Need advice on starting up in Silicon Valley

[Nick Yon]

Hi, First of all, I have listened to most of your podcast and I want to say kudos to the both of you. It's really informative and fun while going through all that. A bit about myself, my company transferred me over from my home country to Silicon Valley a couple months back and I am currently renting an apartment which houses me and my family. I wanted to seek some advice as to getting my own house so that I can stop paying rent and eventually invest into rental properties here. I had a couple of properties in my home country rented out with pretty good cash flow every month. I want to be able to replicate that here in the US asap. I would appreciate if anyone can provide me with some guidelines as to where to start and etc judging that my credit score would be low and being in one of the most expensive place I am currently talking to some loan officers and doing my self study through the web Thank you