How Should/Could my friend invest in RE?

[Harry Campbell]

So I get questions from people from time to time asking me about how they can invest in real estate? I live in CA and so do most of my friends that ask me about this and I'm not sure what to tell them.

I bought a condo in San Diego at the bottom of the market, no cost refi'd twice and now rent it out for $300/month cash on cash return. There's nothing like that available where my friends and I live now in SoCal - LA, OC, SD, SF, etc so should I tell them to look for SFH's or 2-4 unit properties in other states?

Personally, I'm looking at investment opportunities in other states but I know a lot of my friends who are doctors, lawyers, etc don't have the time/interest to do that. They are basically looking for someone to give their money to and make money off real estate?

Now I know these people exist but how do you find someone like that that's good at what they do and also trustworthy? I'm sure there are plenty of people willing to take 50-100k off your hands :)

I think most of my friends also want to invest in something relatively local since they aren't big time RE dealers or anything like that. They're probably more comfortable being able to drive by the property once in a while knowing that they own a piece of it even if they don't have to do any work for it.

So what would you tell someone like this?