All Forum Posts by: MaryAnne Burrows

Thank you for reaching out to us. Do you have an email that goes out to your investors of property you have for sale? Do you wholesale in other areas of Indiana as well (South Bend, Mishawaka)? 

@Victor Taflinger Thank you for the response to my post. I am from such a large family that my husband and I need to consider asking my brothers and sisters for help when it comes to networking back in Indiana. That is great to know about the group here in Okinawa, we will have to check it out. 

@Lane Kawaoka Thank you. I see you live in Hawaii, we would like to retire in Hawaii in about 6-11 years! 

@James Wise Thank you so much for responding to my post. Being new to this I find that it can be easy to over complicate things, especially since we are still learning and things are new to us. I appreciate all the great tips,  there is only one I don’t understand. “Make sure your property manager is a licensed real estate brokerage.” Why do they need to be a real estate broker? I will have to be sure to listen to the Podcast that you were a guest on! 

@Thadeous Larkin Thank you for responding to my post. We are still putting together our list of who we would consider to be part of our “team”. We have ordered the Long Distance Real Estate book, just waiting for it to be delivered! I thought there was an episode on the Podcast with David Greene but I am not having much luck finding it. Thank you for giving us something’s to think about and to consider when it comes to building a team and focusing on an area. Also, thank you for willing to help us out if we have more questions. We have read a lot about and have heard Brandon Turner mention the “paralysis by analysis,” and we are making sure that doesn’t happen to us. 

@Mindy Jensen Thank you for responding to my post, and referencing the Podcast interview with Rich Carey. My husband will actually be going to Alabama at the beginning of the year for a class and we some some great friends stationed at Maxwell, we may consider it a place to look into. 

@David Pere Thank you for responding to my post and offering to help if we have questions. I will make a note to keep an eye out for your article. In regards to investing in Indiana, I am from the South Bend area which is roughly three hours north of Indianapolis, should I focus closer to the South Bend area to start? We have enjoyed your YouTube videos, you had mentioned that you were stationed in Okinawa, that is were we are right now!

Hello, my name is MaryAnne my husband and I have decided we want to start investing in real estate. My husband is active duty Air Force and we are currently stationed in Japan, and I am a stay at home mom (both of our girls are currently in school ages 9 & 6). Since the girls are back in school I have more time on my hands, so when I am not at the gym I am educating myself as much as I can on how we can start this new chapter in our lives! 

My husband and I have both started to read several books, watch/attend online webinars and analyze houses everyday. I love working with numbers, so analyzing houses is what I really hope to become an expert at. We only have about $20,000 currently to get started, so as you can see I have more time then money to start. We are really interested in rentals for single family and multi family homes. What we are stuck on is finding the right location to get started. 

Tips from various sources and what they say about getting started with investing, and tips to consider when buying outside of your area: 

1. Look at your current location (right now, that doesn’t work for us)

2. Look at where you grew up, this gives you a place that you are familiar with along with the possibilities of already having connections in that area. ( My husband is from a very small town in PA and I am from northern IN)

3. Places we have been stationed at (Rapid City SD, Colorado Springs CO, Dover DE)

4. Look at the Employment Growth, Population Growth, Increase in home values, and Rental yield for cities your considering investing in 

I have started to educated myself on places but can’t seem to convince myself the information I have found is enough to go off of. We have also considered turn key rentals (but the numbers are not what we want, yet). We have also looked at other military bases, other then the ones we have been stationed at and considered those areas as possible investment opportunities. 

A list of places we have considered:

-Indianapolis IN (3 hours south of my home town)

-Dover DE but the housing market doesn’t seem to be increasing

-Colorado Springs, we may find it difficult since we don’t have much money to start off with and it is very competitive from the research I have done

- Homes near Whiteman AFB in MO, I have read a lot about Kansas City MO and the growth. 

-Waco Texas, & San Antonio

-Charleston SC

I am looking for any more tips, tricks, or suggestions to help us understand the market better so we make great choices. Based on the places I have listed, am I understanding the market correctly and looking at the right places? How would you decide where to invest in if you were in our situation? Once we pick a location then do we contact an agent, or can an agent find houses outside of the state they live in? Would it be beneficial for me to become an agent? 

Any other helpful information is welcome. Thank you so much in advance.

MaryAnne