Advice for a newbie!

[Ignacio Linares]

Hello everyone, I hope everyone is having a good start to a new year! As an aspiring real estate investor, I have soo many questions and soo much I feel I need to learn that it can get overwhelming at times. To start off, I listen to BP podcasts everyday(their info is GOLD), I have read and am reading some real estate books, I have been budgeting and saving my money, and practicing to get the right mindset and habits in place. I live in Southern California and have determined that my dollars wont get very far here, and so have made up my mind to look out of state. My goal is to buy and hold cash-flowing rental properties, starting out with SF homes and down the line MF homes. What are some tips/advice I can get to make sure I stay on  the right path and help me get better prepared for my real estate journey? I would greatly appreciate any input, thanks!

[Yuuj V.]

1. Find and talk to other OOS investors. 

2. Read tip #1

BP has tons of forum posts on this very topic as well as blog posts and I'm sure theres plenty of YouTube videos. 

I invest OOS, but my journey is not typical and I don't recommend it. (I own properties in 3 different states, sight unseen). 

I've run into surprises with rehab, city requirements, state requirements, and different issues all together. Sucks getting a water bill at the end of the year for $890 thats overdue and I can't charge the tenants the bill directly because of state/city laws. SURPRISE! 

You should/could consider turnkey investing, if investing OOS is your goal. You *could* entertain investing in the next state over or next city over, or whatever. But ultimately, you need a plan (Active/passive, property management/self management, etc), research the area's/cities, do your numbers, etc. Or ... just go through a turnkey provider. (Theres plenty of those here on BP)

Hope this was a little insightful.