How do you feel about owning property somewhere else?

Like the title says, what are your opinions on owning rental property somewhere else in the country (a cheaper market to get into, perhaps) and using a property management firm… maybe only visiting your property once every few months, if that?

I don’t see any problems with it. Especially if you’re in California. Cost of entry is so high here, I really would only look at commercial or short-term deals.

Well I’m in South Florida, with equally high (if not worse) sales prices. I’d be looking at properties in north florida, a good 4-5 hours north of me, where I could actually get a property at a price that cashflows.

Oh, that’s not far at all… I was thinking more along the lines of FL to AZ or CA to GA. A few hours drive isn’t bad at all. I’ll be making trips to AZ myself about twice a month pretty soon. Not really to check on the properties though, more so to keep in good communication with my network and other local professionals.

I’m in Calif and invest in VA (where I’m from).

Got to know your market
Got have a good team and/or spent time by phone, in person, ect to develop it
Got to have good prop. mgmt (again work phones and email)

The key is to run it like a business/project management. I currently have 4 prop. mgmt companies. I review EVERY invoice every month. If something looks questionable I call and ask for details. If everything is OK, I still send an email that say “I reviewed the income statement and everything is OK.”

My partners and I do it quite a bit and actually have a group of other investors here in S. FL that we position houses to on a regular basis. As Jas142 pointed out, here in S. FL the prices are so high that its very hard to cash flow a property. The key is to have turn-key operations in place in other markets. You need to have a way to acquire the properties, rehab them if necessary, find renters and manage them. More importantly you have to have a team you know and trust. aak5454 is right, it is all about project management. We’re currently doing this in 4 markets and managing all the properties and players is literally a full-time job.

Thanks,
Paul

No problem at all. Just make sure you have property management you can trust in place. Don’t understimate the importance of this.

Jas,

it all depends on the numbers.

learn excel spread sheets.

or

at least do a true cash flow analysis

my guess is, you’ll find that 95% of the properties you look at will be at or every near negative cash flow.

the questions i have are:

  1. do you have lots of cash to put down?
  2. can you buy all cash?
  3. what are the taxes in the area?
  4. what are your true variable costs?

let’s say that your variable costs (expenses) are .45 of effective gross

now.

lets say your debt service is another .45 from your adjusted net

this is where you’ll find yourself usually, if you’re lucky, right around the area of 90% of revenues going toward various expenses - and that’s on projections which are almost always wrong. from talking with some people, it seems to me that most new people factor in a property management fee - but do not factor in the repair costs accurately. Bottom line - debt service kills profit. expenses can be limited if you have a good team - and high taxes will bang you good too.

i was where you are about 2 months ago. i was constantly talking on here about out of town real estate and how i could do it. think about it, you can do it, but like some people said on here - you HAVE to have a team in place - a realtor, prop mgt, and contractors in place before you consider buying anything out of your area and they have to be there WHEN YOU NEED THEM, which, in my limited experience, they are not. of course, once you make a name for yourself - then you can snap your fingers cuz people know you give them business, but when you’re new…you’re just a dollar sign FOR THEM - they make profits - while you sweat it out - especially out of town. heck, at least if it’s local - you can put the sweat equity into it and pay yourself the prop mgt fee and take the worry out of being ripped off at least.

commercial real estate is where it’s at. take the jump to light speed. put some casholo together, learn and prepare - then reel in the big fish, like a commercial apt with 50 units.

assemble a team. put money together. forget all that carleton sheets crap - it definitely can work if it’s nearby and in the right market, other than that, you’re a dead (broke) duck.

I live in So. California but all my investments are in Texas. My partner and I have our team in place - property mgmt, plumbers, electricians, etc. In California, it makes sense if I can “flip” a property IMMEDIATELY, but with this market I would have to account for at least a 6 month holding period which would require me to buy property that much less. Exit strategy is VERY important depending on where you’re investing.