West Coast BPers, please advise!

[Nancy L.]

At the end of March I'm going to a wedding in Tucson AZ, and am planning to turn it into a vacation by heading to California from there. Wondering where to go? What to check out? I often fantasize about moving there and escaping the cold NE winters... What are the RE markets like? Where are there good profit margins for flipping and/or rentals?

I'm planning to visit an aunt in Santa Monica, maybe a friend in LA... Other than that have no plans. I'd like to check out at least one more city. Other than scoping real estate, I'm interested in seeing some architecture, maybe doing some hiking or camping... What attractions/features can ppl recommend to get a sense of what's out there?? I hear there's an ocean, but other than that have no clue. Thanks!!!

[Arlen Chou]

@Nancy L. many people say the margins are tight, but that is all relative.  I just posted about some properties I purchased in 2013.  It was in response to a newbie from SF asking about Milwaukee.  Also there is a post from me a few months ago about a 1% deal with seller financing that I got in Oakland.

I just spoke to somebody from Philadelphia this past weekend and were comparing notes.  The raw numbers for investment were different, but the percentages seemed to track fairly closely between the two markets.  This is by no means any type of real analysis.  We were just talking about 2 specific deals, so there might be a much wider swing and it just happened to be that our deals came out to similar numbers.

As for finding success, there are guys doing the auction thing, the yellow letter thing, the bandit sign thing, all the strategies you would find in other places, people are using here.