All Forum Posts by: Ivan Vargas

You have a fair amount of capital, you should save that up in case you need it for personal expenses throughout your business journey. I would suggest start saving for your down payment and reserves for your property. 

"21 years old, $30,000...where to start" is a little vague. We don't know what your education is looking like so far. If you have no knowledge I would recommend starting there. If you know exactly what you want & why you want it, then I would recommend to start looking at your chosen markets to start analyzing properties until you're comfortable with the amount of capital you have to start.

Good Luck!!

Hey Francois!! Welcome to BP!!

Just like you I'm also starting to do my research to invest in real estate. 

I also started at 20 years old, I'm now 21 with my real estate license and looking at different markets to find properties. 

I would recommend by listening to the BP podcasts, they'll give you ideas of different routes you can take in real estate. You should also dissect BP forums and blogs to get more detailed information on your niche. You should also start by reading the Ultimate Beginners Guide that is offered here through BP. 

You have to come up with a plan on what you want to do and why you want to do it.If you don't have that, it'll be a long depressing road. Real estate is a long road and if you don't enjoy what you're doing you're not going to enjoy life. 

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me I'll be glad to help you with what I already know! 

Good luck!!

I definitely agree with @Clayton Mobley I just gave the general outlook on it, but yes there's a lot of little details on every single item for CAPEX items. I also suggest looking at the demographics and psychographics of your market area, once you have that down, you can begin to look at properties. What good does it do to buy a cash flowing property in a war zone? After you know where the good, the bad, and the ugly is or your area, then you can break down into neighborhoods to find properties in them.

I'm not sure if you did this or not correct me if I'm wrong. I'm just saying due to the little information you gave out. It seems to me that you just went online and found a property and just read the description and put the exact numbers on your calculations. Don't do this, it'll be a bad idea

Hey Paige!!! Welcome to BP!

I myself is also starting in real estate investing. I graduated from high school last year, with around 8 accpetance letters to a few state universities in California and a few community colleges in different parts of the country. 

I left high school with knowing what to do. I just wanted to take a break (due to not living with parents & having to work 1 or 2 jobs after school, so I was exhuasted). Since I took my break I got my real estate license and have been researching my market to get an idea of where I'm standing. 

I have heard a lot that school isn't necessary. After reviewing my goals and my plan of action, I saw what my future holds for me. I don't want to go to college, I see it as a waste of time. In 4 years, the people I went to high school with will be graduating college. Some will be unemployed for a while looking for a job and others will be just starting their career. The "real world" is nothing compared to what they explain in college. I also would never want to be in bad debt. I rather have good debt that other people pay me for. By the time everyone starts their career or finishes college, according to my plan I will have multiple multifamily properties generating passive income so I would no longer have to work and continue my goals of starting businesses, being with my family, and the ability to travel where I want anytime I want. 

Don't take my word for it though, you have to look at your situation. Where you're currently standing then create several plans of action with the positives and negatives of each. Then decide which would be best for you!

Hope this helped, Good Luck!!

P.S. if you have any questions, feel free to let me know. I'll be glad to help with what I can

@David Song Really? Can you tell me from your experience why it's a good idea?  I just want to wrap my head around the whole idea to get a clear vision on it. Do you happen to know anyone who is a broker who also invests in real estate? I would love to contact them to see if they could use any assistance with their business.

@Caleb Heimsoth That makes sense because so far the cash flow on the properties isn't looking too good, I would have to offer way less than what the seller is asking for to make the property cash flow. Even if Vallejo is the cheapest in the Bay Area, it's still quite expensive. There was an article saying that Amazon might come to the Vallejo area and if they do or don't come home prices and rents were to go up. But my niche is Buy & Hold for cash flow only. I'm not looking at appreciation. Either way I'm going to continue to keep an eye on my market while researching other markets

Hey Rochelle!! Welcome to BP, I'm also new to the real estate investing world. 

You can set up key words here on BP to get notified when investors are setting up meetings in your area. That's what I did but all the meetings are in the South Bay Area and I live in the North part of the Bay Area. I'm thinking about just starting my own meet up in my area, because I'm eager to get started. 

It makes sense that your looking for extra cash to pay off debt, I'm on the other end of the spectrum looking to Buy & Hold real estate for cash flow. You can also set up key words relating to wholesaling so you can find information on your topic. 

I just got my real estate license like 2 months ago and I've been studying books and dissecting BP for information this whole year. I'm looking to buy my first rental property next year. 

As you can see, I'm not yet a professional investor but I do know a thing or two about the real estate world. If you have any questions, feel free to message me, I'll be glad to help. Once again welcome to BP and good luck on your career!!!

I would suggest analyzing the deal through BPs' rental calculator to get the big picture on the financial numbers of the property. You don't want to get surprised when you didn't incorporate cap ex, vacancy, or property management into your expenses

@Nathan Gesner Thank you for your input! I'm not looking to make a career as an agent, I want to get to know the business so that in 2 years I can get my brokers license so I can employ people in the future. I have also read Set for Life already and have been building up my cushion already. But I'll continue at it so I would have less risk once I start.

@Caleb Heimsoth & @Thomas S. Out of state sounds like a lot of fun. Caleb, as in smart do you mean knowing the demographics and psychographics of the area? Or as in smart when you run the numbers on a property?  I know I can definitely get way more than what I would get here in Cali. Yeah I agree, I'm going to have to hustle but I like the competitiveness. 

Thomas, you're very correct. I still have the freedom and time to move to where I'd like to invest and research different areas and properties throughout the country. I'm just going to focus on building my nest egg before I start to make offers on properties

@Jo-Ann Lapin Thank you!!

Hey everyone!!

I'm kind of stuck inbetween a rock and a hard place... and was hoping I could get some advice..

So I currently live in Vallejo, Ca. and I'm originally from San Jose, Ca. & I'm a licensed real estate agent here in California. I am still not associated with a broker. I was just able to send out an availability at my job to work less hours (I work at T-Mobile as a sales rep in Fairfield) The reason for this is because I am going to call a few brokers who sent me cards through the mail and I'm going to see who would be the best fit for what I want to do. I'm going to spend more time analyzing deals and educating myself about my market. I'm also going to tour my local market more thoroughly, I was thinking of going to a few open houses to see what everyone is offering and to figure out what the rents are going for and what the security deposits are going for. 

My goals:

End of 2018 - be a proud owner of my own rental property (preferably fourplex due to getting an FHA loan and househacking & lack of capital)

- work as a real estate agent for a broker who owns rental properties (I would love to be able to work with someone who is knowledgeable in Buy & Hold strategies, if I'm going to use my time might as well use it doing something that the broker can get help on at the same time learn about the rental investing business

By end of 2020 - have 10 rental properties and scale out my business

I ultimately want to help manage an apartment complex of at least 50 units so in the future, I would be able to manage my own huge apartment complexes!! & throughout time eventually start more exciting businesses!

What I'm stuck on is that I've been looking online at properties in different parts of the country and California is just really expensive. I would love to move out of state to be able to meet new people and to be able to travel throughout the country. 

I have my real estate license in California, so it only makes sense to stay in California and get the experience here. I've lived in Vallejo for almost 5 years already. I know the good and the bad parts of town. I read online that Vallejo is the hottest market in the US right now due to unaffordable housing throughout the bay area and it's true, Vallejo is the cheapest in the Bay Area but Vallejo also has it's disadvantage of it's bad reputation due to gang violence. I personally love Vallejo and if I could I would stay here and help this city grow and prosper. 

My advantage of staying in Vallejo and investing here would be that I know the local area. I have just started running the numbers on a few properties here that I've found online, but I need to do way more so I can better understand my market. Another disadvantage would be that some properties are sort of old now so I'm assuming that there would need to be major repairs done before it could be rent ready.  I was looking through the citys' website and looking at all the building permits and it doesn't look like Vallejo has many homes being built (all are on Mare Island) unless if I'm looking at the information wrong. 

So my question to you all, based on my situation would it be best to stay in Vallejo, find a broker to work with, and start investing here? Or..

Should I look at cities out of state and do what I have in mind out there?

I have been trying to figure this out for a while but being out of high school for a year already, no one that I know are even thinking about real estate as a career so I'm not going to ask them for advice. 

I don't know if my timeline is a little to fast and I'm not expecting to complete my goals within that time, I just want a basic outline and build on it once I get started.