Purchase price: $160,000 Cash invested: $40,000 Sale price: $268,000 I bought my first house in Kalispell Montana as a long term investment and possibly a rental.

I'm looking to purchase my first property with my fiancé (both 25) with the goal being to establish our primary residence together, as well as giving me the opportunity to add equity/value via rehab before moving on and converting the property into a rental within a year or so to kickstart an investment portfolio.An interesting lead that recently came up is my parent's neighbor's house.

We had to bring the 1925 house to 2023 code which involved un-installing 26 windows that were already nicely installed (in appearance) in the house, reframing them to 2023 standards (at the time) which also involved strapping the bottom of the wood framing with metal straps (mind you this all after we had already completed the inside renovation).  

Already, it's pushed out-of-town investors to focus on student housing where GC has less of an impact.

For yourself, I'd save up enough to be able to house hack, and then house hack.Hope that helps.  

Caretakers house moving along.  

Quote from @Kody Smith: without getting too deep into my finances, what my strategy is...1. take loans to buy properties (leverage)2. fix/flip for day to day cash flow income3. use some of the fix/flip income to buy consistent cash flow through:- business acquisition, - commercial properties (MF and store fronts),I have no intention of doing ALL of the management myself, I will hire management as needed (medium term goal)my expected core role is money provider, evaluating the numbers, making decisions, and connecting with investors, wholesalers, lenders, contractors, and property owners.while I am just on step 2 of the journey, I am looking toward step 3 to stabilize, and not worry about if house prices drop mid project or not (or not worry as much) So to be fair this is more about obtaining and growing a real estate business not simply buying rentals for cashflow.

Work thru what you would bid on the house, what you think repairs would be, what you think your ARV would be.

Unkempt lawns, trashy or broken down vehicles, mattresses and trash on empty lots, boarded up houses, bars on windows, dealers and hookers on the corners, the lack of stores or gas stations, occupied properties are dilapidated, etc.Or when Google maps shows stuff like this:

I think it's about the best time there is to outside of the past to invest and acquire properties.I just recently found an article by Julie Taylor from realtor.com that was posted December 10th that has some predictions on housing markets where "Home Sales Are Set to Soar" with Colorado Springs listed as number 1 with expected YoY sales increase of 27.1% and Denver expected to increase 13.6% YoY quoting Christine Dupont-Patz who is a real estate agent in the Denver area.