All Forum Posts by: Jean Marx

Most definitely! That is where the challenge has been (the fact that the areas are so different). We may very well work in both markets. However, at the moment we're trying to determine where to spend our energy first.

We are doing value add. We're also not opposed to flips. We're just really getting started from the investment perspective and beginning to network/reach out to our connections. I don't know that it's 30%, but to be fair to LR, it is more than non-existent. The house that we currently have there is in a suburb verses Little Rock itself and was bought by my husband in 2006/2007 from more of a consumer mindset. On the plus side, the forced rental has been good to us and got us to get more serious about REI.

Thanks for the response! We have just started networking in CA. The meetup type groups/guest speakers have definitely been helpful. We haven't had much luck on the new contractor hunt but we've just started our search and plan to keep at it. On the busy note, we are definitely not alone or wanting to use that as an excuse :) It's more to point out that even local, we'd probably have to hire out the most of the work vs. doing it ourselves.  

Some of the draw to AR is the vacancy, the ability to purchase immediately without taping into other equity, and that cashflow looks like it would be easier to obtain (but we still have to do a little more research to confirm and it's dependent on the deal). We are anticipating the properties to have at least some rehab work. Additionally, we are taking into account that we're learning and it might be nice to make our mistakes on cheaper properties :)

My husband and I are trying to determine the most viable market for us to get more involved in REI. We are primarily looking into two metro areas: Sacramento, CA and Little Rock, AR. Here is the summary from our prospective. We're hoping you can help us out with additional insight.

Sacramento Pros: We live here, can network easily/do some of the due diligence in person, have a better change of the properties appreciating 

Sacramento Cons: We don't know as many people in the industry, the contractor we like is booked 3+months out for larger projects which doesn't seem uncommon for the area, we have demanding/long hour day jobs that would limit the amount of sweat equity equity we can put in, higher barrier to entry/ability to scale with our capital (due to contractor timeline, competition, price point etc.)

Little Rock Pros: We used to live here and have a number of contacts in the area including a realtor that we trust, the price point is low enough that we could scale quicker by not having so more tied up in a single property, favorable landlord laws

Little Rock Cons: Appreciation is almost non-existent at least in the neighborhood we used to live in (which is tied to top schools), we aren't close enough to do any of the leg work/would have to rely on others/wouldn't be experiencing the trends the same way as living in the area, a chunk of the networking would have to be done from afar vs. in person

Thanks in advance!

Good luck! We’re trying to determine if Sacramento is the right market for us as well.