Relative Newbie Investor from Rohnert Park, CA

[Brad Semenoff]

Hello Bigger Pockets! 

My name is Brad Semenoff and I am a relative newbie when it comes to real estate investing. I say relative because I was lucky enough to keep our first townhouse as a rental unit when my wife and I bought our current home, so I've been a landlord for about 5 years now. I went through my first eviction last year and that's when I realized that I wanted to learn more about Real Estate Investing and being a landlord so that it wouldn’t happen again, which led me to Bigger Pockets. I've been reading BP books and attending the webinars to learn as much as I can since then, but it's time to put myself out there and start trying to take action!

I am a father of two young boys and husband of an amazing work-at-home mom. I work on a freelance basis in the film industry and am looking to use long term buy and hold investing as a way to supplement my main work income so that I can spend more time with my family and less time worrying about finding the next gig. My plan is to buy two to three SFH's a year for a few years to get my feet wet before eventually moving to small multi-family houses.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so investing locally is mostly out of the question. I’m looking to invest in out of state markets that are more within my financial reach. I’m hoping to learn more about which markets might be a good fit for long distance investing and what criteria I should look for. Any links to threads or blog posts along those lines would be very much appreciated!

Thanks for reading this and I look forward to chatting with you all!

[Joey Hurlocker]

Hi Brad, 

I am a newer out-of-state investor as well, based in SF. I would say that once you have determined your markets to explore, check out the location-specific forums on biggerpockets and just start reaching out to other investors. I try to get a few recommendations for agents, property managers, etc. from local investors before I even start looking in an area. Local advice is (often) the best advice! 

Also, make sure that you have clear goals with your investments before trying to find your market. Cash-Flow investing might land you in very different markets than a commercial investor may be looking. 

Best of luck, 

Joey