Starting Out - Early Thoughts and Concerns

[Daniel Westholm]

Hi BiggerPockets community!

I'm a 23-year-old looking to get started in Real Estate. As I'm sure the case is with the most of us getting started, there are a lot of questions and concerns spinning around in my head. I want to raise a few of them here and I greatly appreciate any answers, whether it would be from other newbies or from experienced investors. I also want to apologize for what will probably be a lengthy post, I tend to write a lot when I'm excited.

- My number one concern is my geographical area. I live in Los Angeles and don't feel comfortable going into this market due to the high prices. I feel like I should start out with smaller investments. That has gotten me looking at other markets (Tampa FL, Kansas City MO, Ogden UT, Peoria AZ, El Paso TX), as you can tell, I'm all over the place. I guess my first question is what to look for when narrowing down the markets and my main question is, how big of an issue is it to invest in a remote market? Is that something that wouldn't be recommended for a first time investor? For the record, I'm currently looking both at fix and flips and BRRRR's. Single-family homes is what I have on my mind (even though that's subject to change).

- I have about $40K that I would be ready to invest. A best case scenario I'm running in my head, is finding a good deal in a cheap market, make some renovations (About $25-35K for both buy and rehab) and then rent it out to create cash flow right away. Is that smart/reasonable as a start-up project? 

- Finding deals. I have come to understand that there are tons of ways of finding deals. What would be some recommended ones for a first-time remote investor? I have so far been scanning Zillow and Auction.com sporadically. Is MLS a good way to start? Is Google street view enough to get a good grasp of what a neighborhood is like when looking for deals remotely?

- How do I find the courage to actually get started with this? I'm highly motivated as a person but I'm also an analyst and an over thinker, which often stops me from getting started and testing new avenues.

- Lastly, I would also have some immigration/legal questions if anyone has expertise within that. Born and raised in Sweden, I'm not a citizen and would want to know how it works running an LLC on different visas from a legal standpoint. I would elaborate on that if someone feels like they could assist with that.

If you guys made it through this lengthy post, I do appreciate your time. I would greatly appreciate any answer, long or short. 

Thank you and enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

- Daniel

[Account Closed]

@Daniel Westholm

Hey man 23 is a great age to start. I bought my first house at 19 with a friend and rented out the other beds to pay the mortgage so nice job on wanting to get started early.

The best advice I could give to try and answer all your questions is to go work for a local investor.

Don’t ask them, hey can you be my mentor ? lol

Try to bring them value and help their team or process. Work for free and bring them value to help their business.

Once you bring them value and start to help their business then they will most likely want to reciprocate and help teach you.

Also, imagine being on a team or working with someone learning their systems and seeing it first hand??? You might pick up a few things here or there :)

Oh and I wouldn’t knock LA brother, there is money to be made in almost all areas. The difference is the strategy.

We have done a few deals in Sacramento and Riverside but we LOVE LA.

We have 3 deals going on right now in LA and are scaling to do more here locally.

I know that didn’t answer all your questions but in my opinion it’s the best answer to all of them.

Heck, if you want to come check out one of our properties hit me up. I have no problem showing you what we are doing or answering any questions. I have been helped a ton and love connecting with others.

Good luck brother and nice job on getting started early.

Daniel