Aspiring Investor In San Diego

[Ben Sellers]

Hello BiggerPockets!

This is my first ever post here.. I have been holding off until I figured out the niche of real estate that I wanted to get into, but everything sounds so tempting and interesting. Then I realized, who better to advise me than BiggerPockets?

My baseline goal is to achieve a portfolio of $5k+ passive income within the next 5 years and then from there reassess where I am in my real estate investing to continue growing exponentially and retire before 40!

A little background on me. I am 23 years old, I just graduated from San Diego State University with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. Since I graduated in May, I have been working full time as an Aerospace Engineer, saving as much money as I can hoping to find my way into real estate investing. I live in Lakeside, California (east San Diego county). I listen to the BiggerPockets Podcasts, watch the webinars, analyze potential deals, now I am starting to read the books. Before I get stuck in this endless cycle of analysis, I figured its about time to reach out to the community and see what others are doing.

I know it is best to ask specific questions here, but really with this post I am trying to narrow down my focus based on what others are successful with in my area.

So to my fellow San Diego folk, particularly eastern San Diego folk, what works in this area? I am really open to any potential ideas about real estate investing here. I’ve been particularly interested in owning multi-family rental properties (maybe even house hacking), but is owning rental properties a good idea in San Diego?

I hear that San Diego is a tough area to find any real cashflow. I do find that easy to believe but I’d love to hear that cashflow is possible in the area. For my first real estate deal, the ideal situation would be to start as close to home as possible, i.e. Lakeside, Santee, Alpine, Poway, El Cajon, etc. But I am also interest in learning about long distance investing, but the idea makes me a little nervous, especially for my first deal. I’d like to be as hands on as possible for my first real estate deal because this is really the best way for me to learn.

Thank you for taking your time to read this, I look forward to hearing what anybody has to say!

Happy Holidays!