Aspiring Real Estate Investor from CA

[James Berry]

Hi everybody! My name is James and I live in San Luis Obispo, CA, the happiest town in America, according to Oprah and many other people. I am 26 and married my beautiful wife last June and am loving life right now. 

I have wanted to invest in real estate ever since I was 18 but was never motivated enough to really get after it until recently, when I got married and started to think about how I would provide for my family in the future and have the type of life that I envision for us. The path that I want to take is a Buy and Hold strategy. I live in a very tough market to get started out in and that doesn't cash flow as much as appreciate. I am looking into investing out of my market, either in state or out of state. I am an absolute beginner trying to absorb information via Biggerpockets, books and podcasts. Thank you all for the great articles and posts on this site, it will help jump start my REI career and I truly cannot thank you enough! Hope to make connections and have the opportunity to network with everyone!

James

[James Berry]

@Charlie FitzgeraldThank you! I plan on learning as much as possible! I am excited to have found a community online that is willing to help each other out so freely!

@Cornelius Charles I love Ventura County! I feel so blessed living on the Central Coast, it is a special place! I might just take you up on that offer!

@David Tipton They really are invaluable! I am currently going through The Smart Passive Income and Epic Real Estate Investing podcasts. I haven't gotten to the BiggerPockets Podcast but do plan to listen to it soon. 

I definitely am open to other forms of investing but just have not researched wholesaling and "fix and flip" as much as "buy and hold" yet. I will definitely be looking into the Santa Maria/Lompoc area and if the numbers work I would much prefer to invest there, than out of state. Just have a lot of hard work to put in before I can nail down my exact strategy.

On a side not I would love to be able to "house hack" a multifamily property for my first property! That would be ideal for me to start out!

@Antonio ColemanThanks for taking the time to read and comment on my post! I hope to network as well!

@Matthew PaulsIt is great seeing other locals active on this site! I have seen this meetup too, almost went to the last meeting but I ended up being out of town. Let me know if you ever want to meet up or if you plan on going to the meetup, I am planning to attend one soon. Would be great to bounce some ideas off of each other maybe.

Thank you all for the warm welcome to BiggerPockets! I hope to see you all in the forums! Happy Holidays!