Drummer from Los Angeles! Brand new investor interested in buy and hold Rental Income Properties

[Chris Collins]

Hey there,

 My name is Chris Collins, 33, from Los Angeles, CA.  Married with a 6 month old son.  I work in the TV industry as an editor, and also play drums in a few bands.  I make a pretty solid paycheck, but having a child and a wife who now stays home to be a mom, made me seriously re-evaluate where every dollar goes in our household.  

Over the past year I've been listening to a rental income podcast, reading some finance books, rich dad poor dad, etc. and together, my wife and I have decided to 'get into rental income real estate' as a plan for the long term to have passive income as we retire and not just rely on our savings.  Also to leave as a legacy to our son and other children if we have them.   *If only it were that easy.

The good: We have a good amount of money saved up to start using as down payments.  We have only 1 car payment. We rent our home now so we have very little 'debt.'

The bad: We live in LA, where home prices are sky high, and where tenants have all the power, and taxes are high.  So we want to invest 'elsewhere'.  But that is an extremely overwhelming notion, where to start?!

Also, we bought a condo in 2005, and short sold the condo in May 2012 (strategically, hired an attorney, from start to finish the process was 3 months, barely even missed any payments).  Which would be fine since the rule at the time was 'no loans for 2 years after a short sale' but now that has been switched to '4 years after a short sale' so we're taking the time to learn until we can get another loan I suppose.

So our goal is to figure out how/where to start investing, focus on an area outside of CA, and purchase our first rental income property.    We are definitely interested in duplex, triplex, and fourplex if possible, over single family homes.

Short term goal: learn the ins and outs more than we currently do. *I basically treat this as a 2nd job here reading, listening, learning. 

Mid term goal: Purchase our first property out of state and see how that goes

Long term goal: $20k of net income per month from rental properties.   Move to Hawaii and retire.

Bonus goal: $50k of net income per month from rental properties.  

Thanks in advance for everything I'll be learning on this site! Looking forward to contributing what I can as I learn myself.

x CHRIS COLLINS x

[Jay Hinrichs]

Welcome  do you happen to know a drummer named Kevin Millar down your way he is in some bands also?

do a lot of research and comparing when your thinking out of area.. Also check up and down the west coast you may find some markets that will appeal to you and your budget.

when LA based people go searching out of state that usually means Turn key... and this can be a great way to get started.

You want to get with a quality company from top to bottom however your success will be dictated long term by Property management and your choosing a property that is a pleasure for a property manager to manage and by that I mean.

1. nicely rehabbed or in good shape already so they are not getting a bunch of maintenance calls.

2. Better than average area that is desirable for better than average tenants.

3. absolutely do not buy in war zones or hoods.. these are not in any way appropriate for out of state investors, those are the play grounds of the local investors that run those properties as a business.

if you protect your self up front you will have a nice chance to have a happy experience.. you do not and then buying a rental out of state can be pretty frustrating and or costly.