Posted by David Krulac on March 17, 2011 at 16:35:02:
I’m one of those who has always recommended staying close to home, for lots of good reasons, including you know your market better than markets at a distance and you save a bunch of travel time. Driving in a car or even a plane is such a waster of time.
That being said I’ve known people that have sucessfully invested outside their markets. One person I knew lived in Wash DC and had 20 houses in FL. Another lived in CA and had houses in OK. Sisters from CA had houses in NM. But of the people that I know they weren’t rehabbing in their own market and another at a distance. Most of those above were looking for cheaper places to invest, rather than their high priced home areas.
If you’re a 4 hr drive away, how often would you have that trip. To me making it more than once a week, for 8 hrs roundtrip is more time than I’d spend sitting in a car, but that’s me. If you’re working a 40 hr 5 day week an extra 8 hrs driving will pretty much kill your weekend free time.