All Forum Posts by: Andrea Stewart

I currently live in Northern CA, and we paid off our mortgage a year ago. We've since saved up ~$30K in cash at this point and are interested in purchasing investment property. I'm very familiar with our city (Sacramento), but I've looked into the up and coming neighborhoods where I thought we could get good deals. Even in those areas, running all the calculations, it doesn't seem a good bet for buy and hold at the moment, which is what I'm interested in.

The conventional wisdom seems to be to buy nearby. I've been browsing other markets, and I think we could do better elsewhere as far as cash flow.

Would it be a disaster to have our first investment property be out-of-state? How far-flung is too far-flung? Is it advisable to at least fly out and have a look around a prospective city?

I have friends in various places across the states, so I could pick some of their brains, if necessary. I love both researching and real estate, and I think I could get a decent feel for a place using various resources. Is that quite enough, though?

Hi Jeremy!

I live in West Sacramento, in Southport, and like Brian, I don't think there's potential in buy and hold here. I'm just starting out, and I love the area, but after doing some calculations and watching the market, the prices are just too high and potential rental income too low. Buying and flipping definitely possible. The area around Linden is very nice, with older houses that can use some updating and fixing up. Houses do seem to sell very quickly. The area north of the deep water channel and south of the 80 is OK. I have a friend that has a house there and has few complaints. Again, an older neighborhood. Schools are lower rated. North of the freeway is hit and miss, but mostly miss. If you're in Vallejo, I'd recommend taking a drive around the neighborhoods in West Sacramento to get a better feel for them.

Hi all! I landed here after researching "investing in real estate," and the inevitable rabbit-hole eventually led to biggerpockets.com. I live in Northern CA with my husband, we've paid off our mortgage, and we recently saved up a decent down payment for another property.

I work for the State government by day, and am an author by night. My husband also works for the State, and runs a blog on sustainability in the suburbs (we grow and produce much of our own food on a small lot).

I'm interested mostly in buy and hold, and have just started browsing different markets. My end goal is to own multiple properties with decent cash flow and to ultimately see how early I can retire.

Nice to "meet" you!