San Antonio - Looking to Buy and Hold

[Ben Wilde]

I'm San Antonio born and raised living in California now. Looking to develop a network in San Antonio to help find deals.  I'm an architect by training with pretty robust construction experience.  First property was a home for myself in Austin that was literally a meth house before I got a hold of it.  I did the rehab myself and added a bathroom and second unit.  Second property was a duplex purchased from relatives at a discount (a gift).  Both properties cashflow, and I mange all four units from here in CA.  I want to expand this portfolio, but haven't really done a true investment deal yet, so looking to talk it through with more seasoned folks.    I live in CA, so my ability to perform a rehab myself is limited.  However, I still want to put my money to work in Texas real estate, as I plan to be back there in the next 2-3 years and would like to have my investments in one region so as to be able to manage them more efficiently.  From my perspective, my competitive advantage of being able to do rehabs myself has been removed with my move to California.  But I know that there is still a way to make money with real estate investing from out of state, so I guess I'm just looking for advice and stories of how others have done it, specifically in the SA metro area.  I'm also looking for local realtors and contractors that specialize in investment properties.  I still need to do a bit of research into how much cash I could pull out of a refinance of my first property, but I think that I would have somewhere in the range of $60,000 to $80,000 cash available for my next deal.  Can't wait to hear from y'all.