San Diego, CA · Member since 2016 · 14 posts · 4 votes
My wife and I are looking to buy our first investment property with our business partner. All three of us live in California and think it best to invest somewhere close to where we live because it's our first property and we'd like to be able to drive there in case of emergency. What are the best buy and hold markets with good cash flow on the west coast? We'd also be open to Arizona, and Nevada, and we're looking for properties under $100,000. Any suggestions of places to research?
Be careful when asking this question. It is pretty loaded question and a ton of people on here have a wide range of experiences and expertise. To find out the best markets takes a lot of research but it's free. In my opinion, it is always best to start off in your own backyard. Not so that you can check on the house, but because you are already familiar with the area and should be able to tell if it is a good area to invest in real estate. The best way to get great deals is by finding them yourself meaning, you have to market like how a wholesaler markets. We market to absentee owners and end up getting a property for 56% ARV and selling to one of our fix and flippers or buy and hold investors. At these prices, you aren't going to worry about losing money because you bought at such a low cost. The area matters but not as much when you are working with such a large profit. So to sum up, do the research and ask about the area you found, not where to go and look. I hope this helps and good to you all.
You're going to have a hard time anywhere on the west coast, unfortunately. Vegas used to be pretty hopping for cash flow and good prices but the prices there now have skyrocketed (well above prime) and the returns have sank drastically. I was always hesitant about that market anyway just because of basic market fundamentals. AZ used to also be great for it, Phoenix specifically, but while the market fundamentals are great there, the cash flow has gone to fairly negative now since the big wave of investors bought everything up a few years ago.
A lot of it just depends on what you are looking for. If cash flow is your goal, just about everywhere west coast is going to cause problems. I'd also consider any property out this way $100k or less to be more risky. But if appreciation is your thing, that's very possible except most of the cities are closer to the top of the markets now than the bottom.
I'm out this way too, in LA, and I've always ventured further out for the cash flow. Chicago is great, some of the Midwestern cities, Philly out east, etc.