Newbie - To Buy in LA or do long distance investing

[Janelle Sandoval]

Hello everyone,

I am a newbie that wants to buy my first property. I’ve done the research on my own for years now but I am still not very confident about buying property in LA. Do I buy a condo/single family home and live in the property w/ roommates until I can buy my next property? Take all the risks of finding good tenants in LA. 

Or do I rent in LA and look into long distance investing instead?

[Luis Olivier]

I would suggest investing out of state for most people in CA. However, house hacking could be a good strategy to start out with to lower your cost of housing (which in LA is huge). You have control over who rents from you and you can maximize your chances of getting good tenants by vetting properly. It is really up to you but if you are very adamant against house hacking then you'll probably want to look out of state.