All Forum Posts by: Byoung Bae

My wife and I live in California and visit Hawaii fairly frequently (all islands). We are considering buying an investment property in Hawaii. What are people's thoughts on buying investment property in Hawaii?

We are open to all investment type (long-term, short-term, mid-term rentals). We were primarily looking at Turtle Bay area for short-term rentals.

Is it possible to break even with ~20% for long-term rentals?

if we go with short/midterm, is it possible to manage it ourselves remotely? My wife has more flexible schedule and availability to manage remotely, and we are interested in managing property but this is our first investment property.

I have a goal to buy my first investment real estate property in 2025. I live in CA and own my primary residence. I am not interested house-hacking. Primary goal for investing in real estate to grow my wealth (not to replace my W2 job).

As the first investment, I want a safer investment with a goal to break even in 12 months and focus on learning & long-term cashflow/appreciation. My budget for the first property is $50k ~ $100k. With this budget and my goals, I ruled out CA and looking out of state. With my budget and goals, I am looking at SFR in Indianapolis and Michigan (Detroit area, Lansing). Any suggestions on how to get started, some risks to be aware of?

I am reading BiggerPockets forum and I get a lot of information, with somewhat divergent recommendations. Some specific questions I have:

1. What should be the number first step after picking a market? I am looking at listings online, running my numbers. Many of them barely hit the "1% rule".

2. Assuming I purchased a property, how do I find renters? Do I lean 100% on the property manager to find renters? How do I know the vacancy rate / how long it took to find renters for comparable properties? This would be one of the most important inputs for "running your numbers".

3. Many suggest to "build a team" for out of state investor (e.g. realor, PM, handyman, etc). How do I go about doing this? Who is the most important member/first I should focus on?

Any other generic recommendation / tips are appreciated. Thanks in advance!