RE Investor from SF Bay Area CA learning Apartment Syndication

[Danny Kao]

Hi everyone. My name is Danny and I've been a software engineer for the past 18 years and currently residing in the South Bay CA area for the past 14 years. I started real estate investing in 2011 after having read lots of books and was lucky to run into a mentor who helped me find the confidence to identify and close on my first deal. I currently have 4 income producing rental properties (SFH) all in the East Bay area.

My goal has always to been to generate multiple streams of income outside of my W-2 job so that I can eventually have the option leave the W-2 dependency and focus on the things I'm passionate about 100% of the time.  I've been thinking about what to do next since cash flowing properties in the Bay Area typically require a large amount of equity (40% in my new purchases) and I cannot realistically keep going this route at the pace I want.  I remembered the game of monopoly that was mentioned in Rich Dad Poor Dad, but instead of upgrading my 4 houses to a hotel, I thought about apartments.  

I've just started reading books (Finished @Joe Fairless book on Apartment Syndication - really good!) and listening to podcast about apartment syndication and found BP as part of my research.  I've never participated in a business or invested in commercial real estate before so I was surprised at how different the process is compared to residential real estate.  For residential I can basically do all the research and get all the numbers myself online(or with any number of local RE agents), but in the commercial real estate world, access to the required data is not readily accessible and requires both real world experience and networking to pursue.  

I have an interest in learning both the GP and LP side of the process so I figured my best bet to start is to find a mentor and partners to gain that real world experience while I continue to learn all the terminology and skills required to evaluate markets and properties myself.  My goal now is to gain the experience and credibility necessary to give myself the confidence and knowledge to build my own team for the GP side of the equation as well as to help myself, my family and friends gain the knowledge on how to properly analyze and passively invest in these types of projects on the LP side in the future.

From what I've been scouring here in the BP forums over the past few days, I can see this is a community full of friendly and knowledgable people from all walks of life. If anyone is on this same path I'm currently on (or has already gone through the journey), please let me know, I'd love to connect! Also if anyone wants to ask me questions about what I've learned about SFH rentals I'm always happy to share and help in anyway I can. I look forward to connecting with everyone.