All Forum Posts by: Ben Sellers

Thank you all for your great advice! I definitely have a lot more to think about on how to get into real estate investing. I will be able to get into it a lot quicker and more confident thanks to all your help

Good to hear from someone in the earlier stages of investing too Joshua. 

Before now I thought I should be ignoring appreciation when I look for cashflow. But I think that is more of a general assumption, not really a San Diego mindset.

Thank you for your advice, I see myself potentially following a similar strategy to yours when I get my start.

Wow thank you for all this good information Dan. 

I hadn't even considered appreciating rents in this area as a strategy and taking on negative cashflow for a period of time. I believe that I can take this on for a period of time but I will definitely have to make sure to be careful about it. 

It crossed my mind to house hack with the 95% LTV but I hadn't run the numbers myself on any specific cases. Thank you for making that point of significant negative cashflow, I will definitely aim to save up for the 20-25% down payment. I may be able to get help from family members, but that isn't certain yet.

It is good to know that you have seen success in blue collar areas (like my area). I will continue to pursue options here with this new information. 

Thank you again for your help!

Hello BiggerPockets!

This is my first ever post here.. I have been holding off until I figured out the niche of real estate that I wanted to get into, but everything sounds so tempting and interesting. Then I realized, who better to advise me than BiggerPockets?

My baseline goal is to achieve a portfolio of $5k+ passive income within the next 5 years and then from there reassess where I am in my real estate investing to continue growing exponentially and retire before 40!

A little background on me. I am 23 years old, I just graduated from San Diego State University with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. Since I graduated in May, I have been working full time as an Aerospace Engineer, saving as much money as I can hoping to find my way into real estate investing. I live in Lakeside, California (east San Diego county). I listen to the BiggerPockets Podcasts, watch the webinars, analyze potential deals, now I am starting to read the books. Before I get stuck in this endless cycle of analysis, I figured its about time to reach out to the community and see what others are doing.

I know it is best to ask specific questions here, but really with this post I am trying to narrow down my focus based on what others are successful with in my area.

So to my fellow San Diego folk, particularly eastern San Diego folk, what works in this area? I am really open to any potential ideas about real estate investing here. I’ve been particularly interested in owning multi-family rental properties (maybe even house hacking), but is owning rental properties a good idea in San Diego?

I hear that San Diego is a tough area to find any real cashflow. I do find that easy to believe but I’d love to hear that cashflow is possible in the area. For my first real estate deal, the ideal situation would be to start as close to home as possible, i.e. Lakeside, Santee, Alpine, Poway, El Cajon, etc. But I am also interest in learning about long distance investing, but the idea makes me a little nervous, especially for my first deal. I’d like to be as hands on as possible for my first real estate deal because this is really the best way for me to learn.

Thank you for taking your time to read this, I look forward to hearing what anybody has to say!

Happy Holidays!