Be thrilled if you get 2%.

New to the BP community and am so thrilled to of found it.

I'm thrilled to have stumbled across this website, and even more to see other new members here in Texas!  

For me, just trying to diversify from the stock market, I was thrilled to make stock market type returns (8-ish per year) with less risk than stocks.

I almost purchased a two family with 2700 square feet seven years back for ~$900k - now that same home is probably worth at least $2mm BEFORE the coming "Amazon effect"second choice would be a non-landmarked 2-3 family house not more than .5 mile away from the 7 train. third choice a smaller multi-family building. cap rates will be low in 4% range but if you can hold it for 5-10 years with adequate reserves and money to upgrade, you will do wellhttps://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Queens-New-Y...https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Queens-New-Y...fourth choicepre-war landmarked coop apartments in Jackson Heights. not an investment per se because you usually can't rent these out but if are an owner-occupant, these will do great. fifth choicea condo in LIC - these are already expensive and you'll probably have negative yield but IRR will be fine over a 5-10 year holdAs happy as I am for the Queens news, I was even more thrilled to hear about Nashville because it is the one and only place I have been out of state investing for the past four years!

If you don't need the cash flow, and the property breaks even in the current market, then you're really just speculating, and if you have the money to speculate it may not matter one way or the other, much like it may not matter if you go to Vegas and blow a grand at the casino if you have the grand to blow. 

Saying that about Dodge takes a lot - they've come a ways since the casino was put in.Anyways I went on a tangent - but do your homework and check out the short term rental market - maybe buy a duplex and use the other half as a short term rental or a small apt complex if you can afford it near the university. 

There's so much work in most places right now that tradesman can be choosy about their projects, and my experience is that many of them are not at all thrilled about working on old, existing structures - everyone wants new construction.

It’s much harder to go back to learning when you’re 30 and expect to be paid $50/hr than when you’re 18 and thrilled for a deal.

If you trade on emotion, then you are simply going to the casino, nothing more.