Affordable, Up and Coming Areas Near San Luis Obispo?

[Tristan Cottarel]

Hi,

I'm a college student who has been looking into getting into real estate investing for a while now; I feel drawn to buy and hold/BRRR, specifically. I just transferred to Cal Poly SLO from the Bay Area; now that I've quit the job I had in community college and there's less pressure to get perfect grades, I have a lot more free time, and I look forward to seizing my time here to finally take some action.

San Luis Obispo, like the Bay Area, is expensive, so starting out locally isn't ideal.

I'm unfamiliar with the area and am wondering if anyone can speak to semi-nearby (1-3 hour radius) areas that are more affordable but still 'desirable' and worth looking into. Glancing over Zillow it looks as though virtually all of the listings in nearby areas are pre-foreclosure, which isn't too reassuring. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[Ben Tilbury]

Hi @Tristan Cottarel, 

I’m a realtor specializing in real estate investment properties in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties. I would recommend becoming very familiar with Area you are looking to invest and obviously maybe you are looking for ideas on places where that could be. I was always taught invest in your own backyard since it’s the easier and most familiar, it’s also easier to build a team or you meet and network with other investors such as myself that already have a team and you become extension of that. True SLO is an expensive entry market to be in but there are always still deals to be found. If you’re in your first year or two of college then why don’t you buy locally and house hack so you can rent the other rooms out and virtually live for free or at least minimize your own mortgage while building equity? To answer your question about sub markets or more affordable cities, there are even some here in our own county such as Paso Robles, Atascadero, Oceano, Grover Beach, Nipomo, Santa Maria, Guadalupe, Orcutt, Lompoc, just to name a few. If you want to get further you can look in areas like Taft, Bakersfield, Fresno, etc. the other question I have for you isn’t what is your budget and how are you planning to finance you’re first deal? Unless you’re parents or someone else’s is backing you financially you will need 2 year a tax returns to qualify for a loan. With that said if you do find the right deal there’s always money to be found if you are creative. I’d be happy to network with you and meet up this weekend ir next week to disuss you’re goals in real estate. Feel free to shoot me a message and we can connect. ~Ciao