New Member from SF Bay Area

[Edward Chan]

Hi everybody,

I've been lurking around BP forums for a little while now and thought it was finally time to make my first post. 

A little about me: I am a sales engineer working in Silicon Valley and I am in my mid-20s. My interest is mainly in accumulating rentals for cash flow. I see that my greatest barrier to entry is the high prices in my immediate area and a lack of contacts to turn to for mentorship and deals. I hope that my participation (mostly lurking for now) on this forum will help me build that network in California and my knowledge base as I accumulate a nest egg through my day job.

As far as tackling the high prices in my area, I have a great interest in starting with a single family home in Stockton (about 1.5 hours away), and moving onto multi-families once I get that first property under my belt. I have a vague idea of the criteria for my search. For example, I would try to target graduate students at UOP as my tenant base. Also, from discussing with friends and perusing the internet, it seems like Stockton is on an upswing. I ran into this article today:

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Stockton-travel...

For those who made it to the end of my post, I appreciate your time! I will continue my lurking and make a concerted effort to participate in the dialogue as much as possible. Looking forward to REI and everything it stands to offer!

Edward Chan

[James Watts]

Hi Edward,

I'm here in Silicon Valley and looking at the same challenges as you. Properties here are overpriced making it unwise to invest unless you have experience and a lot of money. The option I'm taking is to look at other cities to invest in. Memphis, Milwaukee, Michigan and many other places provide you properties that are affordable, excellent value and within a cheap plane flight as well. Be careful to not go into this too quickly- you've got the rest of your life to invest in properties. Even if you only do one a month you could get a lot  of properties before it's all over.