Newbie to REI Needing Help...

[Matt Wahidi]

Hi All,

I've been in the waterpoofing business for over 12 years and have been reading up a lot lately about REI. I live in Bay Area (Northern California) and planning on starting my real estate investment portfolio. Can you guys give me some direction on how to get over my "fear" of just jumping into it. I don't know if I should buy out of state, local, rental, turnkey, rehab, etc

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[Michael Strachan]

I agree with @Frank Wong in his analysis of our local market. True cash flow is hard to come by around here and the majority of your gains will be made through appreciation. Also, education is everything! that said, if you want to have a good place to start, I would definitely recommend looking into "house hacking" if you're not already well read on the topic. It can be a great way to get that first property under your belt if you don't already own your primary residence because it allows you to greatly reduce, or in some cases even eliminate, your housing expense every month (although the latter can be hard to come by in this market) all while benefiting from the other wealth-generating benefits of real estate investing. Especially if you have that fear that you talked about, which tends to come from a lack of confidence due to lack of education and experience. House hacking is a great way to get your feet wet!