Your first investment property. Without the horror stories.
We help first-time investors pick the right market, buy the right property,
improve it intelligently, and manage it remotely, using the same data tool
a thousand investors already trust.
The fastest way to lose money in real estate is to trust the wrong people with your first investment.
Most first-timers don't know the playbook. Here it is.
Some companies buy distressed houses in bulk, sometimes a whole city block at a time, in
neighborhoods that look up-and-coming on the brochure but are actually on the way down. They
fix the houses up to look sharp, place a tenant, and sell the whole package to a first-time
investor who's never been to the area. The price looks fair because the "comparable sales"
the appraiser uses are other houses the same company sold a few months earlier to
other first-time investors. Two years later the tenant stops paying, the neighborhood is worse,
and the company that sold you the house is in a new city doing the same thing to the next round
of buyers.
We've watched this happen and written about it
We don't run that playbook.
We don't own inventory. We don't pick neighborhoods to unload on you. There is a setup
fee and a platform fee, both disclosed before you commit, but between the vendor rates
we've negotiated across our network and the team we've already assembled, you come out
ahead versus hiring the same bench independently. After that, our income is a share of
the rent you collect. Repeat business is the only business model that makes sense for
us, so the same team that picked your market is still on your file years later.
1
Area Research
We start where most first-timers guess.
Most new investors pick a market because their brother-in-law bought there. We run every metro, suburb, and rural county in America through 1,000+ metrics: affordability, rent-to-price ratios, job growth, crime, school quality, climate risk, tax burden, landlord friendliness. Then we match those results against your budget, your risk tolerance, and your timeline. You get a shortlist of markets that actually fit you, with a clear explanation of why each one made the cut.
You don't have to trust us. You can audit us. Every market we recommend links to the same heatmap and metrics you can open on your phone right now.
Net AGI flow: income migration across every neighborhood in America
2
Acquisition
We find the property. You approve every decision.
Once you pick a market, our local agents surface properties that fit your plan, not whatever they're trying to move off their books. We pull the comps, run the underwriting, negotiate with the seller, and hand-walk you through every number. We introduce you to lenders who've worked with us before so the mortgage isn't a mystery. You approve every step. We handle every detail.
We don't own inventory. There's no house we're trying to sell you. If the deal doesn't pencil out, we walk away from it together.
3
Rehab
Improvements that pay for themselves, with receipts you can read.
A $40,000 rehab can add $80,000 in value. Only if the money goes to the right places. Our contractor network handles the work, and our data tells us which upgrades actually move rent and resale numbers in your specific market. No lipstick on a pig, no skipped mechanicals, no "trust us" estimates. Every expense hits your dashboard as a line item with a receipt. You see exactly where each dollar went and what it got you.
Pro formas you can audit. Comps with addresses. Rehabs with receipts.
Attachments
4
Management
The same team watches your property five years later.
The analyst who picked your market and the agent who found your property also manage it. Every month you log in and see live rent collection, live expense reporting, live neighborhood trends from the same metrics we used to pick the market in the first place. When your neighborhood starts shifting, whether that's crime creeping up three blocks over or a new employer moving into the county, you're the first to know, not the last. And the person you call is the person who's been on your file since day one.
The tool finds the market. The concierge runs it. And the person who did the original analysis is still watching it with you years later.
How we work, on paper.
One team, every step
Your concierge is tied to you, not the property. We source and vet the local PM through our own network, negotiate their rates, and stay your point of contact. Most PMs earn more by billing more. Ours answer to us.
From insight to execution
Our tool surfaces where the opportunity is across every US market. Most investors stop there, buried in data and unsure how to move. The concierge bridges that gap: knowing the right market is step one, having the network and operators to act on it is step two.
Receipts, not estimates
Every expense on your dashboard is a line item with a real invoice behind it.
Built on repeat business
Our fees are fixed and disclosed upfront, not a cut of your rent. The alignment is more straightforward: a successful first investment is how we earn the second one. Our business runs on referrals and investors who come back.
You're trusting someone else with your first investment. You should know who that someone is.
I'm Alex, a software engineer who invests across Boston, Chicago, Charlotte, and Austin.
I built Investomation because I needed a tool that actually worked everywhere, not just in the
markets where some company had local data partnerships.
I use it to manage my own portfolio.
If the data was wrong, I'd lose my own money first.
I've never bought a property before. Is this for me?
Yes. Most of our managed-service clients are first-timers. The walkthrough above is the full process we run together. You don't need to know anything before starting. We teach as we go.
How much money do I need to start?
The homes we target run $400k to $800k for single-family and $600k or more for multi-family (multi-family typically works better as a long-term rental than short-term, so the strategy differs). You don't buy in cash. Most clients use a 20% down loan, so figure $80k to $160k for the down payment on a single-family. If you're going the short-term rental route, add another $60k to $70k to furnish and set up the property. Realistic minimum to start a short-term single-family: around $150k to $175k in liquid capital.
How does financing work?
Our lender network offers loans that qualify based on the property's expected rental income, not your personal income or employment history. No tax returns, no W-2s. These are called DSCR loans, and they work when the property demonstrably cash-flows. Since we only recommend properties we have already underwritten to perform, that qualification follows from our selection rather than being a separate hurdle you clear on your own. We will make introductions during the acquisition stage.
Which markets do you operate in?
Our data engine covers all 50 states, and we can make introductions through our agent network across most major metros. Our deepest connections are in the high-growth markets where we invest ourselves. We buy in the same places we recommend, which keeps our local operator relationships sharp and our ground truth current. We don't sell our own properties to clients. What you get from being in the same market is access to the vendor and operator network we have already built there.
What do you charge?
There is a one-time setup fee per property, a Business tier platform subscription at $250 a month (first managed property included, each additional property is $75 a month), and a property management fee drawn from your gross rent. The PM fee is a pass-through at rates we have negotiated with our network. For short-term rentals, that is typically around 15%. Independent STR managers run 20–25% and full-service operators like Vacasa run 25–35%. Long-term rental management runs lower across the board, typically 8–12% at market, and we negotiate accordingly. The setup fee covers PM selection, deal underwriting, onboarding coordination, and first-year tax reporting setup; assembling that same work independently costs more.
What happens if I change my mind after the area research?
Nothing. You're not locked in. Area research is the lowest-commitment stage for exactly this reason: you can walk away any time before we start making offers.
Can I see the data engine before talking to anyone?
Yes. Explore the map. It's free, and everything we'd use to pick your market is on the same tool.
Ready to start?
Tell us where you want to start. We'll reach out with a plan for your
first investment. No sales pressure, no obligation, no homework.
