Moving from CA to TX , Pivoting career, First time investor

[Mikai Stewart]

Hello all, my name is Mikai, and I have a background in accounting with a Commercial Property Management company in the Bay Area, CA.  I have a private lender interested in me and encouraging me to make a big life change for a better future, but it's happening quickly, so I am trying to utilize all the resources I can. I am potentially looking to move to the Dallas / Fort Worth area to learn more about multifamily investing. I am currently in the education phase of my journey, have been listening/reading a ton, and will be pivoting my career path hopefully to a multifamily operator with a role in acquisitions or asset management-focused. I will likely have a ton of questions, but I wanted a place where someone could offer tips or advice if they felt the urge.  Thank you all for your time. The forums have been unbelievably helpful. The community here is beautiful. Cheers! 

[Andrew Postell]

@Mikai Stewart thanks for the post!  I also moved here from another state (New York) for real estate purposes.  I was only supposed to be here for 1 year...but now it's 12 years later!  This is a good place to live (although, I do miss the water).  Now, I can't tell if you are moving here to WORK FOR that private lender or not but I will say that investing here doesn't require you to live here.  So, if you have OTHER personal needs that are being satisfied by moving here - then go for it.  

Likewise, where you should ask your questions to might also depend on the question above.  Meaning, if you are going to work for that company...they need to be answering your questions.  If you just want general information on investing in multi-family properties there are several resources I can recommend.  

First, let's post this same question in the multi-family forum.  That way, other multi-family people can see it.

Next let's research Lifestyle's Unlimited.  They are probably the most well known place for multi-family investors to go and use their money.  Keep in mind, membership there is about $20k.  And that's pretty normal in the multi-family space - for an organization to teach you about this element of investing:  expect $20k for the fee.

For the free stuff, let's try some local real estate meetup groups. Meetup.com is a good resource for those but some of the groups will also post here on Bigger Pockets Marketplace too. Those groups are good for networking in person with other investors.  For meeting virtually, facebook might have some good local groups for you. Some of those facebook groups have thousands and thousands of members. The priority is consistent recommendations from active investors. Oh, eventbrite too. But post locally for this. That’s the best bet.