New investor from San Diego

[Anand S.]

Hello everyone,

I am Anand and live in San Diego. I have a background in engineering and MBA. My day job is to manage the engineering operations at a large technology company. I am really passionate about real estate and have spent a decent part of past 7-8 years reading here and there, than doing anything about it. I made the first jump this year, when I rented out my primary home in a good school district and moved up into a bigger place in the same zipcode. It has a decent cash-flow, but far less compared to the equity locked in that home when seen from mid-west or Florida kind of locations

I am still trying to refine my strategy as I get ready to make my next investment move by end of this year and hope to nail it through interaction with experts in this forum. At this point, I am prepared to invest $30-40k for a downpayment and torn between and still learning about 3 options - rehab/flip in San Diego, turnkey cashflow investment in Chicago/Indiana, Out of state rehab/flip.

This is really an incredible forum looking at the "ready to share knowledge" culture which further emphasizes in my mind that real estate is really not a zero sum game...

I look forward to connecting with folks here...

[Thomas Franklin]

@Anand S. Since you are interested in fix and flips, I propose the following action plan. The first step would find an Investor Friendly Realtor assuming you do not have access, to the MLS. I would suggest that you interview several Realtors and ask them the following questions, to ascertain if they are truly Investor Friendly, or if they are throwing you a sales pitch.

1. How many investors do you currently work with and how many investors have you worked with, in the past?

2. How many transactions have you closed, with investors?

3. Do you currently own any Investment Properties? If so, what type do you own?

4. Are you a member of any REIAs?

The next step would be to work with the Realtor and determine the hot markets, in your County, with the greatest number of sales over the last 90 to 120 days. Personally, I would prefer 90 days because markets are always changing. This list would contain the zip code and corresponding name of the municipality, and a breakdown of the number of SFRs. This will be your Farming Area. From this data, you can utilize a website bestplaces.net that will give you a breakdown of the percentage of homes that sold, in various price ranges, for a given zip code. You can identify the two highest retail price ranges, in greatest demand, per zip code where you can list the rehabbed property.

You can use the Realtor to help you find deals and also use Wholesalers. If you acquire a property, from a Wholesaler, once the property is rehabbed and ready for the Retail Market, allow the Realtor that provided you the zip codes, to list the property for sale. This creates a WIN-WIN Situation and gives the Realtor incentive, to work harder on your behalf.