All Forum Posts by: Jonathan MacMillan

Hey @Mike Waseen, I'd love to chat further with you. I held my last SFH for 7 years and so have no problem doing that again, which is to say I obviously hope any place I buy ends up appreciating, but am also okay if that doesn't happen overnight so long as there is solid cash flow. And if the returns are as good as people say in Chicago (in moderately good neighborhoods) than I would be happy to talk further about working together.

And @Scott Alfano as for Orlando, I haven't really done any research into renting properties as Vacation rentals, but I know some people have done that with great success and so I would be happy to have that discussion as well! Would $130-140k be enough to enter that market? I always imagined that would be quite a bit higher. But let's chat!

Thanks @Safeer Mohiuddin, I would really appreciate that!

Thanks @Alex Bok and @Meghan McCallum. I will private message you both to talk further. 

I have looked into Chicago from time to time but always get scared away by the murder rate (750 people just last year). But I'm willing to have a conversation about it. 

As for a $53k investment earning 1450 a month in rent.  It basically sounds too good to be true. But I know these types of things happen, especially to the savvier members of this group, so I'm ALSO willing to have a conversation about that!

Hello all, 

I've been reading this site on and off for a couple of years. 

Seven years ago I purchased a SFH in Aurora, CO for 110K. It rented for about 900 as I slowly paid off the mortgage. I now own the property outright, Zillow has it listed for about $260,000 and I'm renting it for $1600. For many years I've had this property on auto-pilot with my manager taking care of most things while I live overseas.

However, it dawned on me recently that a $1600/month rent is nowhere near achieving the 1% rule on a $260,000 property and so I've been contemplating selling it, and 1031ing it into two new properties that add up to $260,000. I also thought it would be a good opportunity to diversify my investment by buying two properties in different locations.  I plan on paying cash for both because my employment is very uncertain and so I struggle to get loans. I also have a bit saved so I could go a little over a total amount of $260,000 for the right places. 

Currently I've been thinking about Orlando and/or Houston. I would also consider Cleveland (I have some friends there who dabble in REI). I'm always a bit overwhelmed when it comes to choosing cities to buy in. I grew up in Los Angeles and don't think I can afford anywhere there. But I live in Australia, (also can't afford anywhere there) and so I don't really have the ability to do tons of boots on the ground research in different cities. I've looked at turn-key companies in the likes of Chicago, Philly, KC, Indy, etc., but haven't found one that I fully trust yet.

The goal would be to pick up two SFHs that combine to rent for about $2600. 

Any advice would be much appreciated!!!

@Jon Huber

Can you join me to this list for the future.  I'm a newbie who just moved to Los Angeles and desperately want to learn more. Thanks!

@Tyler Flagg I just wanted to let you know this was a pretty inspiring post for me to come across. 

I too am a newbie, and as of last week wanted to invest in Austin or Cleveland and quickly was persuaded otherwise.  I now have my sight set on OKC although I've only visited a few times.  I'm glad to hear from most of the people in this forum that OKC seems to be a favorable place to invest. 

So, congrats on your purchase, and I hope everything goes well for you!

@James Park and 

@David T.

I'm new to this site and came across this thread after burying myself in this website for about 48 hours. With limited experience in searching out new cities to invest in, it seems like lots of people and websites still seem pretty sure of Atlanta's potential.  But then certain people post saying "you have to be prepared to work hard and get your hands dirty" and it is a bit disconcerting, especially because I have no real sense of what that statement means. 

My goals are conservative, Buy and Holds with a cap above 7%.  I've looked at some suburbs of Atlanta that seem to have lots of available properties, good schools, promising rental prices and newly constructed houses - and that was just a Zillow search.  What am I missing? How would you have to get your hands "dirtier" here than somewhere else? 

@James Wise  

I was wondering what your thoughts were on the point that @Ali Boone brought up about high vacancies and massive loss of jobs last year in Cleveland. 

Cleveland is one of a few locations in the US where I have friends I trust who live locally and seeing as it's affordable I thought it was worth a look. But Ali's comments raised a flag and now I'm starting a little research for myself.  Would love to hear your take. 

@Ali Boone undefined, thanks for the advice. I'm reevaluating where to look!

@Andrew Lanoie, I totally agree! I'm looking for cash flow. Buy and Hold. I happy to roll my sleeves up and work a little in the beginning, but the ultimate goal is to set my properties on auto-pilot as much as possible and pursue other dreams.  I bought out of state in CO, the first time, but would love to get into other markets. How did you go about finding TN, TX, etc., specially as somebody who didn't live in those areas?

@Edward Synicky, I'll try to find a L.A. meet-up when I'm next in town. 

Hello, everybody, and thanks for all the responses!

First off, I wanted to clear up that though I'm from Los Angeles (born, and went to school there), for the past seven years I've either been living in Manhattan or living a week per city in a theatrical production that is on tour (current).  I say this to explain why:  1. I don't really have a good sense of ANY market right now, and 2. It would be very difficult for me to go to a meet up group, even though I want to - at least for the next 6 months.  

With that said, since discovering this site yesterday, and now having listened to 3 podcasts and read a dozen articles, I think I want to change my goals.  I'm happy looking out of state at good rental markets, because ultimately I won't be "settling down" for awhile so there's no point worrying about it now.  I'm also more than willing to look at multifamily homes/duplexes/etc. 

Any idea how best to research current market trends in order to find cities/neighborhoods with promise?