My name is Susan, a newbie real estate remote investor in CA

[Susan Tan]

I'm a software engineer in the Bay Area working in the software tech industry. I do not believe in ever getting a mortgage or taking out loans to buy property. I want to only buy cash-flow properties in all-cash for buy & hold in Ohio. In February 2017, I've moved from San Francisco to Oakland to save $295/month on rent so I can save up for buying real estate in the Midwest. My savings rate for post-tax is about 50% each month for the purpose of buying more real estate in all-cash. I live in Oakland, CA while researching how to invest in Ohio real estate as a remote investor. I've been contemplating forming my LLC as sole proprietor to continue to buy more properties in Ohio as a side business and hobby.

I made the mistake of buying my first property by selling $19k in stocks. The big downside is that I'm going to be taxed in long-term & short-term gains in the 2020 tax season. For future purchases, I plan to save up my paychecks directly to buy properties in Ohio and live as frugally as possible in the Bay Area, a very HCOL area while saving up thousands of dollars a year earmarked to buy properties. Why am I not investing in Bay Area real estate? A small 250-square feet studio starts at $500k+ at a class A neighborhood in Oakland and starts at $1million+ in San Francisco. I do not have pure $500K+ cash to buy Bay Area real estate outright.

 If you live in the Bay Area, own properties in the Midwest, and are in Downtown SF during the weekday, I'm happy to meet up for afternoon coffee/lunch to talk about real estate.

Do you think that buying properties using 100% cash from personal funds is a good term-term strategy with buy & hold in mind?