New member in the Bay Area (California)

[Robin Lin]

Hey folks!

I've been following this website for a while and have finally decided to introduce myself. My husband and I work in tech so a lot of our 'wealth' is in the stock market so we wanted to diversify into real estate. We own our home and began investing in real estate syndicates but while syndicates have a place in one's portfolio, we had very little control over the decision-making. We get monthly checks but as for when we'll ever see our principle again.... who knows?

So a friend in CRE suggested that we consider purchasing something ourselves. After a year of searching with many fits and starts and a really really painful purchase process, we bought a humble strip mall a few years ago. It took a little while to stabilize the property (it was bank owned) but it's pretty stable (fully leased) with expenses now under control so it's beginning to throw off cash. We've spent the past few years rebuilding our cash and now we're ready to hunt again! My elephant gun is ready, and I'll be starting to look again in the new year.

One thing I've learned is that CRE is a 'closed' community (unlike say residential); you have to be hooked up with the right people otherwise it's so easy to get jerked around and not succeed. Luckily, we have a really solid brokerage group behind us.

Any folks out there in the Bay Area also on the look out? Would love to meet others and swap war stories!

Thanks!

Robin