Trying to get started in the San Francisco East Bay Area

[Ian Kemp]

I'm in the Pinole, CA area and trying to find my first deal. Is anyone familiar with this area and market and can suggest any marketing or deal strategies that I can start with here? I don't have any capital to start with so I need to be creative. I also want to meet and network with other investors in the area. Any thoughts and suggestions are much appreciated. Thanks, Ian

[Kevin Crawford]

Hi Ian,

I'm also in Pinole and my wife and I are also in the process of finding our first rental property.  I'm currently looking in Richmond, Vallejo, San Leandro, and Sacramento as options for my investing because I think we can only get a property for $500k or below.  If you haven't owned a house before you can get into a house or duplex-fourplex for 3.5-5% down.  You can House hack it.

  If your brand new to this world, my advise to use realtor, redfin, or other MLS site and a rental property calculator and start analyzing deals, all the ones you can in whatever area your interested in.  It will force you ask questions and answer all the questions you don't know to ask yet.  use craiglslist to find the rents.

   Listen to the podcast, set up keyword alerts in the forums, and read books.  You'll be surprised how much more you'll know in a matter of weeks or months.  

  Also there is a (how to flip a house) event that David green is hosting in Brentwood on sep 27th.  If you can go to that I'm sure you can meet people and ask questions.  If your interested, go above to networking, events, and type in your zip to find the info.  

I'm still learning as well Ian so I can tell you everything, but no matter the question you have I'm sure can find answers here.