Los Angeles Real Estate

[Chris Weike]

I am brand new on BP and just started to look into Real Estate. Since I live in Los Angeles, I thought it would be wise to buy something 'close to home'. At first I thought I should buy for myself, but since I am single, and have a super cheap rent right by the water, I decided to buy and rent the property out. Many articles talk about the ROI and 'good deals & bad deals', but realistically it seems to be impossible to find ANY property in Los Angeles, which would pay for itself by renting it out. I am looking at properties around 450K - 500K, which does not buy you much in this city. Down-payment can be 20%, which will result in a needed rental income of about $2500 to break even and to cover the mortgage, tax and insurance, but not including unoccupied time, repairs, etc. The houses in areas which could yield this amount are too expensive to buy and the ones which fit my purchase budget, wont be bringing in enough rent. While people on here write about $130.000 houses, which they rent out and make a living off of it, this doesn't seem possible in an expensive city like Los Angeles. I am sure there are hundreds of people like me on here, who experience the same.