Owning property in Los Angeles

[Cristian Correa]

Hi guys, so I currently live in Los Angeles, an expensive city and well.... I grew up here and have wanted to own real estate for a while. My parents own real estate here, and for them it brings them approximately 5,000 dollars in cash flow per month. I am 29 and have raised around 30k dollars in money that I want to invest in real estate. I am finding though that owning real estate in Los Angeles is not so profitable. I am looking at my FIRST DUPLEX (2bd 1 bth per unit) priced at 550,000! Jesus! Monthly costs including everything is 3900. So in order for me to be profitable I would need to charge around 2,100 per unit in monthly rent. This would mean that my monthly cash flow for this property would be 400 dollars. I want to rinse and repeat within a year and purchase a second duplex. then again for the 3rd year. 

Is owning here a pipe dream?

How do other people do it?

AM I MISSING SOMETHING?

I want to keep an eye on all of my properties but it seems that owning property here is like owning something in San Francisco