All Forum Posts by: Randall Hicks

Welcome to BP, @Alex Wilson! Always nice to meet another local investor. 

@Jorge Barboza Jr. I am exploring both sides- leads through an agent/MLS and also turnkey. Because I'm OOS and short on time, I'm leaning toward the latter. I love to get my hands dirty on projects, but I just don't have the free time to do so. Perhaps that changes down the road, but I think that turnkey will be a good fit for where I am now and enable me to get started. I haven't looked at the Columbus market in detail (@Robert Ellis), just a cursory glance at some of the offerings on MLS. Since I have reason to be in Indiana already, I think we'll start in Indianapolis.

Many thanks to all who have already replied! Reading all your posts are both reassuring and validating. With these suggestions, there is so much that I have been doing already, either in part or in whole. @Natalie Kolodij, I agree that BRRR will be tough in my local market, but hope to employ that elsewhere. (I will send you a PM to follow up on tax strategies.) @Brett Snodgrass, thanks for reaching out. I have keyword alerts set up and thus have seen your posts in Indy threads (and appreciate your insights) as I have been lurking there. I will send a message to get more contact info on your dispositions guy. @Jay Hinrichs As I was navigating my way around the BP website and discovering all its resources, I started listening to the podcasts. Since there were 200+ episodes, I initially started going back to the beginning of 2017 and cherry picking those that I found intriguing. Since you are local, I thought to myself, "I'm definitely listing to this one!" In fact, it may have been the first one I listened to. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you may have made the comment to newbies to go back and listen to all of the podcasts. Although I had this in mind already, I did start doing this. I'm at #27 now, working forward. Even if it's not in an area in which I'm directly interested, I listen intently and, of course, learn something for each of them. I have a notebook that I keep for all things real estate related and I've gotten to writing a little "nugget" from each podcast in that book. I'm going to the NWREIA main meeting this evening. Again, there's usually something that I learn at these events. I'm actively looking for legal and tax advisors and tonight's speaker plans to address strategies related to this. I've been disappointed  in some of the main meeting speakers as there's often a sales pitch associated with the talk. Discussing this with another attendee, I learned of the Rarebird group that you mentioned. I haven't yet been able to attend, but it is on my agenda. Thanks for the link to the turnkey source. Because we're leaning toward OOS investing, turnkey is an option that we've considered. I've spoken with a couple of people on this front and have plans to speak to more, including @Mike D'Arrigo. Yes, Mike, I figure that the best candidates for BRRRR will be through wholesalers or other off-market sources. I've got one contact, but will look to find more. @Anthony Varela, thanks for warm welcome, always nice to "meet" other local like-minded people. I appreciate your CPA referral and will add Rick's name to the list of people/firms to contact. @Benjamin Herrmann, thanks for the tip on deal analysis- it's well received. As I said, we've read a lot and have a fair amount of textbook knowledge, but I think one hole I have is in deal analysis. So doing that every day (just like I tell my son with respect to the piano) makes perfect sense to hone those skills. Yes, I have checked out the Salem market for the exact reason you mentioned. I can't be investing sweat equity OOS, but I can certainly drive 45 minutes south and do it! I have a keyword alert for Salem, but don't seem to get many hits. 

Thanks again, everyone, it's great to be part of this community!

Hello BP Community,

My name is Randy Hicks and my wife and I are interested in getting started in real estate investment. This is something that we've been committed to for a year now. We've read a lot and feel like we have the background knowledge and now it's time to take action! Must get past the point of analysis paralysis! Our goal is to have our first property by the end of the year. Our local market is a seller's market and the purchase prices, in most cases, are not bringing in rental income proportional to expenses. Even if we found an ideal property locally, we're not sure that we would want to jump into our first property at $300,000+. So we've been looking to invest out of state. We're both from originally Indiana and still have family there. That brings us to our area of interest: Indianapolis. Like many others, we're drawn to that market for the attractive income-to-expense ratios. If we're going to make mistakes- and I've heard that everybody does at first- we'd rather do it on a $80,000-$100,000 property than on a $300,000 one. 

In some sense, I'm still a newbie, but I've been on BP for several months (just finally getting around to posting a formal new member introduction!). I listen to podcasts (I'm addicted now), I've scoured the forums and have contributed where I can, and have reached out to investors in the Indianapolis market. I have been connected to an investor-friendly local agent and we have been formulating plans to acquire our first rental property. Initially, we're looking at SFH anywhere in the city that offers roughly B-class assets. Although I'm fairly handy and like getting my hands dirty on remodeling, that's not going to happen in this case as I'll be 2,000 miles away. Still, we'd like to find a property that is a candidate for the BRRRR method. Maybe that is realistic from MLS properties, maybe we need to find something outside of MLS. Either way, we'll need a local team, particularly a reliable contractor and property management.

On the bigger picture, I also need to find an investor-savvy attorney and/or a CPA to help set up business entities and systems. If anyone in the community has connections to qualified people in the Portland area, I would appreciate referrals.

Thanks,
Randy  

@Jennifer Beadles Thank you...received and accepted the request

@Mike D'Arrigo I would also be interested in your thoughts on turnkey in Indy. I will reach out, probably later this evening.

@Jennifer Beadles Would you mind sending me a PM with any Indianapolis investor-friendly realtors that you know of?

Jeff, this is another of the many areas under the umbrella of real estate investing. Like you, I am also interested in learning more. A few months ago, my local REIA had a guest speaker on this topic- Joanne Musa, aka, The Tax Lien Lady. She bills herself as one of the nation's leading authorities on the field. She gave a fairly decent talk, but there was a bit of an up-sell component to her pitch. She was speaking in generalities, but offering specifics in her materials (for purchase). I do believe that she indicated every state is different- in many aspects of tax liens. She definitely has "favorite" states in which to do business, but was reluctant to name these, even when pressed directly. No doubt she has a lot of knowledge to share, but not sure how much of it is free (taxlienlady.com). I suspect that you could find a lot of info here on BP without all the secrecy and sales pitches. Good luck!

Hi Barry,

I'min Portland and also have an eye on a Hawaii retirement (although that's 20 years out, still). Back to your point, I was also surprised to find little to no info on Hawaii here on BP. I have keywords set for many things Hawaii and I get very few hits. I suspect that unless you're on the island, it could be difficult to make deals. Lots of people do out-of-state investing, but perhaps that is too far...The houses that I've seen for sale are priced high enough that it's hard to pencil out rental income to cover the payments and expenses. Areas south of Kona have many leasehold instead of fee simple listings. That is a turn-off for me. Are you up for managing condos and/or vacation rentals or do you prefer single family? Can you find a place with a separate building (an ohana) on the property? That could help to offset your costs. Is there anyone in your network that would have closer connections to Kona properties? It's easy to view MLS listings, but having someone local to scout out potential deals would be very helpful. I have communicated with an agent in Kona. He's knowledgeable, but I don't think that he is an investor. I did the makings of a REIA group, but I don't know if it gained any traction. (http://www.westhawaiireia.com/)

At any rate, I hope that you can make some headway and get more info. Come back and post if you do!

Randy