Summary: We spent a weekend exploring the real estate investing landscape of Oklahoma City and left with a very positive impression of the city, confident we have an excellent team in place to successfully invest in the market.
As many of you know, Kenji and I have been focused on investing outside of the Seattle market for the last two years. We’ve done this in part out of necessity, since the deals started drying up around Seattle in 2016, but also because of our desire to diversify our portfolio in the case of a downturn in the local economy or a natural disaster.
Our first out-of-state market was Spokane. While we’ve had great success in the market (especially since we were able to get a couple of our properties into Supported Living), we decided last year that we wanted to develop at least one to two other markets outside of Washington State.
Our motivation for getting into new markets was not only for additional diversification; our main goal is actually to be prepared for an upcoming market correction (aka downturn) by building familiarity with different markets/areas and assembling teams in those areas, so when the market does change, we’ll be well-positioned to buy lots of properties in different areas at discount prices.
In the meantime, we also get the benefit of being able to buy now wherever the deals make most sense. The vast pools of properties that we are now able to pull from – in areas from Boston to Nashville to Spokane – have proven invaluable in our latest project: a complicated 1031 exchange.
All of this background serves to bring us to the focus of this article: our latest real estate scouting trip to Oklahoma City, better known as OKC.
Independently, we never would have thought to invest in OKC. Though we had met a few locals (and heard them brag about their city) at weddings and other social events over the years, the Midwest had remained somewhat of a no man’s land for us. We envisioned grassland and farms, not vibrant, growing cities.
However, we took a leap of faith when one of our trusted agents came back from her own scouting trip to OKC excited about the team there and then organized a group scouting trip to check out the city.
We, of course, were in.
Never mind that it meant hauling a four month old baby and toddler in the throes of her terrible twos all the way from Hawaii to OKC. The trip would not only give us a chance to see our new property, we could also become familiar with the city, meet our team and spend time with like-minded investors.
As an aside, several other of our friends had invested in OKC (sight unseen like us), so we also used this as an opportunity to drive by their properties and tour their neighborhoods.
So, last weekend we visited the city. There were about 25 of us in all, and we spent the weekend in lectures, touring the city and checking out available properties that had been hand-picked by the OKC team.
Some of the highlights of the trip were:
- Visiting our newly-purchased property (note I have NEVER seen that many flies and cockroaches in a kitchen in all my life). Though it is quite run down currently, the property is located in an awesome neighborhood and sits on six lots so there is potential to build in the future.
- Getting to meet the OKC real estate team and building the level of trust that comes from meeting face-to-face and spending time together.
- Meeting our new property manager, who is clearly a pro at handling very tough tenants.
- Planning our remodel with our new contractor and seeing examples of his work. Finding a good contractor and property manager is really really tough, so we’re grateful to our real estate agents for hooking us up.
- Attending some inspiring lectures by the mastermind couple behind Omega Houses, a massive house flipping business in OKC, and Eric Bowlin, a Texas-based investor. Eric’s lecture contained a lot of pearls and helped us rearrange our focus and keep us from getting distracted.
- Spending time with some of our investor friends and networking with other new investors who never get tired of talking shop! We had a chance to share ideas (and contacts) and learn new approaches to investing, which was invaluable.
- And finally getting the chance to explore the city. We were impressed! And the food was amazing too!
We had an excellent visit to OKC and left knowing we have a good team in place handling our current property and feeling really excited about buying more properties there in the future!
Do you invest in OKC? What has been your experience investing in OKC?
How about out-of-state? What has been your experience managing your property from a distance?
