Frustrations With RE Investing

[Account Closed]

Hi everyone!

Some quick background info on me. I've been involved with REI since I was a child through my dad. He's a very successful real estate developer here in California and over the past 20 years, he's developed several dozen commercial and residential properties. I would visit all the sites with him when I was a child and saw all the properties go from an empty patches of land to fully operating businesses. I then later managed all his residential properties when I was in college.

I've saved for years and now that I'm in my late 20s (should have started much sooner), I'm ready to invest my own money and start my own business in RE. My dad is a great angel investor that I can used to fund my deals, and I've already learned a tremendous amount from him.

Problem is, I'm not seeing eye to eye with my dad. He's insisting that now is a horrible time to enter the market as prices are very high and that a recession is coming soon which will cause prices to drop, creating a great opportunity to buy. As such, I can't really convince him to fund any properties I'm finding. Furthermore, all his properties are in California (we live in LA) and he’s not keen on investing outside of CA.

I can't help but question my dad's strategy/advice. He acquired all his properties in the 90s and then again during the recession, so he's used to buying RE when prices are VERY low. He’s also an all-cash buyer, so his acquisitions were all done on a cash basis at times when cash really could knock off a tremendous amount from asking prices. He’s made many “low-ball” cash offers in the past and most have worked out; I don’t think it’s possible to do that anymore, at least here in California/LA.

Perhaps I’m wrong and I’m just being inpatient, I don’t want to wait anymore, I want to take action and I’m open to investing out of state, not just here in CA. 

My question is, do I listen to my dad and sit tight, or do I go against his advice and get into the RE market now?