How to Specialize in Real Estate Investments

[Oneil Guntner]

I'm curious what others would do if they were in my shoes just starting their career in real estate. I'm 24 and I just graduated college and got my real estate license. I work for my parent's company doing brokerage and property management for both residential and commercial properties in Ventura County. I've been interested in investments probably since my Dad had me read rich dad poor dad sometime in middle school or high school. It was simple enough to get the main concepts in my head and I just started reading a lot of non-fiction after then. Since I have my license now I think I will start analyzing deals on the mls to get familiar with my local market and I will be shadowing my Mom on residential sales. I work around 40 hours doing property management and we mainly do single-family homes in Camarillo where our office is located and commercial around Ventura County. I'm going to sign up for my first CCIM course sometime in January. If you are an investor I want to know what you would do if you started in my shoes? I would like to consider all options that I may not even realize exists.  Since my local market is high I was thinking about starting to invest out of state for better cash flowing properties and maybe even eventually starting some syndication deals. My goal is to live off of my property management income and put any of my commissions for future sales towards investments in a separate fund. I do have a newborn baby and live with my future wife''s mom and her. We are very fortunate because we pay $800.00 for two bedrooms at the house and it is a win-win because we cover half of the mortgage which helps her out. Also I factor in some repairs that I do around the house just to help out so maybe an extra. Hopefully this wasn't to long but I did want some interesting dialogue, so I wanted to provide enough background information.