New member from San Diego, CA

[Sopheak Phuong]

Hello Bigger Pockets community! 

My name is Sopheak Phuong and I'm from San Diego, CA. I've been blessed to live the majority of my life in San Diego. I'm a little biased but I think San Diego is America's finest city (minus the fact that we no longer have a professional football team but I digress). 

I found out about bigger pockets after a friend of mine sent me a link to a blog regarding tax loops while investing in real estate. After I found the site, I immediately signed up for a webinar (I think it was the BRRRR strategy). Then I began immersing myself in the podcast. This is truly a wonderful site with a ton of information. I've been lurking for months now and I figure it's time to introduce myself.

After catching the real estate bug, I've been a little obsessed with learning as much as possible. I've been watching videos on youtube, reading books (UBG, 7 years to seven figure wealth, Robert Kiyosaki books, etc), and listening to anything real estate related. I am even guilty of attending a "guru" seminar but I am proud to say that I didn't fall for their sales pitch to pay for a mentor. I couldn't justify paying that much for a mentor especially when I knew about bigger pockets. 

My goals are to start investing in small multifamily properties and eventually commercial real estate. My wife and I have considered house hacking but might be a little hard since we already own a condo in Escondido. With the high barrier to entry to invest in San Diego, we are considering investing out of state. I will still entertain the possibility to invest locally if i do seller financing or raise enough private money.  I want to attend local meetups if I can which might be a little hard with a newborn. Anyways I look forward to meeting everyone. Cheers! 

[Casey Murray]

@Sopheak Phuong welcome to BP! Real estate is a great bug to catch. Since the market is appreciating, this means rental rates are also increasing in San Diego so don't let the uptick in appreciation back you down. Not sure of your equity position in your condo but you could either refinance to use the equity as a down payment on another investment property or sell the condo to purchase an investment property. I'm from Escondido and know it's a more affordable market when starting out. Feel free to reach out with any questions. Best of luck.