New to real estate. Love to gain knowledge and meet new people!

[Nizar Basma]

Hi, BiggerPockets community! 

Im new to the website and have been listening to the podcasts for several weeks now. Even though I have family in the real estate industry its great to see a community like bigger pockets where people help each other out! 

My goals:

Im located in the silicon valley working finance for a tech company. As awesome as it is to work in a fast paced environment, i've always wanted the flexibility to do what i want whenever i want  (don't we all) without having to do the regular 9-5. I've always had the wish to be able to spontaneously pack up and head to the airport without having to worry about what my boss would say. Ideally im looking at price range under $200,000 to start off with.

My questions: 

• How did you start? Throughout the past couple years i've noticed first hand the prices of homes sky rocket in California. For those of you who live in a similar market, how did you get your investment career started? Did you look to other states to invest? 

• For those who invest out of state what attracted you to those areas and why? 

• Its becoming very clear that investing out of state is my best option (please prove me wrong!) but I am more worried about where i would set foot? Dallas, Austin and Houston have peaked my interest along with Atlanta  but finding the property manager as well as finding a property that will cashflow is whats causing me to hold back. 

I have so many questions but I'll leave it at that for now! I appreciate all the advice i can get and thanks for your time! 

Happy investing!

[Vince DeCrow]

@Nizar Basma

Hi Nizar,

Welcome! We share the same goal of starting to build wealth now to one day have the flexibility to live spontaneously. I do not live in California but have experience investing out of state. I would agree that there are some very good real estate investment opportunities for you that are outside of California and couldn't agree more with the markets that you mentioned. I have experience in all 4 of those markets in addition to Chicago, Dallas, Raleigh, and Denver.

I find these markets attractive for real estate investment due to their high population and wage growth, as well as their comparatively high-end demographics. Investing in markets that posses these characteristics helps to minimize potential impacts of market risk while also maximize potential for property value appreciation. With population growth comes demand for real estate, which then drives up real estate values, rental rates, and cash-flow. 

With this said, I think its very import to have a deep and detailed understanding of how a market functions and have strong real estate broker/manager relationships before investing in it. Feel free to reach out to me personally, I would be happy to discuss strategy and additional questions that you have. 

-Vince