All Forum Posts by: Sara T.

I'm an attorney with a practice that has nothing to do with real estate.  Lately I've been wondering if I can self-study other legal practice areas (e.g., liens or zoning laws) and leverage my legal background to find an investment niche.  

For those of you that are lawyers, have you found that your legal training has helped you with your investment endeavors?  And if yes, how so?

Thanks Anthony Schmitt- I will definitely be networking in the area prior to making any sort of decision. I've heard that the right contractor can make or break you, and it sounds like you agree.  How does one go about networking with contractors?  Do they have a big presence on this site and show up to the Bigger Pocket meetups? 

Thanks to you too Wyatt Franta. 5 to 7 year buy and hold sounds like something I'd be interested in.  

Kris Wong:  I'd like to live in the property (or part of the property in the case of a duplex/triplex/fourplex) at least in the short term (minimum of a few years).  But right now I'm not sure what my goals are, other than that I want to make a financially smart move.  I don't want to go the conventional home-buying route if it means I lost the opportunity to get more value for my money.  I'm basically open to anything if it's a good option financially in the long-term.  House hacking, buying a distressed property, or buying a distressed multi-family property are all on the table.  So I'm hoping to get a sense of what other people would do.  (Re distressed properties- in my scenario, I guess I'd need a hard money loan to finance the purchase - is that something that you or others suggest?) 

The only thing that's I've pretty much taken off the table is an out-of-state property because of the additional research involved.

I'm hoping to get some advice about my situation. 

I will be moving to San Diego in the near future. Within the next 1 to 2 years, I would like to buy a house. I plan on living in it for at least a few years, so I'm not looking to do a flip. I'm also not handy at all, so any improvements would require hiring a contractor.

I qualify for an FHA loan. I also have good credit and can put 150K down if need be, so I can probably qualify for conventional loans for properties 600K or under. However, it should be noted that if I put down 150K, I will have exhausted my entire savings except my 401K/emergency savings. Basically, with 150K down I will have no money for renovations until I save up.

I'm willing to buy a multifamily home or a single family distressed home in need of rehab- whatever makes financial sense.  If you were in my shoes, what would you do? 

@Drew Bonner and @Subbie Kaur thanks for the helpful responses!

What would you do with 50K if you were just starting out?  

@Scott Passman Thanks!  Would have never thought about hospitals...that's interesting. 

Hi all,

I'm compiling a spreadsheet to help compare different potential out-of-state markets to buy and hold.

Some hard and soft criteria include (1) job growth; (2) Population; (3) Diversity of Industry; (4) Housing Price Projections; (5) Landlord friendliness; (6) Real vacancy rates; (7) unemployment rate; (8) demographics (should target 18-64, am I right?) ; (8) population growth in target demographic; (9) foreclosure rates; (10) weather (the more extreme, the more costly maintenance will be- am I right?); (11) unemployment rate; (12) rent to buy ratio; (13) property taxes. 

I'd appreciate any suggestions regarding what I should Include.  

Particularly, are there any offbeat factors y'all consider?  Like more example, has anyone noticed if average church attendance in a given city or number of parks or something else that's usually not factored in correlates with quality of tenants?  

Thanks!