All Forum Posts by: Davis Doan

Thanks for sharing your inspiring story Jason!

Stuff you can setup and do now to create a stronger foundation:

1. If you don't already have abudget plan, get that figured out so you can minimize your spending and increase your savings. Adjust as you go and your life changes. This will help you with managing expenses for your properties as you can manage your own.

2. Since you said you're in college, figure out what grants you qualify for in your state so you can lower the cost of tuition, books, scholarships. Work with a counselor to figure out what classes you have to take to finish your degree so you don't accidentally take extra courses. Find people to study with so you aren't alone in preparing for exams. This will save you stress and time!

3. Setup a high yield savings account (ally, capital one, ect.) To store your savings (around 1.5%)

3. Learn the credit card rewards game so you can take your regular spending and have that pay for vacations or hotels(thepointsguy.com)

4. Setup an emergency fund for yourself so you can be at ease financially in case you fall on tough times. This will be a foundation for cash reserves when you own property.

5. Analyze just two properties a day and by the time you graduate that will be more than 1000+ properties analyzed.

@David E. . Read The book written by Bigger Pocket's own @David Green called Long Distance Real Estate Investing, it will answer all your questions.

I am at the beginning stages of trying to land my first rental property in the Mid-west. There are numerous threads on which markets to invest in.

You hire a property management company to guarantee the place is rented. If you are not familiar with the area, then you would get boots on the ground and find an investor friendly agent/broker to help you. I am currently asking around for property management.

Good luck, you have a lot of options and sounds like you are in a great financial situation having saved up $45k.

Since you are in the questioning phase, consider changing up your current living cost?
$2k per month if you are single sounds really expensive, even in San Diego.

If you are young and single, just rent in a 1 bed in a shared house for $700-1000 per month. That cuts your living cost in half. 
If you are renting with a significant other + kids, ignore this advice haha.

Then take that extra $1k per month and your current cash and buy out of state properties that cashflow.
You can probably turn that 45k cash into two properties in the Mid-west for $180-$300 per month.

Now you went from $2k in rent per month to $700-1000 per month in rent and around $360-$600 in cash flow, a complete reversal of cash flow.

Good luck!

Just practice networking digitally. Most of my networking during this time has been via direct messages here, emails with agents, texts with agents and eventually a quick phone call. 

Congrats! Good luck on closing and getting your first tenant

Hi Cole,

I am also a newbie and also am I analysis paralysis, but finally started taking my next steps

Here is a super quick road map:

1. Set a two month deadline on reading Bigger Pockets books and listen to Podcasts, have your capital ready, don't do anything weird with your money or financial accounts, deadline is important otherwise you'll just want to keep on reading so you're "prepared" 

2. Next two weeks research which market to invest in (research five cities, tons of articles and posts on which markets to invest in and what metrics to look for)

3. Next week, Pick three cities based on your research, post on BP, in the respective City that you are interested in investing in that city and a handful of agents will reply, coordinate with them to get on a call, find two more agents per city via Google , BP, or referrals

4. Next week schedule calls and talk with all of them to learn about the neighborhoods and what properties they sell to investors

5. Next week Narrow down the one market to continue to invest in and work with your agent and define your real estate Goal for your first property (cash flow or appreciation, single family or multi, how much per month in cash flow, what cap rate and what is your exit plan)

6. Next week find a lender to get pre approved

7. Next week send paper work to lender for pre approval and now find other BP investors that have worked with the agents you like

8. Next week research property management, build a list of five, find other BP investors that have worked with them and get referrals

9. Work with your agent to put in offers, have your due diligence check list(roof, foundation, what fees the city charges for utilities, county tax rate, eviction laws, closing fees, ect )

10. Work with agent to close deal and have property management lined up

11. Get tenant in place, setup payment system and update process with your PM

i am definitely missing details but it's good enough for me to move forward and take action. I don't know everything and probably never will, but that's part of the process.

I am on step four and was in your shoes a few weeks ago. I just kept reading and researching for the longest time. I have probably listened to over 100 BP Podcasts and read 50+ blog posts and felt like I was making progress on my investment goals, but In reality wasn't taking any real action.

I hesitated to post on BP, but when I did a lot of people reached out and helped me. Good luck, feel free to message me to just chat about your journey. 

Thank you to everyone who responded and messaged me, I really appreciate it. 

Lesson learned, don't try to take on learning a market by yourself and
get help from others after you've done a bit of groundwork.


@Aaron K. thanks, will keep that in mind.

@Jean Zipagan - thanks for all the helpful tools, I will consider 3bd 1ba

@Melissa Owen - thanks, I am coordinating with a few agents in the cities I listed

@Alex Olson - thanks, about to respond to your message now

@Shane Cummings - i've thought about that, but haven't gotten that granular. I was driving around a bad neighborhood during a trip and thought about the businesses that are generally only in bad neighborhoods(pawn shop, money tree type business, ect.) and businesses that are generally in middle class neighborhoods(panera bread, lululemon, coffee bean/higher end coffee shops, ect.)

@Chad Stark - Thanks, I am messaging with a few out of state agents right now

@Whitney Hutten - Yes I am going to talk to both PM and an Agent to get different perspectives and see which neighborhoods overlap as good and bad. Also, thanks for those websites, they are helpful.

@Remington Lyman - Thanks, I am trying to figure out a time that works due to the time difference and my 9-5

@Mike D'Arrigo - Thank you

@Robert Ellis - I will spend time to read those posts, appreciate it. I will get back to day/call time

@Alyssa Dyer - What are you guys doing now, given the current circumstances, are you guys doing video calls?

Again, thanks everyone! Hopefully this thread helps other newbies like me who have a similar question.

Hi everyone. I am trying to get out of the analysis paralysis stage, even during these crazy times.

I've read the Long-Distance Real Estate Investing Book and the Rental Property book from BP. I've saved up my target amount for a down payment. I know I want to invest in out of state SFH 3bed/2ba in B Class neighborhoods for cashflow somewhere in the mid-west.

I've looked at cities population growth, job growth, median house values, crime rates, if its landlord friendly, vacancy rates, ect.

Now I've been analyzing just two houses a day on Zillow from my target cities( Kansas City, MO, OKC, Indy, and Columbus) to build a habit.

But now I realize I have no idea what neighborhoods are good and its a bit overwhelming as there are so many neighborhoods in cities that I have never been to. I've found guides by James Wise for some of the cities on my list, but these are just names on a list to me and I don't feel like I really understand enough of the neighborhoods to confidently make an investment.

How did you go about learning the neighborhoods for a state you've never been to?

Thank you.

Originally posted by @Alan M.:

I feel fine in my comment. I apologize if you took it to be snarky, but I was more referring to the speed of the virus' spread and effect it's already having on the economy, the stock market, and every day life. That could have been more clear.

I do have to say that you're being incredibly irresponsible by comparing the swine flu, with a mortality rate of .02% to Coronavirus, with a mortality rate at least 50x that and FAR more communicable.

The reason China has has such a drop is they moved to an incredibly strict quarantine. We have yet to do this, although it's starting with the shelter in place in the Bay Area and other places.

We look a lot more like Italy than we do South Korea or China. This is going to get really bad really fast, and we're totally unprepared for it.

Originally posted by @Brian Bradley:

@Alan M. pretty good. Media driven panic. The prediction is from doctors and the CDC. Not my own words. Hence the quotes and names of sources.  Just passing along useful information in a panic. But how is ur lack of character doing for u based off your reply? I’m perfectly fine, everyone in my family and community and town are. We are not panicking and just taking it with the severity of any virus. Washing our hands and common sense. Trying to get some supplies not because of the concern of the virus but the mass rush on the stores. We need toilet paper.  No point in hysteria or panic. I suggest you look urself in the mirror and ask what the point of a comment like urs was? The numbers still r the number. They have not changed and still a media driven hysteria that if people just exercise precaution and cleanliness we will get through just fine. It’s a respiratory virus that the elderly or those with underlying immune system issues are most vulnerable as they already are with other viruses.  Where was the mass hysteria with the seine flue in 2009-2010?, Barack Obama, first year as president, 60 million Americans infected in a 10-month period, 300,000 hospitalized. 18,000 deaths. This is just 10 years ago now. 1,000 Americans had died, when Obama finally declared a national emergency after a thousand deaths. The media coverage was different. So ask your self how do you feel with your comment. I just see what the cdc and doctors and other med professionals say. Don’t over panic. Don’t touch your face. Wash you hands. Get fresh air.  China has already reported they r in the downside and have almost zero new cases. It will pass. No need for panic, or hysteria, or rude smart %#* comments to strangers to make urself feel better about yourself. Relax and be with your family and friends and maybe do some meditation and inner work on yourself and character if that’s how you talk to people with a different view then you. 

Just wanted to add we also need to keep in mind USA testing numbers are low because there aren't enough test kits. This means things are probably growing at a worse rate than Italy. White House announced over the weekend they would be shipping out 1 million test kits this week. We probably will see a massive increase of confirmed cases in the states around March 23-27(test kits probably shipped out this Tuesday or Weds, test kits received Friday(2 day air?), testing takes place Sat/Sun, results take 23-48 hours, results reported to CDC, CDC announces new numbers Mar 23-27) in best case scenario.