New Member from Southern California

[Jim Munoz]

Hi, my name's Jim. I live in Ventura County, California (about an hour drive north of LA). I'm a complete newbie to the real estate game and currently entrenched in the education phase of investing. 

I've been a renter for over 13 years now and after my latest rent hike I decided its time for a change. So my first priority is to get into my own primary residence. My plan is to continue to save for a down payment and in approx. ten months purchase my first home. My hope is to find a single-family (preferably a 3bd-2bth) in my hometown that I can slowly rehab and eventually, have the option to, rent out in the future. Unfortunately, as most of you know, home prices are outrageous here and finding a suitable home that I can then turn into a cash flowing buy/hold seems impossible, but I'm looking. 

Step two in the plan would be to refinance my residence and purchase my first property as an investor. More than likely, this property would be an out-of-state purchase, perhaps a multi-family, depending on my options, and implementing a buy/hold strategy. 

I've read countless posts and blog articles on BP regarding this topic but any advice you could impart for a beginner starting out would be great. In particular, I'm curious about what to look for as a first-time home buyer with an eye on investing (specifically if you live in California) and out-of-state investing advice including how to research and what to look for when prospecting a state/county/neighborhood you know nothing about?   

That said, I also welcome any general information, guidance and/or advice that you think would be helpful to know when starting out. I have about ten months or so to get ready so anything you think I should know now, before I take the plunge, would be greatly appreciated. 

Look forward to hearing from you. Thx