Newbie from San Diego, CA interested in out of state investments

[Shawn DiMartile]

Hello BP community! I’m finally making the move from simply lurking through the forums to being an active participant. My name is Shawn DiMartile. I’m 29 years old working as an air traffic controller in San Diego, CA at a place called Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control, or SocalTRACON. I actually control the approaches and departures for Orange County (John Wayne) Airport, Long Beach Airport, Fullerton Airport, Torrance Airport, and Los Alamitos all from down here in San Diego. 

My real estate experience is basically nill, other than my expience purchasing my own home. I heard about Bigger Pockets from an ex-roommate who was involved in real estate when we were discussing ways to invest years ago. It wasn’t until I received some pay raises and my income started to really grow that I got to thinking of investment opportunities again and something reminded me to throw on a podcast episode of BP while on a long drive. After finally giving that podcast a chance I’ve been hooked. Something about buying my first home this past January and learning so much from BP has aloud me to see the light in real estate. Over the past 3 months I’ve been a machine, listening to podcast episodes everyday, scouring the forums for posts to learn from, reading every guide I can get my hands on, and I’ve got several books in the mail that I can’t wait to read (Long Distance Real Estate Investing by David Greene & The Book on Estimating Rehad Costs by J Scott). 

My goal in real estate is to provide a second stream of income from cash flow via a buy and hold strategy with single family and multi-family rental properties. I don’t believe the market here in San Diego is necessarily ripe for this strategy, so I’ve turned my attention to where I grew up, Louisville, KY and the surrounding areas. By focusing on out of state investing in my hometown I’ll have a few things going my way. Namely, Properties in Kentucky are much cheaper, so I’ll be able to aquire homes much faster and stand a better chance at finding deals to cash flow. Additionally, I already have one of the most important members of my team located in Louisville, my Contractor! My father still lives in Louisville and has been a carpenter/all around handyman his entire life. He’s built and rebuilt the homes I grew up in, he installed doors and windows for Lowe’s for years, and he even wins first place ribbons at art festivals for his furniture builds. I’ve already got him and his roledex of contractors on board for rehad work on my future properties. He’s even guaranteed that he’ll undercut the lowest estimate for any work by 20%. So I’ve locked in an affordable QUALITY contractor to be a part of my team, and from everything I’ve learned on BP, people and your team are key in being successful. Another advantage to investing in Louisville is that I know the neighborhoods. I don’t necessarily know the real estate ins and outs of each neighborhood, but I know the good, bad, and hip neighborhoods, as well as the relative income levels of each. I still have some very important components to this team I have yet to meet,  but I plan to do my due diligence and maybe even meet someone here on BP. 

 I hope to learn as much as I can from BP and the BP community.  I’m still probably a year to a year and a half from being ready to pull the trigger on my first deal. I’ve already learned so much, and want to continue learning so that I can mitigate my risks and be in the best position possible when it comes time for my first deal. Feel free to shoot me any questions, criticisms, or tips! Thanks to everyone for their contributions and looking forward to engaging with you.