@Aaron Mazzrillo
Aaron is totally right. Honestly, when I hear people say LA is too expensive, I generally don't weigh in because I'm too busy trying to do my own thing (now that I've seen the light) HA!! This is why Biggerpockets is so great! (SHOUT OUT TO BIGGER POCKEEEETS)!! HA!
Biggerpockets encourages me to share. My instinct is, this is a competitive life why should I step in to help someone who has already made up his or her own mind etc etc. Time is precious. But that's not a good mindset to have ALL the time. Right? :-)
Point is, I was in your position once before. In my case I was forced NOT to listen to the naysayers because I HAD to make a move away from renting to buying and buying an over priced SFR and footing the mortgage bill was a non starter for me. I like to do other things other than pay massive bills. Besides, my apartment was down the street from the office. World class grocery stores, famous chef's restaurants nearby etc. Why should I have given them up? We'll have you seen the Whole Foods store that is opening downtown? Have you been to some of the fantastic restaurants downtown LA? Insane. Forget your parents (so to speak) but downtown LA is not your older cousin's downtown any more. But that's a whole other topic.
Addressing your point of bad areas near USC. You're going to find iffy pockets everywhere. I've now lived in two of the top three cities in the US and it's the same in both places. I'm sure it's the same almost everywhere. You'll find patches of iffy spots but you have to mix that in with your goals, saute the ingredients and come out with a solution that will put YOU where you want to be in 5, 10, 20 years. You are looking to be in the fix and flip game so you have to think accordingly to what would probably work for you. Besides you won't be living there unless you change your mind after doing such a fantastic job fixing a duplex. I'm assuming making some cha ching when you sell your first flip is probably at the top of your list. Followed by "don't let the construction people swindle me". This might mean being able to get to your construction site quickly from Signal Hill. And on and on and on. You will make mistakes. All you can do is try to minimize them.
I moved from the west side to live 12 minutes away from USC in a duplex. I lived on the west side for years. I was 12 minutes from the Santa Monica pier and 18 minutes from Venice Beach. You know the drill, nice houses, parks, beautiful people, Santa Monica mountains, sweet rides to oogle at if that's your thing, Frank Gehry's offices right down the street and more and more! Heck some office buildings in my former neighborhood have more electric car charging stations than most cities have installed right now. The world is slowly moving towards electric cars. Thank you Tesla!
To put it bluntly, when I move out into another place, my mortgage will be covered plus a couple hundred bucks a month. Long story I won't get into it except to say that the duplex was rehabbed by a fix and flipper. Music to your ears I assume. Demand for rental units is very strong in LA. I've posted quite a few articles about this in the past. A fix and flippers can be a buy and hold person's best friend.
I could go on but I'll stop. All this is to say that keep and OPEN mind. At the end of the day it's about you and not what others are saying about this (or that) place is too expensive. You're an engineer. Engineers come up with creative solutions every day. I'm sure you had to do case studies in school. I know I did. However, the research for case studies take work. Fix and flipping (and RE investing in general) is no different. You'll have to drive around and do the due dliigence. Call up the USC security office. Talk to them like I did. They'll clue you in some. And then you use your smarts and start building a picture of the who, what, when, where, why of it all! It's doable. Heck, you might end up teaching US what it's all about when it's all said and done. :-)
Good luck, make it happen!!
