SoCal Buy and Hold first time investor

[Kailee Tedesco]

Hi all,

I'm just starting to dive into all the great info here! I would like to start looking for properties to buy and hold for cash flow (ideally) but am finding that goal is almost impossible to find. 

I live in the Southbay area and am looking to purchase my first investment property. A buy and hold property in the SoCal area interest me most since I will be close enough to self-manage. 

Any advice of markets I should look into specifically? Any experienced investors in the area with advice would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you!

KP

[Ali Boone]

Hey Kailee! Cody is correct- people don't buy in SoCal for cash flow. You just won't find it, unfortunately. Even if you do find cash flow somewhere (unlikely in the heart of SoCal...I'm talking more like Fresno or somewhere), it's not likely to be very high and it may not be enough to make up for the risks with all the tenant-friendly laws here. It's never been worth it to me, at least. I live in Venice and have always bough out-of-state. I started buying out-of-state years ago, as I was fairly convinced here was a no-go, but more recently I started looking back into SoCal because I was working with someone who wanted a property here. He was even willing to just break even or even accept a little negative cash flow, and we still couldn't find anything that made any sense. 

Soooo....

It's going to depend on your goals. One question to ask would be- is it worth being able to self-manage if it means having negative cash flow every month?