Looking To Expand My Portfolio - All Advice Welcome!

[Brennan Harms]

I have been working in real estate for about five years now in Newport Beach, CA. I have worked on hundreds of deals and learned a ton at helping others acquire real estate and sell. I just purchased my first property and I am looking to expand. I have a fair amount saved for downpayment money to invest in some new properties but I am struggling to figure out where I should go and what specifically to look for.

I have identified a few things that I am looking to accomplish with these properties though:

1. Acquire title as an individual (and would prefer this);

2. Create some amount of passive income (or at least in excess of the base expenses for the properties);

3. Purchase properties as long term rental holds to build a portfolio and rented either as short term rentals (Airbnb's, etc) or annual rentals; and

4. Find properties either in emerging markets or at least stable and steadily rising appreciating markets.

If the properties are in CA I can do the transactions from A-Z myself with no problem (assuming I know where to look, which I currently do not). If they are outside CA (likely as the prices in CA are crazy) then which areas, markets, trends, etc. do people look for? What are indicators of emerging markets? How can you tell if a property would cash flow initially? I am a novice when it comes to performing a real estate investment analysis and I do not have any software, etc to run the numbers to determine if the detail is good.

Finally, what kind of properties best cash flow, appreciate the fastest, etc. Any advice, help, or connections would be greatly appreciated as I am a new member of the BiggerPockets community! FYI I am based out of Santa Monica, CA.