You never know who is watching this discussion and can provide extremely valuable feedback that a mentor or coach may provide for an arm and a leg!  

I would prefer to invest in a property located in one of Orange Counties beach cities areas rather a property in Riverside but that’s not to say there’s not a lot profitable deals in Riverside.

You could invest passively in real estate through a syndicator, get a partner and do a deal with them doing most of the leg work, buy real estate yourself and have someone else manage it or buy real estate and manage it yourself.I’m buying a 6 unit building tomorrow that will cash flow $1000 a month and my down payment is less than that including the rehab cost.

I stood on my own two feet since 18, paid my own way and bought the houses with 100% of my own money that I saved from a high income career I had built.Fast forward 7 years later, a slovenly, low income guy at my company just inherited enough money to buy a hand full of houses from his wife's family...It really is amazing how just mere luck can catapult some people...Mind you he is still nowhere near my net worth, but still, it stings a little to see someone just get a huge leg up by chance...

As others have mentioned, consider borrowing from your 401k plan instead.For those comparing the returns from passive investing in stocks and bonds with active investing in real estate, that is comparing apples to oranges. 

Either way, I think we're all wondering what you mean by comparing apples and oranges.

@Michael Swan  sounds like you have a plan... what most west coast folks just need to be cognizant of is mid west rentals are NOT west coast.. and one can get sucked into thinking a 10 cap is as easy to run as your 4 cap .. and many have broken their picks and come home with their tails between their legs.. one must be very careful picking MF in those markets... of course there are great properties but there are areas an properties that are simply almost impossible to make work and they are constantly changing hands once the owner figures out rents are near impossble to collect on a consisitant basis or that CAP EX murders them..

It’s good to see a fellow Orange County investor!

Joining your local investment club can yield lots of benefits and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

In my mind I'd totally be open with a duplex neighbor that I'm the owner, just trying to get a leg up on retirement, yada yada yada.