Getting "Started" as an Investor, from Southern California

[Bryan Castro]

Hi Bigger Pockets!

My name is Bryan Castro and I am based in Southern California. I found out about the forum over two years ago but never really used it until recently, I have been listening to their podcasts and have started to read some guides offered on the forum.

August 2013, after graduating high school - I got introduced to real estate investing through my dad who took me to a AM house flipping seminar, telling me it could be how I raise capital for my clothing line at the time. I basically got hooked and the next day there was a local three day event, which we ended up paying for and attending. I realized that real estate is a method to build wealth and I was very drawn to it. So with my dad, I was looking at properties and inspecting them, going to REI meet ups, and build many lead generation websites. I was acting as a local and virtual bird dog and I accidentally became a virtual wholesaler through my network which lead me to develop an educational program on bird dogging in real estate. In 2014, I enrolled in a local community college to complete courses needed to take the CA Real Estate Exam. I decided to take a break over the summer, but during that time I was training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (one of my long time passions) more often, and my gym asked me to teach the kids program. From September 2014 to present I have been teaching mainly kids mixed martial arts and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, as well as training and competing in BJJ. In the recent months, I have realized I haven't been putting in enough time to achieve my real estate goals and in December 2015 passed the CA Real estate License Exam. During that time I was educating myself on other investment methods in real estate and added rentals and mortgage notes to my strategy and event flew to Chicago for a ES-NS seminar on the mortgage notes. I also opened up a Roth IRA with Quest IRA during the event. I will be attending the upcoming PaperSource Seminar in Las Vegas, bring with me close family who have always been interested in investing their money but aren't emotionally ready.

*I censored the names from my mentors to avoid any advertising.

My business would operate in three units for different activities: Rehabs, Buy & Holds, Mortgage Notes. Currently my main goal is to invest in nonperforming 1st in some select midwest states and get them re-performing.

Right now, I have been looking into setting up the proper business entity needed to operate ( Im thinking LLC taxed as an S-Corp?) and how to properly go about raising capital - Let me know if you have any advice, please drop me a comment or PM me!

I have always been a lifestyle entrepreneur from the start and when I was 15 my dad took me to a seminar called Ex___s Academy and since that day I've been trying to engineer a lifestyle that involves doing the things I love and making a living from it. I do understand what it takes to be successful and what I need to do in my own situation to make it happen. I literally want to spend time with my family, travel the world, train jiu jitsu all day, and eat good food.

After 3pm, I'm usually heading to the gym to teach and then later train. I'm trying to wake up before 8 AM so I can spend at least 1030-2 on real estate, at least for now as I try to clear my schedule and switch to group private lessons.

Tips from my experience:

-Knowing/understanding your goals and the proper education needed is very important to creating your road map.

-Don't wait to take action, especially if you have already started to build momentum.

-Surround yourself with other investors so real estate becomes a daily habit and lifestyle.

Of course you can comment on the above, but if you can also reply to this question: If you were to start at my age with the knowledge you know now, what would you do differently?

Thanks Bigger Pockets People!

Best,

Bryan Castro