Los Angeles N00000000B

[Peter Aziz]

Hey there, BP! So, I'm not sure that I'm exactly a 'New Member'... but I haven't been very active in the forums. I'm hoping to change that as my investment strategy changes going forward and I'm looking forward to interact with all of you!

A little about me: My name is Peter and I live in Los Angeles County (Santa Clarita/Valencia if you're familiar with the region). I've been a commercial lender for close to 15 years now - we finance the working capital needs of investment grade publicly traded companies - so I guess you could say I'm kind of a numbers guy :)

My wife and I got started investing in real estate in 2011 where we bought our very first SFR. Little did we know, that SFR would go from being our primary residence to becoming our very first rental property 2 years later. We quickly realized how strong the rental market in our area was and put together a plan - buy new primary residence, obtain favorable owner-occupant financing, save up more money, buy another primary, turn departing residence into a rental...

Over the next few years, we saved as quickly as we could and acquired as many properties as we could. Over the 8 year time frame that we've been doing this, we were able to put together a portfolio of 5 SFR's in the Santa Clarita area that generate on average an 8% Cash on Cash return. The real returns though have come through equity, as our homes have appreciated significantly over the past few years. To give you a feel for what we're talking about, we've been able to turn apx. $475K of our capital into > $1M of equity.

In light of the significant appreciation that Los Angeles and So Cal in general have experienced, we are now considering buying out of state properties. The change in direction comes in light of the fact that we can no longer turn a cash profit in our area without putting more than a 20% downpayment (will take longer to acquire subsequent properties and will generate smaller returns given the price appreciation). We're looking to invest in areas where the Cash on Cash dynamics are favorable relative to Los Angeles and understand that we'll probably not enjoy the appreciation that we've experienced in So Cal and we're okay with that so long that we can generate consistent monthly income. The idea is to generate enough cash flow where we both can retire and we plan to do that through value add acquisitions (BRRR!).   

So, that's a little about me! I hope to get to know you all on a more intimate level and look forward to providing value to the BP community.

Cheers,

Peter A.