All Forum Posts by: Lieren Schuette

Is there a reason you don't want to invest locally?

@Lieren Schuette There are plenty of resources out there, especially depending on the criteria you land on - the Bureau of Labor Statistics is a good example for employment rates, as are many government websites for those types of factors.  However, one thing to avoid is blindly trusting a single resource.  As with literally any information gathering, compare data across different sources. The more data points you have to reference, the stronger your predictions can be

@Lieren Schuette Here is the link for the landlord laws in Texas: https://guides.sll.texas.gov/l... Simple search on the internet for state specific landlord laws is all you need. Hope this helps. 

@Lieren Schuette I would add to the great advice is consider states that have laws that favor the landlords since your looking for long term rentals. Many states do not. But I work in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and this has all the factors your looking for in a Long Term rental. Average days on market are 17 days for most areas. That is quick for rental compared to most part of the country. But regardless of the market you pick be sure to look up in the Network section of Bigger Pockets for investor friendly Realtors to work with. I would go a step further and pick a Realtor that is a fellow investor. They will give you recommendations to help you build your team too. No sense reinventing the wheel. Hope this helps in your REI journey.

As mentioned above some good metrics to help filter target markets are population growth, job growth, rent growth, income growth and job diversification. These can hopefully help identify target markets. Another item to look at is if a submarket has received any public funding particularly infrastructure developments. These can be signs of growing momentum as well as sustainability should infrastructure be reworked for new developments. Best of luck getting started. 

Hey @Lieren Schuette - it's a very popular question. You could start with areas with good "criteria", such as low unemployment rates, population growth, company relocations, high occupancy rates, etc.  Many times these figures can be found online.

Start narrowing your goals: appreciation heavy market, or one that favors cash flow? Keep in mind, markets can have both, but likely at a price - for example, even Austin can cash flow from day 1, barring that you put more than 20% down.

Sometimes your strategy will also direct you with this. I'll use Austin as an example again (sorry, just my expertise!) - if you are an out of state investor, and you want to do a STR, you won't be able to get that license if within the Austin city limits. Same scenario for small MFH: some cities are full of these, while others don't quite have that inventory.

In short: find what things are important to you, both in the area and strategy, and continue to build upon that.  Use BP as much as you need - a lot of times questions around these subjects have been answered before as well!  Best of luck to you

the goal is to park it safely until you are ready to use.  if you are buying soon, put that downpayment in a savings account.  dont worry about high yield right now.

these other post recommending illiquid or risky investments are not right.  you may find yourself not able to persue the good real estate deal when you find it.