Hello, my name is Michael and I am excited to get on the forum to start talking with people with real experience.  I am from the midwest originally but have been living in Los Angeles for the last 6 years in a loft down town in the arts district.  I recently had a financial event that allowed me purchase a duplex in Echo Park (near down town Los Angeles) and will be moving in after renovations hopefully in 2-3 months.  I spent a good 6 months researching and working with an agent to find this property but am still reasonably certain by most investor's standards it is far from being a great deal...  It is a top/bottom duplex with shared backyard and there is a bit of work to get it up to speed for renting that I am proceeding with now.  Luckily I have a friend who does design/build for restaurants to help at least guide me on the basic steps for the renovation so I am not flying entirely blind there.  

I do not know for certain what the full scope of my long range investing plans are but the tentative direction for this property are to hold, using the rental of one of the units to help me make the note on it, build equity and become familiar with the process of rentals to see if it is a fit for me in the longer term.  Assuming it's not one on going nightmare and I like the work the way I imagine I might, I have another financial event in 4 years that will leave me with a healthy chunk of of capital to make a bigger move.  I can foresee adding 2-3 properties between now and then (potentially more bringing in my design build friend as a partner) with the goal of moving more fully into this as a line of work with a focus on bringing hospitality to the rental industry.  When the event happens, scaling to the point of leaving the day job to managing a decent portfolio of buy hold rentals for consistent passive income.

My current line of work is in the coffee industry, managing and developing teams globally for a specialty coffee company and more or less living on the road as I help launch cafes from New York to Kyoto.  That on the road part will also work it's way into using my personal unit in the duplex as an Air BnB for extra cash flow as well (250 plus days a year of travel...)  

I'd love to meet up with any Angelenos to commiserate over how tragically expensive the market is and talk strategy.  As mentioned, I don't have much to offer in terms of real estate experience but I can certainly keep you in great coffee and humorous travel anecdotes for your time if that means anything.  It's good to be here and I look forward to joining in the conversation.

Best,

~Mp