New here: learn real estate after buying property

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New here: learn real estate after buying property

Peter Garcia
New to Real Estate · Los Angeles · Member since 2026 · 6 posts · 2 votes

Hi everyone,

Sorry if I go on too long here. I live and work in Los Angeles. I have a rental in the North Long Beach area which I brought in 2011 and I had my mom living there until a few months ago. The cash flow was so good that I thought real estate was easy. You buy a property then rent it and make money, easy. LOL

So, I brought another property in Georgia. I thought I was so smart. My plan was make money on the rent and I would turn my trips to see my grandchild (I am only 41 years old, I had kids young) into a tax deduction. However, this property costing me every month and I really haven't seen the tax benefits. I also had a bad first tenant there.

I was ready to quit and cut my loss. However, I want to learn what I can before I give up. I hope to understand if I can recover, whether Georgia real estate is a good choice, and is Los Angeles even an options.

Thank you all in advance

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  • Jules Aton
    MD/DC · Member since 2024 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    1d

    Hi and welcome. Appreciate you sharing your experience and yup unfortunately negative RE experiences can slap hard. I went from decades of rehabs and LTR to STRs and it has been humbling for sure. 
    If you post the area in GA perhaps someone will weigh in. Unless the neighborhood is bad since you have family there it might make sense to improve the process and keep the property.

    0Reply
    • Peter Garcia
      OP
      New to Real Estate · Los Angeles · Member since 2026 · 6 posts · 2 votes
      10h

      Thank you Jules,

      I appreciate the advise, I try posting in GA area.

      0Reply
  • Divin KanyamaBusiness Member
    Accountant · Seattle, WA · Member since 2025 · 361 posts · 137 votes
    21h

    @Peter Garcia One difficult out-of-state rental does not necessarily mean Georgia is a bad market—or that the property cannot recover. Your Long Beach property benefited from a different purchase price and operating history, so comparing the two may set unrealistic expectations.

    I would review the Georgia property on its own: current rent versus market rent, management, vacancy, repairs, financing, insurance, taxes, and any near-term capital needs. Then compare a realistic 12-month hold plan with the net proceeds from selling. A better manager, tenant screening, or modest rent adjustment may help, but do not keep it solely because you hope the tax benefits will offset weak operations.

    Also, trips to visit family do not become deductible simply because you own a nearby rental. Only the properly documented business portion of qualifying travel may be deductible, and rental losses can be limited depending on your income and participation. Before quitting, have a local property manager assess the property and ask a tax professional to review the actual tax treatment. Los Angeles can still work, but higher prices and local regulations mean the deal must be evaluated very carefully.

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    • Peter Garcia
      OP
      New to Real Estate · Los Angeles · Member since 2026 · 6 posts · 2 votes
      9h

      Thank you Divin,

      Yes, I don't why I even thought all rentals be the same. To be fair to myself, I treated real estate investing more as a hobby that makes money before and I thought riskless compare to other investment. I understand so much more now and I working with a property manager. I will keep you advise in mind. I am not giving up yet.

      0Reply
  • Brad SeidBusiness Member
    Lender · Licensed in 28 States · Member since 2026 · 161 posts · 46 votes
    13h

    @Peter Garcia Sounds like you’ve been through a lot with your investment properties. Before giving up, it might be worth exploring your lending options to see if there’s a way to improve your cash flow. Feel free to reach out. I’d be happy to help you explore what might work best for your situation!

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    • Peter Garcia
      OP
      New to Real Estate · Los Angeles · Member since 2026 · 6 posts · 2 votes
      8h

      Thank you Brad,

      I appreciate the advise. I have a job so I don't rely on the cash flow and I am not losing very much. Maybe I can make up the losses with appreciation. Though, I know I should not rely on appreciation to make a good deal. Appreciation should just be a bonus, right.

      0Reply
  • Simon W.Business Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Lehigh Valley PA & New York City · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 667 votes
    10h

    Welcome, and you're not the first one to learn this way. Plenty of us did.

    On the trips, I'd be careful. If the main reason for the trip is seeing your grandchild, the travel generally isn't deductible just because you stop by the rental. It has to be mainly for the property, and you'd want a record of what you did there each day. Mixing the two is one of the things that gets questioned.

    For the Georgia place, I'd start by pulling twelve months of every dollar in and out, including the mortgage, taxes, insurance, management, and repairs. Once you see exactly where the money is going, it's a lot easier to decide whether to raise the rent, cut a cost, or sell. A lot of times the problem is one or two line items, not the whole deal.

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    • Peter Garcia
      OP
      New to Real Estate · Los Angeles · Member since 2026 · 6 posts · 2 votes
      3h

      Thank you Simon,

      Yes, it is a expensive lesson but I did not use any of my travel to Georgia as a tax deduction. I saw the Youtuber say they count everything they do as a tax deduct which made me think I could deduct more than I could.

      0Reply
  • Alex Rodgers
    Investor · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2023 · 10 posts · 15 votes
    9h

    I've had a property recently which has had stroke of issue after issue. A storm passed through and tore up some of my roof resulting in over 3k in damages. Then I had pests, then a broken washing machine. Sometimes, when it rains it pours. With your property in Georgia, you will have to ask yourself if you are just getting unlucky or you underestimated the cost it would take to maintain the property. If the property isn't sustainable don't be afraid to get rid of it. Every investor on their journey will make mistakes.

    Georgia itself though has plenty of good markets to invest in. I would suggest looking at Macon, Augusta, suburbs outside of Atlanta, and Savannah as all possible options.

    0Reply
    • Peter Garcia
      OP
      New to Real Estate · Los Angeles · Member since 2026 · 6 posts · 2 votes
      3h

      Thank you Alex,

      You cheered me up though I feel bad for you and that situation. My property is in Lithonia which is a suburb of Atlanta. Though, it is a 30 minute drive from Atlanta. I thought that was close enough to Atlanta but my LA brain may be warping my views.

      My tenant only costed me a month of rent and 1K water bill. I can't call myself unlucky because I mixed business and family which I knew was a bad idea at the time.

      0Reply
  • Arman AhmedPro Member
    Real Estate Agent · Columbus Cleveland Dayton, OH · Member since 2024 · 2k+ posts · 939 votes
    5h
    Quote from @Peter Garcia:

    Hi everyone,

    Sorry if I go on too long here. I live and work in Los Angeles. I have a rental in the North Long Beach area which I brought in 2011 and I had my mom living there until a few months ago. The cash flow was so good that I thought real estate was easy. You buy a property then rent it and make money, easy. LOL

    So, I brought another property in Georgia. I thought I was so smart. My plan was make money on the rent and I would turn my trips to see my grandchild (I am only 41 years old, I had kids young) into a tax deduction. However, this property costing me every month and I really haven't seen the tax benefits. I also had a bad first tenant there.

    I was ready to quit and cut my loss. However, I want to learn what I can before I give up. I hope to understand if I can recover, whether Georgia real estate is a good choice, and is Los Angeles even an options.

    Thank you all in advance

    Welcome to the community, Peter! What you're experiencing with that second deal is super common, as local SoCal appreciation lulls us into thinking long-distance landlord-ing is effortless until a bad tenant or unexpected vacancy drains monthly cash flow. Before throwing in the towel on out-of-state investing, consider auditing your management and underwriting metrics; a lot of investors who get burned in lower-yield pockets end up shifting focus toward established Midwest markets, where sub-$200k purchase prices and strong rent-to-price ratios give you way more cash flow buffer to handle property management fees and capital expenditures without dipping into your own pocket. Keep your head up, tighten your property management oversight on the Georgia door, and feel free to reach out.

    [email protected]614-418-6081
    0Reply
  • Mike PaolucciBusiness Member
    Realtor · Columbus Cleveland Dayton, OH · Member since 2022 · 499 posts · 553 votes
    4h
    Quote from @Peter Garcia:

    Hi everyone,

    Sorry if I go on too long here. I live and work in Los Angeles. I have a rental in the North Long Beach area which I brought in 2011 and I had my mom living there until a few months ago. The cash flow was so good that I thought real estate was easy. You buy a property then rent it and make money, easy. LOL

    So, I brought another property in Georgia. I thought I was so smart. My plan was make money on the rent and I would turn my trips to see my grandchild (I am only 41 years old, I had kids young) into a tax deduction. However, this property costing me every month and I really haven't seen the tax benefits. I also had a bad first tenant there.

    I was ready to quit and cut my loss. However, I want to learn what I can before I give up. I hope to understand if I can recover, whether Georgia real estate is a good choice, and is Los Angeles even an options.

    Thank you all in advance

    Tax benefits - your CPA should be able to help you depreciate a lot of the updates / repairs you've had to make with the tenants in place. If you don't have a CPA who specializes in Real Estate, then I'd recommend finding one who can help you do that. The benefits are there, just need to find the right CPA to help you do it. Depending on how you use the property, how many hours you put into it, you can qualify for a REP status and do a cost segregation on the property to accelerate your depreciation and really apply the tax benefits. Otherwise you'll be taking standard deduction over 27 years.

    As for the property and out of state investing, bad tenants are all part of the deal. I started off as an OOS investor back in 2021 while living in San Francisco and have had my fair share of tenants who've had to be evicted, trashed properties and so forth. Trick is to have the right systems / teams in place and do thourough tenant screening but even then there is no guarantee of perfect tenants. Once you find the right tenants, you'll see the benefits a lot more. Trick is to keep them in place as long as humanly possible.

    [email protected]614-892-9184
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