New Member from the Bay Area

[Tristan Cottarel]

Hi everyone,

I'm 18 years old from the Bay Area. I've always had an entrepreneurial nature, and now as I begin to see more opportunities to delve into greater business ventures, I find myself drawn to real estate.

At this point I'm just trying to educate myself as much as possible. I've got a stack of 8 or 9 books (including a BiggerPockets one by J. Scott) on my desk about flipping houses, buying and holding, multifamily properties, and wholesaling, so I'm trying to sponge up as much information as possible and see what I feel like I could best see myself doing.

Currently reading a book called The Art of Wholesaling Properties by Aram Shah and Alex Virelles. I find it's riddled with grammatical and punctuation errors, the information in the chapters is not at all logically organized, and sometimes concepts (which are not common knowledge) are just casually thrown into a paragraph without further elaboration, which is confusing and hinders my understanding. Anyone read this book and have any opinions of their own? Somehow it has 30 5-star reviews on Amazon.

So far, based on what I've read, wholesaling is the last thing I could see myself doing. I've heard that it's best to start off wholesaling because little/no $ involved, but also that it's something to save for when you're more seasoned. Thoughts?

Also, with the Bay Area's massively inflated prices, I would picture myself working not-so-locally; Cities like Modesto, Stockton and Salinas seem more accessible. Does anyone have experience living in the Bay but starting off a little further out?

Excuse the long intro, happy to have found this resource, and I look forward to see what BP has to offer! Thanks.

[J. Martin]

@Tristan Cottarel,

Congrats on getting started in your RE investing career so early in life! I didn't really start learning about RE until I got my first job out of college, and finally quit that sh*t at 31yo this year! I'm sure you'll be out of the W2 even earlier.. (or maybe not even have to start it hehe ;)

Good you're reading up.

BIGGEST TIP

If I could have done one thing earlier in my investing career, it would have been to start networking here on Bigger Pockets AND in person at local meetups earlier. Sooo.. I recommend to check out @Johnson H.'s meetup in Milpitas, @Jeff Pollack's meetup in San Jose, and come to SF to visit sometime also at my meetup! A bunch of us are also meeting up in Oakland with a bunch of investors from the Podcasts next weekend if you can make it..

I don't wholesale, and as @Chris V. said, there are lot more people who like the idea of wholesaling, than are actually successful at it.

I started a little further out in the Bay Area, but not as far as Stockton or Modesto. I bought in Richmond, then in Oakland.. The tertiary areas like Stockton tend to be the most volatile in price, and similar to Richmond, tend to have price drops and foreclosures in every economic downturn. I bought a foreclosed 4plex in Richmond that had also been foreclosed on in 2 of the last 3 cycles. And if I sell it to someone in the next year if the market stays hot, it may just end up there again! So I'd be cautious about buying in tertiary areas late in the economic cycle.. Just my 2 cents.. @Account Closed's posts..