Hey everyone!!

I'm kind of stuck inbetween a rock and a hard place... and was hoping I could get some advice..

So I currently live in Vallejo, Ca. and I'm originally from San Jose, Ca. & I'm a licensed real estate agent here in California. I am still not associated with a broker. I was just able to send out an availability at my job to work less hours (I work at T-Mobile as a sales rep in Fairfield) The reason for this is because I am going to call a few brokers who sent me cards through the mail and I'm going to see who would be the best fit for what I want to do. I'm going to spend more time analyzing deals and educating myself about my market. I'm also going to tour my local market more thoroughly, I was thinking of going to a few open houses to see what everyone is offering and to figure out what the rents are going for and what the security deposits are going for. 

My goals:

End of 2018 - be a proud owner of my own rental property (preferably fourplex due to getting an FHA loan and househacking & lack of capital)

- work as a real estate agent for a broker who owns rental properties (I would love to be able to work with someone who is knowledgeable in Buy & Hold strategies, if I'm going to use my time might as well use it doing something that the broker can get help on at the same time learn about the rental investing business

By end of 2020 - have 10 rental properties and scale out my business

I ultimately want to help manage an apartment complex of at least 50 units so in the future, I would be able to manage my own huge apartment complexes!! & throughout time eventually start more exciting businesses!

What I'm stuck on is that I've been looking online at properties in different parts of the country and California is just really expensive. I would love to move out of state to be able to meet new people and to be able to travel throughout the country. 

I have my real estate license in California, so it only makes sense to stay in California and get the experience here. I've lived in Vallejo for almost 5 years already. I know the good and the bad parts of town. I read online that Vallejo is the hottest market in the US right now due to unaffordable housing throughout the bay area and it's true, Vallejo is the cheapest in the Bay Area but Vallejo also has it's disadvantage of it's bad reputation due to gang violence. I personally love Vallejo and if I could I would stay here and help this city grow and prosper. 

My advantage of staying in Vallejo and investing here would be that I know the local area. I have just started running the numbers on a few properties here that I've found online, but I need to do way more so I can better understand my market. Another disadvantage would be that some properties are sort of old now so I'm assuming that there would need to be major repairs done before it could be rent ready.  I was looking through the citys' website and looking at all the building permits and it doesn't look like Vallejo has many homes being built (all are on Mare Island) unless if I'm looking at the information wrong. 

So my question to you all, based on my situation would it be best to stay in Vallejo, find a broker to work with, and start investing here? Or..

Should I look at cities out of state and do what I have in mind out there?

I have been trying to figure this out for a while but being out of high school for a year already, no one that I know are even thinking about real estate as a career so I'm not going to ask them for advice. 

I don't know if my timeline is a little to fast and I'm not expecting to complete my goals within that time, I just want a basic outline and build on it once I get started.