Differnt markets to invest.

[Exdakine]

Hello, I just recently inherited a property from my father which passed away last month. I am 19 years old, I was helping my dad with the sell of the property for the past 4 months now since he passed i just took it off the market a few days ago. The property does need repairs and i have gotten estimates on the repairs from multiple companies. The property is worth around 220,000 with all the repairs, which include painting exterior and interior, rescreening all the window screens painting the water tank and hauling some stuff away outside of the house, also needs new stove and fridge. with all the repairs it is going to cost 6,000 + the cost of the stove and fridge. Now the property has only 5000 left on the mortgage and is in a land trust, i would like to pay off the mortgage and fix the house up and rent it. As the location of the property is in Volcano Hawaii and the market is flooded with homes currently my question is should i hang on to the property and rent it? or try and fix it and sell it? rents for the house is around 950-1000, I could list it with repairs and list at 220,000 or with out repairs around 195,000. I dont know if anyone know's that market in hawaii well.

My other options are to rent it for 950 with the mortgage paid off and get a Loan and buy a few rental properties in another market. Like North Carolina or an area where prices of homes are still low but raising.

I think at this point i am at a lost on what to do. and there are many options. If anyone knows alot of different Markets or knows a website with a chart or something that shows different markets and the percentage each one is going up each year in value. or how rents are doing in different areas to cover mortgages ect.

[zatanaz]

Hello there,
Sorry to hear about your father.
This is what I would do (keep in mind this is just my personal opinion),
Right now the market is very slow, almost dead in pretty much the whole country, so now is the time to buy and hold (rent).
I would do basic repairs to the house and rent it for $900.
Once rented, I would then do a cash-out re-fi but only for the amount that such payment will be covered by the rent. In other words, the payment on my new mortgage should be less than or equal to $900.
That way you don't have to worry about the mortgage because it will be covered by your tenant.
Your loan on a $900 payment would be approx $100K.
With $100K on hand, I would buy 3 or 2 rental properties giving $33-50K down including closing costs and repairs if needed.

When all is said and done, you now have 3 or 4 rental properties whose mortgages are paid by the tenants.
Wait on them untill the market picks up and then sell all 4 for a decent profit and do it all over again.

If you had to choose a market, I would choose Texas.
I live in El Paso, TX and there is a lot of demand for rental properties here.
Property prices in El Paso are still very affordable compared to other cities in Texas and the US for that matter.
You could find a house for 95K and rent it for $700.
Now, if you buy a 95K house with 33K down, your mortgage payment (PITI) should be around $600.

One thing though, have you transferred the title of your dad's home to your name?
That's the first thing you need to do before anything.

Let me know if you want more information about the TX market.

Good Luck

[thedeallocator]

I would renovate the house, rent it out with positive cashflow and then go ahead and refinance the property to pull out some cash ($50-100K) for investments in other markets like Atlanta, GA. A lot of investors are investing in Atlanta because there's an abundance of foreclosures. The banks are very motivated to sell and a lot of them are now allowing shortsales.
These are not run-down homes, but relatively newer homes, needing little or no work.

The good thing about the Metro Atlanta Area is that it is now the fastest growing Metro Area in the nation, as per the last census bureau figures. More than 110,000 people moved to the Atlanta area over the past 12 months. All these people need a place to live in. That's why Atlanta is very attractive for both residential and commercial real estate investors.

You can get a free list of homes priced below value from AtlantaForeclosureDeals.com