Can a SoCal newbie vent a little

[Monica George]

OK.  So I know I'm a newbie, but I need to vent a little.  

Uh-oh ... I can already see the eye rolls ...  so before you look away let me just say I'm not giving up, I'm just frustrated and looking for some advice from those that have been there.

I've done all the work and setup for starting my first flip project. Got financing in place with a hard-money lender, hooked up with a bunch of wholesalers, realtors, contractors, escrow and insurance. I check and analyse properties every evening after my current day-job and early morning before I go in. I get to an accurate ARV and max offer right away and I put in offers usually same day or next if I have to see it first. I go after the deals quickly and generally try to come in at 100% of the asking price or very close to it. I haven't ever put in offers lower than 90% of asking and often will offer more than asking if that's my best price for the deal. At this point I'm making about 1 offer every other day and I'm sure my realtor is ready start blocking my calls. (no JK - he's awesome)

But it's the southern California Market!  

So one after another, each property gets snatched up by someone else.  First you get the "best & highest" request which is pointless cause I already went in with my best offer.  Then either the seller goes with a higher offer than ours, or there were 25 other cash offers above asking  (and seriously I'm not over-exaggerating here, I just got that reply from a listing agent yesterday on an offer we put in for a fixer in Chino Hills).

WHAT THE HELL MAN !?!?!???!

I keep looking and making offers every day.  And there's plenty of great deals out there.  I can find them quickly but how is a newbie like me to compete with the ridiculously high cash offers being thrown down by more experienced investors?  

I desperately want to lock in a project before the end of 2017.   But I'm starting to run out of steam.  

And I really want to try to make a business out of real estate investing with the hopes that it can replace my current income.   But now I'm starting to doubt how realistic that is in the southern California market where it it THIS hard to purchase a good deal.

How do you keep going without getting discouraged?