Newbie investing in Los Angeles, help finding cashflow

[Alecia Williams]

I’m just starting my investment career, I live in Los Angles, my goal is to house hack in a duplex, I’m having trouble finding anything for my budget (400k) that’s doesn’t need a lot of work or in a bad neighborhood. Has anyone been successful in the LA market ?

[Alejandro Garcia]

@Alecia Williams  Yea, well I started seriously looking for a property Jan 2020 and by that I mean that is when I finally decided to talk to a bank to get preapproved for a loan. Prior to that I had months looking at property all around the Los Angeles area. I knew I wanted to house hack, preferably a multi family, and something not to far from my work.

Once I got my preapproval from BoA for an amount of $450k I found an agent who suggested I look at single families since $450k would not be enough for a decent multi in LA. He didn't seem to have much experience and once I brought up the idea of using the proforma rental income to increase the loan amount he gave off the impression that he didn't want to go through that trouble and preferred dealing with single families.

At the moment I was convinced but I knew I wanted to do a multi family, at least a duplex, so I went to see a duplex during a open house I randomly found (at this point I was going to open houses in areas I was looking at to get an idea of prices, common renovations, and just to meat agents). Luckily there I met the agent who would help me find a duplex.

I explained to her what I was looking for and overtime that became more specific as I learned more on BiggerPockets. Eventually she found me a great VACANT duplex in early April. During this time the pandemic scare seemed create hesitation but lucky for me because I was able to put it under contract the day after it was listed. It was a bumpy process but because of how great my agent was we were able to get through the process and actually just closed on it for 570k. 

More details about the house: Front Unit is 3 beds 2 baths, back unit is 1 bed 1 bath with an extra room that needs a closet to be considered a bedroom so I will be adding that in to make it a 2 bed 2 bath. 

Hope this helps and if you would like to reach out to the agent I use please feel free to send me a PM.