New from Fort Worth, TX moving to Southern California

New from Fort Worth, TX moving to Southern California

Menifee, CA · Member since 2017 · 4 posts · 3 votes

Hey Bigger Pockets! My name is Gabe.  Originally from Ft. Worth, TX, I am a 31 year old husband and father of two beautiful girls.  I currently live in Duluth, MN and have been for the past 2 years, but will be relocating to Southern California at the end of this year to start a new job.

Formerly, I served in the Marine Corps for 9 years as an Air Traffic Controller and had the privilege of living in both North Carolina and California as well visiting various locations all over the world.  After making the decision to separate, I continued working as a Controller for the Federal Aviation Administration which brought me to Duluth.  I never found much satisfaction in Air Traffic Control (although it has taken great care of me and my family), so I made a big decision almost 3 years ago to try and become a Los Angeles County Firefighter and do something that involved serving others in a greater capacity.  After some time and a lot of prayer, I was finally offered a job with the County!  With all that said, I am set to leave Duluth mid-November and will be in the Los Angeles County area soon after.

My goals are as such: Purchase a multifamily property in Southern California, occupy one unit with my family and rent the remaining out.  Assuming my wife and I find that we enjoy the experience and can manage the property successfully, we intend to make purchase on 17 occupied units in Texas owned by my Father-in-Law within the next 5-10 years.  Further down the road, I plan to purchase increasingly larger commercial properties as well as starting a couple of side businesses.

We are ultimately looking for financial freedom and to be able to pass on something big that could impact our family for generations to come.  We honestly believe that real estate is our chance.  I would love to continue working as a firefighter, but I don't want to have to solely rely on working for someone else to get the life that my family and I want.  I don't have any experience in real estate, save for purchasing and selling our first house, so I'll be asking a ton of questions, looking for resources, and expanding my knowledge as far as I can.

Thanks for your time and I look forward to meeting many of you!

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Rental Property Investor · Oakland, CA · Member since 2016 · 602 posts · 250 votes
9y

@Gabe Santa Cruz, Welcome to sunny California! You will love it out here and welcome to BP, please reach out if you have any questions! 

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  • Rental Property Investor · Oakland, CA · Member since 2016 · 602 posts · 250 votes
    9y

    @Gabe Santa Cruz, Welcome to sunny California! You will love it out here and welcome to BP, please reach out if you have any questions! 

  • Jo-Ann LapinPro Member
    Loan Officer · Tustin, CA · Member since 2015 · 3k+ posts · 713 votes
    9y

    Welcome to the community and California and thank you for your service to our dear country. Happy to assist and network.

  • Real Estate Agent · Newport Beach, CA · Member since 2017 · 259 posts · 293 votes
    9y

    Welcome to #leftcoastbestcoast 

  • Investor · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2017 · 27 posts · 10 votes
    9y

    Welcome back to SoCal I should say and thank you for your service!

    I'm assuming you already have an idea of how expensive the RE market in LA County is? 

    If you need to network with experts in the area, let me know. I work for the largest commercial real estate company in the world. Unfortunately, I'm not a broker :(

  • Real Estate Broker · Cleveland Dayton Cincinnati Toledo Columbus & Akron, OH · Member since 2013 · 31k+ posts · 20k+ votes
    9y

    Welcome to the site @Gabe Santa Cruz

  • Gilian GegawinPro Member
    Virtual Assistant · Scottsdale, AZ · Member since 2017 · 236 posts · 38 votes
    9y

    @Gabe Santa Cruz  Hey Gabe and welcome to Bigger Pockets! Bigger Pockets is a great place to network, learn about the real estate investing business, and get deals done correctly. Congrats and I wish you tons of success.

  • Real Estate Coach · Venice Beach, CA · Member since 2012 · 6k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    9y

    Another southerner in SoCal, yay! There aren't too many of us. I'm from Georgia. I'm also a pilot, so very cool on ATC, and my dad retired from the FAA just two years ago (got on with them after Eastern Airlines went out, where he was a pilot). 

    Welcome to Cali!

    My only advice is to really run the numbers on the properties you look at. Prices are so hefty here right now that you are likely going to be in negative cash flow numbers house-hacking, so if you eventually want to replace your job income with real estate income, buying here now may not lend itself towards that goal very well. If we were in a downed market and mega appreciation was imminent, that'd be one thing, but we really aren't. TX is a lot more likely to offer some cash flow. So just keep that in mind as you move along, but it sounds like you are ready and willing to learn a lot so you'll end up doing great!

    Yee haw :)

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