I’ve been too busy with my day job to really deal with my properties, but here are some observations:
There has been a lot of investors in Texas over the past few years. When California started getting too expensive and started going down, many investors went to Arizona, Las Vegas, and finally Texas. Texas is not as susceptible to bubbles as California, but my view is that it is probably too expensive and has been too inundated with investors. I’m not up on the statistics either – Texas I believe has seen some drops in value but not enough to offset the amount of investor interest. Anyways, I do not have any properties there so I do not have any first hand information.
For my property (4 units) in South Carolina, for some reason it is doing very well. I bought it for $232k in 2005. Although the value has not moved much (I haven’t been watching the property values either so if it has gone up in value, it’s possible, but I doubt it), it has been giving me about a positive cash flow of around $200/mo. The first year of course was not good, but once the economy stabilized a bit, it’s been fully rented and it’s made money. =shrug= Only problem is that the property taxes get assessed every year and I have to usually challenge them and tell them that hey the economy sucks please stop increasing the property values. The property management for this property seems to be really good. They did charge a lot of stuff to me in the first year, but they’ve been quiet on the charges for the last year. Maybe they fixed every thing.
The last property I bought was in Alabama in 2006 and it’s pretty much the same story. First year sucked, but things are stable now and it’s giving me cash flow. It’s also a 4 unit and I bought it for $115k. I’ve had a few vacancies on it, some questionable tenants, but it’s doing ok. I personally can’t understand how someone can’t make the rent when the rent costs $400/mo., but oh well.
So yes, the properties out of California can make you money and stuff (and it’s certainly better to buy a property for $115k vs. $800k). But like you’ve seen here, there are a lot of risks and I can’t really say I would recommend out-of-state investing because there are so many moving parts you have to get into motion and a lot of hassles that would bother many people here. Also, this type of investing will tend to bother your significant other (as it has done to mine).
But like there are several type of stocks, there are several types of real estate properties and areas to invest.
High risk, high reward – California, New York, Hawaii. Properties here are very expensive, but vacancies tend to be low. Most of the money made here are through appreciation, not through cash flow.
Negative appreciation, but cash flows: rust belt areas like Ohio, Indiana, Illinois. These areas do cash flow and the properties can be cheap, but they do not hold their values well and will often lose their value.
Areas inundated with investors: Arizona, Las Vegas, Georgia, Florida. Avoid these areas. Although Georgia is probably not as bad as the other areas. The “dumb” investors (the ones who do not do any research and just go where everyone else goes) go here.
Steady appreciation, some cash flow: Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Idaho, Iowa. These areas can provide some appreciation and some cash flow but are as slow as molasses. Not sexy but some people love boring.
I haven’t been looking for properties myself (too busy with my day job), but my observations seem to indicate that there is a lot of pressure on the commercial rental properties (5 units and up). These properties are not usually federally backed and so you have to get private funding for them and the private funding has been extremely difficult to get. So as a result, if you are able to find a good property, you can drive the price down quite a bit and if you are able to find some funding for it, there is quite a few coin you can make.
Of course, the caveat is that those properties have bigger headaches than the regular 4 unit and less residential properties. I have one and it was a $#!!$^%&&@ hassle to find funding for it.
But as they say, high risk high reward. At least that’s the theory.
Hope this helps.
edit: I use loopnet myself but yes, most of the deals are already gone before it hits loopnet. However, I use loopnet as a guide as to what properties can be valued at in the area that I’m looking for and what rents are being used. Unfortunately if you want the deals, you will have to develop a relationship with the realtors in the area first and they will bring you what deals they have. Buying a property out of state is not the same as Amazon.com…
Marcus & Millichap are also good, but you should develop a rapport with them first and then they will bring you the deals.
