20 Years Old, Ready to Invest

[Nathaniel K.]

Hello everyone my name is Nathaniel, a 20 year old, living in Los Angeles California. 

I feel as though I am nearly ready to begin my journey in Real Estate Investing, but of course have some challenges I must figure out. 

First thing first, ideally, I know most investors recommend investing locally when first starting out. Problem is however, locally for me, the simplest houses (3/2) start well over $525,000 (excluding a minuscule percentage in the very very bad neighborhoods). The best case scenario I can think of for investing locally is by using an FHA loan to purchase a minor fixer-upper duplex or trip-flex and take advantage of the house-hacking strategy. My second option is to completely ditch looking for an investment property in California and instead seek properties out-of-state. My plan then would be to find distressed properties with an ARV of up to $250k and either do a fix and flip or a BRRRR strategy with it financing most likely with a private/hard money lender. Of course, out of state projects come with its own set of challenges especially since I'm a new investor, but it seems to be the only way I can enter real estate investing without jeopardizing too much capital for someone just starting out and learning as they go (Regardless of how many books I have read I know I will make mistakes on my first deal, so I'm trying to be mindful of that).

So that is my little dilemma that I am trying to figure out to see which option would be more ideal and a smarter move for someone starting out like me. What do you guys think? I am looking forward to reading about your input on this topic. I am really excited to get started in my real estate investing journey and make friends here on The BiggerPockets Forums in the process!