Hello World! Semi-new investor here!

[Ced Chan]

Hi all! I've been a long time lurker and I'm a somewhat new investor being that I purchased a property in Oakland, CA, in 2009. I was only able to get private funding from my father's real estate network. I had worked tons of overtime at my federal security job in order to pay it off as there was quite some pressure from the investors to get back their capital. At the time, I spoke to a couple mortgage brokers who for one reason or another declined me for refinancing. So just like David Greene, I worked hard to pay it off in 2014. 

Since then, I hadn't looked back into REI as I had believed all the markets were too hot to get back into. Fast forward 4 years, my home appreciates by 400% and I began listening to all the amazing BP podcasts and began showing up to meetups. Locally, REI seems to favor those that can purchase properties with all cash. Which is the reason why I read David G's book on out of state investing.

I've met a few investors whom seem to be losing money on OOS investing due to a poor property manager or contractor. One individual told me that the PM they had charged them a "15% PM fee" on top of the labor and parts that was charged for a HVAC replacement. I do like the fact that David Greene stated in a podcast that he leverages the power of scale. So if a PM or contractor attempts to cheat him, he can instantly pull many properties from them and give it to a competitor. Not sure how that would work if an individual only owns 3-4 properties in that region.