All Forum Posts by: Alicia Tingey Geddes

Thank you Hamp, I will reach out to her! 

Hi Everyone, 

My husband and I just moved to Grand Junction Colorado a few months ago. We are new to investing so we are still trying to learn as much as we can.  Does anyone know of any Real Estate meetups that are going on around here?   We'd love to meet some real estate investors in the area!

Best wishes, 

Alicia Geddes

@Dave Skow We both have really good credit, and plan off paying off debt before we apply. Just curious, when we apply for an FHA loan, is it better to put one of our names on the Mortgage or both? I'm going to try to learn more about the details of FHA loans, there are a lot of things I'm trying to learn about.

@Corby Goade Thanks, and that's good to know that cashflow will increase with time. 

@Steven Foster Wilson I've heard that Ohio is a great place to invest. We are hoping to use the BRRRR method so we can grow quicker when we get more experience, that's awesome that your property is doing so well.

@Ricardo Hidalgo We'd like to invest in a city that is growing and has good steady jobs for people so that sounds like a good place to look into. 

@Dave Skow Hmm, I wish we knew that sooner.  He has a medical travel company that represents him, but the hospital he works at changes every three months possible.  When we want to invest, the plan is to get a permanent job in the city we would like to invest.  It would be in the same medical field.  Would that discourage lenders from considering us? 

@Valentina Calla We have been talking a lot about Florida and that is definitely a place we would like to consider.  We'd love to learn more about the market around Tampa and the surrounding suburbs!  Hopefully he can get a job there for a few months so we can check out the area, and find where we would like to focus on. I will reach out to you soon with some questions,  Thanks for the help!  

@Alex Song Maybe we'll check it out, sounds like there are some good opportunities. 

@Dave Skow Those are really good questions. We are very early in the stage of our planning. So the kind of market we want is where we can buy and hold properties that we can update some of the units to increase cash flow and appreciation. With potential in the area to buy 5+ unit apartment complexes in the future. Right now our plan is to start with an FHA loan to buy a 2-4 unit and house hack it. If we are feeling up for it, we'd like to rehab one of the units as our first project. We are traveling every few months right now but once we have enough saved up. We want to focus on getting a permanent full time job in the city we would like to invest. We'd like to get to know the area before we apply for a loan and buy a property. Would that make it difficult to qualify for a loan if we've been moving a lot the previous year? We will probably need financing from a bank because I don't think we would have enough cash to buy a small multiunit and fix it up.

@Tim Deimer Sorry, I must have gotten mixed up with all the messages. I'm still figuring out how to keep track of all the messages.  

@Corby Goade Wow, that is good to know.  I know realistically every market has pros and cons, but I'm so new at this. I don't know what they are yet.  We ideally would love to have enough cash flow to eventually retire from our day jobs and focus on our properties for our income and retirement.  So I guess a big part of where we invest is a mixture of where we want to live and what we prefer in our investment plan. 

@Logan McKay Zylstra I read online that Utah is the number one state that people are moving too.  I love living there, it just seems like everything is so expensive because of the housing shortage.  I have no idea how we could find a deal on our first property.  

@Jocelyn Kaufman Wow, that's amazing that you could grow your portfolio that quickly.  We are hoping to get a 4 plex first and then jump into small apartment complexes. So you manager your complex from Utah? 

@Tim Deimer

I appreciate your offer on giving us insight into the Minnesota market. If we were looking in the area, that would be amazing.  But my husband and I aren't going to be in Minnesota very much longer.  Thank you for offering! 

@Eric Bilderback You advice has helped us a lot.  Right now, we have the basics decided of what we want to do and how we want to do it.  We're just trying to figure out the locations now.  From Utah and the housing market is crazy there right now.  We are saving up for the next year and learnig everything we can so we'll see where we end up. 

@Joe Hammel That's good to know about Detroit, my husbands brother lives there.  I'll have to see what neighborhood they live in.  They seem to really like Detroit. 

@Ricardo Hidalgo Florida is definitely at the top of the list of where we are considering.  I'll have to start researching that area!  Our idea right now is to house hack a few properties in a good area outside a city, hold on those properties then work up to apartment complexes. 

@Jonathan Stone

Thanks, that is good advice.  I'll try networking more with people that I already know. 

Quote from @Tim Deimer:

@Alicia Tingey Geddes

Stay away from Wisconsin, this place is uninhabitable! It's still winter here!

Seriously, if we were starting over, I'd look at places we'd like to live and find a 2-4 unit to owner-occupy. Easy to finance with low down and, in our experience, a forgiving introduction to owning real estate. Even if you eventually decided to move out of town or back home again, you'd be familiar enough with the area to find a manager if you wanted to keep that property or save the cap gains tax on the portion that you lived in if you decided to sell it. Good luck!

Hi Tim, It's funny you should mention Wisconsin, we have been working in Minnesota the past several months because the pay was good and its been brutally cold! We decided we don't want to invest here, haha. We have been talking about starting the way you suggested. Buying a unit between 2-4 units and house hacking it for a year with an FHA loan.  Thanks for you insight!

Quote from @Ian Walsh:

Focusing locally is usually the place to start.  When you add long distances, you add an element of risk.

Quote from @Alicia Tingey Geddes:

Hi BP friends, 

My husband and I are saving up for our first property through travel work.  We are willing to move anywhere in the country that has a good real estate market, and would like to live in places for a few months before we invest. If you guys could start over, where are the best places in the country to invest in real estate? 

Thanks Ian, that is a good point. We are moving every three months right now, we  are from Northern Utah. Houses are expensive there so we were considering moving to a location with a better market. 

Quote from @Jonathan Stone:

@Alicia Tingey Geddes

Do you have an established network in any market you are considering? That could make a big difference. Being able to ask for references and connect with local contractors or agents and have existing connections in the community can help quite a bit.

 Hi Jonathan, I worked in banking for 4 years in Northern Utah, so if I had any connections in the Real Estate Market right now its there. The Utah market is quite expensive right now that's why we were considering other places in the US.