Starting my real estate journey from Los Angeles / Culver City!

[Lee Gardner]

Hi! I'm a homeowner living in Los Angeles/Culver City. My brother-in-law is doing well with his rental properties and he's really inspired me to get going with my own real estate endeavors. My wife and I are in the process of converting our garage into an ADU, which will be our first real rental/landlord experience. My main interest is buy-and-hold rentals in markets outside of LA (it's way too expensive in LA and I need to get started in a place that's not so pricey), and possibly house-flipping.

I'm originally from the state of Washington, I grew up in the Puget Sound region in Tacoma and went to school at the University of Washington in Seattle. I'm a video editor by day - working primarily in advertising & marketing, with some dabbling in TV promos and movie trailers. I read Brandon's book on rental property investing and that really got me thinking about how this can be a legitimate avenue for me and my family. Once I read that, I found the podcast, and I'm lucky to have stumbled onto the Bigger Pockets community. As one of the podcast guests said to do - I'm making it my obsession. I'm now reading David's BRRRR book, listening to the podcasts all the time, and getting started here online. Looking forward to being part of the community and getting this journey started!

[Oleg Enik]

@Lee Gardner Yeah that's a great plan for the ADU, it seems like you got it going!

From what I've heard from other experienced real estate investors and people on BP, cities in the Inland Empire like Lancaster, Palmdale, and Reseda have cheap properties and are ok for cash flow. As well, areas like Long Beach, San Pedro, and Torrance have good multifamily deals. 

The reality is that Los Angeles is not the best place for cash flow deals. It is very possible to find them but will take effort and the ability to identify and jump on deals quickly.

So I think it is a great idea to invest out of state, in the areas that you mentioned. If you are interested in investing out of state, I recommend reading David Greene's book "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing: How to Buy, Rehab and Manage Out-of-State Rental Properties".