All Forum Posts by: Emily C.

Background: I live an expensive market that would make it hard to achieve cash flow with traditional sfrs, so I'm considering investing in a larger sfr and renting out individual rooms with the common space being shared for higher returns than a single tenant. The target tenant would be young professionals (lots of tech in my city), possibly moving from out of state. Some downsides I have in mind: harder to find properties with a good ratio of bathrooms to bedrooms, more expensive to buy a large property upfront, higher monthly maintenance costs (I would probably pay for utilities and communal furnishings), and interpersonal conflicts between the residents. From others who have rented by the room, am I missing any pitfalls with this strategy?

Thanks for the tip @Alex Olson, I'll take a look at KC. Unfortunately for me, most of my circle live on the two coasts, so I don't have an in to more affordable markets (yet). I do have a close connection to a realtor here in Seattle who has sent me a couple options, but nothing that I like the odds on. My perspective on investing remotely is that I will probably not do it optimally the first time, but I will gradually learn what I need to know from the practice to get better. I'm willing to take a calculated risk to get the educational value of "learn by doing" for the type of investing I want to focus on even though starting locally would probably be safer training wheels.

@Nicholas L. @Brian G. The market I live in (Seattle metro) is quite pricey and I believe it would be hard cash flow here. Even the surrounding area is pretty expensive, which is why I'm looking at remote opportunities. Is the benefit of investing nearby mostly being able to drive by and find listings that aren't online?

Thank you all for your advice! I've been doing some of the things suggested here to prepare myself, but so far I haven't gotten much traction looking for deals on my own; the numbers just don't add up. I have a spreadsheet for markets, neighborhoods, and deals that I'm looking at, which is really helpful to compare, but so far it looks like I probably won't find a deal that works for me on Zillow. The comment on getting taken advantage of definitely rings true, I don't want to work with an agent until I'm bulletproof in my own ability to analyze deals, but it also seems likely that I won't find one worth pursuing without some help. 

Total newb here, looking for some feedback from seasoned investors. I'm looking to invest remotely in sfrs or small multi-family properties. I've been reading everything I can get my hands on about buying my first property, and I've settled on several steps I need to complete to pull it off. These include: find and analyze markets, analyze neighborhoods, analyze deals for cash flow, work with at least one real estate agent to find deals, get financing (I have enough for a down payment, planning on getting a mortgage for the rest), get a property manager, maybe find a contractor or handy person. So my question is: what order should I be aiming to do these steps in? For example, should I be interviewing property managers before I even purchase a property? Or should I just apply for financing, find a deal, then figure the rest out after? I know that this won't matter too much after I have an established team, but for now, I'll need to get everything in order in a relatively quick time period. Any advice welcome.