I'm making the best out of  a sticky situation however oddly thrilled I'm getting to learn and be able to show commitment. Nothing forced you to be more serious then when it's your money haha.

That's great to hear! Hope it works out. I was curious about that as well especially considering I'm out of state.

Lol yes, the very heart of the ghetto. Places outside military bases are typically not desired in my opinion. The general idea that most members have is that its always ghetto around a base. Most people typically make a good 30min drive. I'm military and also lived exclusively in those exact areas for 7-8 yrs. You know at one point in time, zion wasn't too bad at all but 2008 tore that place up and the illinois cleaned up by throwing 5-600 a month tax bills. You know this is like the 4th or 5th time i'm coming across someone mentioning waukegan so i may look into it too lol.

@Anthony Metcalf Hey Anthony, there are very few people that are looking at those areas so it might be hard to track down info. That being said, I do know that area extensively to include wisconsin as well. I think what excites people is the low cost to jump in around that area however the values have only gone down and crime has gone up. These are not at all desireable areas. One thing that steered me away was the taxes as well and other hiddens fee's. They are only climbing and people are moving out. Getting in isn't hard but I would develop a solid exit strategy before investing. These cities have shown little improvement all together. With that being said, your best bet would maybe to look a little further north towards milwauke and then dabble a little bit below great lakes il and take advantage of your potential military tenents. Another place i'd look at is around CLC near gurnee.

Many of those homes are very very old as well so please consider renovation costs and upkeep. 

I'd love to talk more about the areas in greater detail if you wish. This was just a quick on the go opinion. 

Welcome @Rechung Fujihira!!! I love seeing new people from oahu! I really hope you accomplish everything you set out to!

@Tim MikkolaWelcome! You will find everything you'll possibly need on this site & the vast majority of the people I have met through bp are extremely helpful and have guided me through a few things. I'm really excited about your journey and do hope you continually pursue your dream.

Hey Robert,

Great to meet you and welcome. I hope you stay motivated. I actually set up an alert for the richmond area because I was looking heavily into it. Maybe eventually down the line when you're ready to do a deal, we'll partner on one. 

@Kerry Baird Thank you for your advice. It's really cool seeing that you were able to do that. So it seems as if your bases have allowed you to get to know certain areas a little more but say you were trying to work yours numbers in an area different then what you're in, and they worked well. What were some resources you used to get to know the area?  For example, learning about crime, new development, popular areas, employment, etc. Some people mentioned denver so we'll use that as example. Looking at denver, how are you learning about those specific neighborhoods?

I've used some things such as crime reports, google street view, zillow/agent for comps, etc but are there other specific resources that are your go to for "discovering" areas.

Well i'm located here because I'm in the military. I have no choice but to be in this area and roughly a 30-40min radius to where I work. I inquired about how people got their start with out of state because I personally felt that this area wouldn't be best to get started. There is nothing specifically driving me to look here outside of the fact that I could drive around and get to know the neighborhood. I'm very open to different areas/strategies to figure out what would be the best fit.