Hello! Newbie from the East Bay, California!

[Chris H.]

Hello everyone!! Sorry in advance for the wall of text. My name is Chris, and I am an aspiring Real Estate Broker and Investor. I am located in the Bay Area of California, and I am really excited to learn, network, and grow my business with everyone here. I am taking my exam on 11/17/2010, and from there I hope to follow my passion of investing. I am focusing on wholesaling initially to gain capital, as I grow my real estate clientele. From there, I hope to fix and flip on the side and purchase my own buy and hold rentals eventually. I would like to finally buy multimillion dollar properties to flip, and gain a portfolio of apartment complexes with live in managers to collect truly passive income as my final investment goal. I hope to have, within 10 years, $10,000/ month in passive income, and over $10 million in property worth. In 5 years, I hope to have $3-4 million, and in two years, I hope to have purchased around $1 million.

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to invest in real estate. In high school, I read "Rich Dad Poor Dad" (and many other Robert Kiyosaki books) which completely changed my focus and view in life. After graduating college, I went to work in a corporate environment. I worked there for 6 months, while taking classes to obtain my broker's license. I am now less than a month away from realizing that dream, and hope to start up my real estate business once I have passed the exam.

I am unsure if I wish to work primarily with residential buyers and sellers, focus on investing clientele, or work up to an apartment agent and work towards getting my CCIM. Right now, I have decided to start with residential real estate, and I look forward to learning to become the best agent possible. Does anyone have any experience in how to go about one of these possible paths?

My experience is mainly watching Television on DIY and rehab shows, countless upon countless hours of internet research, joining a real estate club, and several books such as Steve Berges "The Complete Guide to Buying and Selling Apartment Complexes" "How to Buy and Sell Apartment Buildings" by Stephen Vollucci. I have also read "What Every Real Estate Investor Needs To Know About Cash Flow... and 36 Other Key Financial Measures" as well as my course materials in Finance, Accounting, Property Management, Law, Practice, Economics, Principles, and Appraisal.

In other words, I have no real world experience. I have been a long time lurker here, but since I am so close to my dream I decided to sign-up so that I can hopefully give back to the community that has taught me so much. I am so excited on making the leap to investor.

I can't think of anything else, so please feel free to ask! Again, I look forward to learning and hopefully sharing what I learn with you all.

[Tom NA]

Hi Chris,

I see that there is a more detailed plan and a solid dose of reality behind your long-term goals which is great! I'm mostly just an arm-chair real-estate investor so I'm not as qualified as many to speak to how realistic the timing is on your goals but getting $600-$800k in equity within 5 years seems like a very large task with a lot of things going just right and perhaps a bit of luck along the way. I would look at how much you expect to gain from each deal and how many deals you can expect to perform within 12 months. If you need to build up $150k in equity per year, in addition to just paying your own living expenses in northern California, you need to be bringing in $200k/year from the start which sounds pretty lofty for even an experienced investor.

Regardless, I love your attitude, desire to learn, and passion for investing and have no doubt that you will have success along the way!

-Tom-