Investing Out of State

[Gonzalo Gonzalez]

I'm new to BP and new to investing. I do have a mortgage background and currently do hold my MLO license in CA. I live in Santa Barbara, CA and for someone that does not have a lot of capital, Santa Barbara can be a difficult place to invest especially for someone that is just trying to get started, or so I've been told. I've heard that investing in other counties or out of state might be a better strategy, but then again, that leaves many unknowns as well.

What advice would you give someone starting out in an inflated market?

[Ali Boone]

Welcome to BP! I just drove through SB on my way back from Big Sur a few weekends ago. SB is great, I haven't hung out there in a while but I used to some!

I'm in Venice Beach and it's the same thing here. A lot of capital required and since I really only do rental properties, even a lot of capital won't help me with those out here if I want returns. I've invested out of state for the last 3 years and it's worked out fine. The biggest piece of advice is- know the team you are working with, make sure they are good, and know how to run numbers so you know what to expect on a property! Well, that's for rental properties specifically but can apply to other avenues too. If you decide to stick with SB, just know how to run numbers and unfortunately flipping is probably your best bet (unfortunate in the since that it's high capital required to do it in SoCal).