Aspiring investors with 200k+ income looking for guidance

[Savannah Walbert]

Hello! My fiancé and I will be beginning our real estate investment journey in 2024 and are looking for any suggestions or pointers as we make some of our initial decisions.

We live in Los Angeles, so it’s probably not surprising that we are leaning toward out-of-state investing. Combined we are making about 250-300k annually pre-tax. However, we aren’t W2 employees, all that income is from 1099 independent contractor work, which of course will limit what financing we can qualify for.

We have 100k+ saved in the bank, but don’t want to plow all of it into our first deal. Ideally we will find a (relatively) low priced market to be able to get into without putting up huge amounts of capital.

If it were possible to invest within driving distance we would love that, since we are a little nervous about dealing with any renovations or even just unexpected maintenance from out-of-state. However, I think the prices in California will cause us to invest out of state and we will just have to learn how to set up the right systems and processes to deal with issues as they come up.

Any pointers on decently priced markets that we could get into in 2024 for a solid first investment property would be much appreciated. We are open to single and multi family, although we’d prefer multi of course. We also aren’t set on doing long, medium, or short term, and would be open to advice about which way will probably be best for our given situation.

Thank you and look forward to starting our investment career!

[Nicholas L.]

@Savannah Walbert

i am just going to be blunt, this question comes up on BP over and over for folks in California and other high cost areas.  with prices and interest rates high right now, the market is very unforgiving for first time investors.

the answer to your question is - there are LOTS of decently priced markets that you could get into for a solid first investment.  but if you don't spend some time there setting up your team and getting to know the market, you won't be successful, and you could end up buying something that costs you money instead of makes you money.  it is just not possible to find a property on Zillow that looks nice, buy it, and expect things to go smoothly and for you to cash flow that $300 a month that Brandon Turner promised us back in 2016.

for a really thoughtful thread on this exact topic, see this:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/1159104-overl...

i'd also encourage you to house hack in CA.  yes, getting financing might be difficult, and finding a property might be difficult, but successfully investing in a "lower cost" market out of state is also difficult.  it's all difficult.  if it weren't difficult, everyone would do it and everyone would be successful.

hope this gives you some things to think about