New to Real Estate Investing and don't know where to start

[Matt Howard - Percussion]

Hello, my name is Matt Howard and I have been watching/reading as much material online as I can to better prepare myself for getting involved with investing in real estate. I have a very good job that brings in $270,000/year gross and my wife brings in $104,000/year gross. I just bought a 2/1 house with my wife in Los Angeles for $1.2 and my plan is to add a bed and bath to make it a 3/2, refinance, and turn it into a rental property with a monthly of $6,800. My wife's family lives out in Louisville, KY and I have been checking out the Multi Family properties out there and other cities to see what the situation is like and there are a ton of affordable properties, but need to get in touch with a realtor out there to better know the areas to invest in/avoid. 

My head is spinning with all of the information I have been intaking and don't know where to begin. I feel like I need to find someone like a mentor help walk me through this process. Any advice for me? I would also love to hear people's paths towards financial freedom and how they got started. Sorry for all of the numbers, but I just wanted to give specifics. Thank you!

[Robert Reynolds]

Hi Matt, 

Wish we had met sooner, but I love what you are already doing. I did something similar in LA, and bought a 3/1 and added another bedroom and bathroom. I wish I did a cash out refi when rates were lower, but settled for a heloc to get equity out of my house and am currently building an adu to increase my properties value even more and help pay my mortgage with the future rents. You will see that appreciation out here is incredible, and my advice is to keep doing what you are doing every 2-3 years and hold onto the properties as you go. Before you know it you will have a portfolio of very expensive properties and you can do whatever you want with the equity and cashflow in the future. Obviously the cashflow will take a couple to a few years to get in LA, but the long term appreciation will more than likely trump any cashflow out of state. It's just one option, and I know you will hear a lot of people say look out of state for cash flow. Just wanted to share my opinion.