Newbie from Los Angeles, CA
Hello!
My name is Adrian. I'm a Los Angeles native, age 27 and I currently work in Santa Monica as a software developer. I've always been a big saver by habit, but these last few years I've spent a lot of time reading and learning about personal finance, which has led me to up my 401k contributions and invest most of my net worth into stock index funds tracking the market.
I subscribed to Audible earlier this year and came across Brandon Turner's "The book on rental property investing" audiobook a few months ago which has, in addition to getting a few laughs out of me, strongly convinced me that real estate belongs in my portfolio.
I'm an extremely cautious person by nature which is why I'm hesitant to jump into into real estate right away. My plan is to continue going through the literature, analyze deals for practice, and hopefully grow my network on the BiggerPockets forum over the next year before pulling the trigger on my first property.
Based on my research, I've found that properties in LA are comparatively expensive and don't seem to cash flow very well. That has left me with a conundrum: For a newbie's first project, do I pursue a local house-hacking project or do I look into investing remotely in cheaper, more investor friendly areas?
I've started socking away money every month to save up for my first property and ideally I'd like to spend ballpark $20k-$50k. I accept that I may make some valuation mistakes starting out, so this is an amount I feel comfortable risking for my first project.
I'm looking forward to the replies and hopefully you'll be seeing more of me around the forums from now on!
Cheers,
Adrian Teng