All Forum Posts by: Michael Ryland

@Scott Petty I’m going to try to manage my self with the help of family and friends who live in that area.

@David Pham I’m starting in the greater Kansas City area. I have some family there so that is where I will start. I closed on Friday and already have a tenant moving in on the 1st. I’m pretty excited about it and want to get another one soon.

I’m finally closing on my first long distance rental property in Missouri and I am very excited about it. I made the first mistake before closing. My lender sent me a bunch of documents to sign and notarize before overnighting the documents to the title company. Out of convenience I used the notary located at the local UPS Store. (SPOILER ALERT: DON’T DO THIS). I thought it would save me a stop if I just used them and then overnight the documents while I was there.

I got a bad feeling when the lady started taking things out of order and saying, “You don’t need that or that.” I should have grabbed my documents and left because I knew something was off. Needless to say the documents were done incorrectly and signatures and initials were missing. I felt like such a moron when the title company called to tell me about all of the things that were wrong. I reached out to a friend who referred me to a notary who specialized in real estate. (She was great.) But I had to pay a second notary fee and a second overnight fee.

It’s kind of embarrassing but sometimes it’s easier to fall on that grenade and admit I screwed up. Lesson learned. Lesson shared.

Chris Seveney Thank you for your input. I’ll look for that article. My very conservative estimates at this point come to a 13% ROI on the couple of properties I’m looking at. The population is around 12,000. Like I said things appear good. I should have the financial pieces in place this week so hopefully I can pull the trigger on my first property soon. In the mean time I’m trying to learn everything I can.

I’m a newbie so this may seem dumb but I’m wondering how the experienced investors feel about investing in small towns. I’m interested in the buy and hold strategy and I’m looking at a small college town in MO where I have family. Crime and taxes are low, my sister works at the university and is always telling me there are few rentals available. At first glance the town seems to be growing. They just built a new hotel and conference center. I feel like this would be a good place to purchase my first property because I visit a couple of times a year and I have a support system there. I may be overthinking it but I’m curious what you experienced investors think. Thank you

Andrew, Another option would be to do part of the labor yourself for example tearing off the old roof on a house that small should be an easy one day job. You can inspect the roof yourself for any dry rot. Then have your roofer come out and put the new roof on. (If you decide not to do it yourself.) That way your not surprised later when the roofer tells you about additional costs. Maybe ask a couple of roofers first to see how much it could save you. It saves them time and money too. I’m not too confident in my skills for installing a new roof but I’ve torn off several old roofs so I cannot provide advice on that.

Wow what a welcome. Thank you again and I will be reaching out to some of you with questions. I’m still getting used to the site.

Thank you Kevin. 

Hello my name is Michael and I’m excited to learn as much as I can from like minded people. I’m interested in the buy and hold strategy with single family or small multi family properties. I’ve started looking in the greater Kansas City, MO area because I have family there and am somewhat familiar with it but I am open to looking at other areas as well.