Brand new investor from bay area

[Vinod Sirimalle]

Hi all,

I am a fairly new real estate investor. I have been trying to get into real estate investing for a while, but never figured out how. One day I called up a very good friend of mine, who is a realtor in east bay. With his help, advice and guidance I was able to secure my first SFR. I am now working on a second one.

What got me to BP was the podcast. After listening to one podcast, I was thoroughly impressed by the panelists, learned a lot, more importantly it showed me how passionate this community is about learning and sharing. Had I known about this in 2012, I wouldn't have sold my condo in SF mission district in mid 2012 for $100K below my purchase price. I didn't know how to retain my SF condo and buy another one SFR (we needed a bigger space), so I sold that condo to use the equity towards the down payment of another house. One huge lesson learned replace "I won't be able do it" to "how can I do it?". That condo now rents close to $5K a month - huge cash flow. Very costly lesson, which I'll never forget.

At the moment my approach is to invest in a few properties with a buy-and-hold strategy. I would also like to partner with folks to invest locally or out-of-state.

Looking forward to connecting, participating and growing with the community.

[Jameson Adams]

Welcome! I too are new to the BP even though I have been listening for the past few years.

I love in Oakland for the most part, and it is a very hot market. The housing market is showing signs of slowing but still ok. January and December has always been the best months to buy!!! Consider looking into concord near the BART station, it's pretty cheap now and will one day be worth a lot more. Oakland is still a great buy given its major foodie territory. Auto Row in Oakland will be going through the roof with its 1800 new units being built in that area. Rockridge is the best kept secret in my opinion.

Consider duplexes... Just saying