First post here: Hi everyone I’m looking to get started in my real estate investing.

[Rey Cervantes]

I had a few questions here. If you had to start all over again what would you do differently? 

im also based out of California in the Inland Empire, would you still say there's opportunities here for a new investor?

also if there's any investors here that are in my area I would love to meet up and have a chat some day. 

also if you are in the area are there any general contractors you would recommend? 
Thank you 

[Christine Mulkins]

If I could start all over again, my first real estate purchase would have been a 4-unit apartment building and I would have lived in 1 unit and rented out the rest. When you live in 1 unit, you get some of the best financing possible. I would have repeated this strategy until I had as many units as possible. Instead, I started out small and bought a single family rental and then another and my path to owning lots of units was slower than I would have liked. 
I believe there are good deals everywhere, even in Riverside, California. Keep looking, running the numbers on any properties that pop up on Zillow. Know the going rate for rents in your area so you can properly analyze the deals.  Call the listing agent and ask for expenses and have him/her talk with you about landlord/tenant laws in California and when the last rent increases were and if the tenants are all paying rent on time every month. 
best of luck!!