All Forum Posts by: Charlie Huynh

Thanks Rick and F Foster. My intentions now are focused on getting started in the Sacramento market. I'm starting my due diligence on it to see if it's feasible giving my location two hours away (driving).

Once I hone down on my target market I will try and seek out advice/guidance from more experienced members of REI in my target area.

Excellent Matt, I'm definitely down to network/exchange ideas/etc. with you.

I'll try to set you up as a colleague so I can PM you my contact info.

Excellent Jeanine I would definitely check out what you got. Cash and financing is available to me.

I can't PM you without you being a colleague of mine though.

Thanks Rolly for the advice. I'll definitely let you know of any REI clubs that are worth regularly attending in the South Bay.

Sacramento does seem to be the ideal spot for me starting out. It appears that ARVs are almost as low as Stockton, but the economy is better in Sacramento (state gov jobs?). I am also familiar with the area/trip up there somewhat as I attended school about 15 miles west in Davis. The 2 hour away thing is does worry me (especially for a first time landlord) but I do have friends out there that could help me manage (simply providing a face). I think I'll start looking for deals here locally in the South Bay (not Saratoga though, I don't think property there cash flows well :D ) and in Sac for now (forgoing the Stockton/Tracy/Modesto area).

Thanks I will take a look for some foreclosures in the Bay Area as well.

@Ben Eventually my goal is end up with 20+ cash flow rental properties. I definitely could not manage all those myself but would have to create a team to do so (or get PM's involved). Starting out though I would want to manage my first few properties to learn and gain experience landlording/manging. I think the Sacramento area/Antioch might be the way to go, but like Solid said starting out managing myself staying local is probably ideal.

@SolidReturns Thanks for the advice. 1-2 hours one way is definitely far so I will try hard to find something workable in my home territory. Even if that means laxing my cap rate/COCR requirements just a bit and brushing up on my multi-language skills!

Hey everyone, I've decided to get into real estate investing and have started to do a ton of due diligence and research on the topic. I have gained a lot of information here on BP and wanted to thank all the contributors on this forum. I believe I am ready to take the plunge into REI with all I have learned from my studying.

I currently reside in the SF Bay Area, CA (San Jose to be exact) and thus it will be difficult (near impossible) to find REI properties that cash flow well (10%+ cap/25%+ COCR) in my home territory. Moving is currently not an option as I have a full time job here locally that I enjoy and plan on keeping for a while.

Before I start diving into a marketing plan looking for deals I want to pin down a target area. Thus my plan for my first REI property is to look for homes/*plexs somewhere in the Central Valley, about 1-2 hours driving distance (i.e. Tracy, Modesto, Stockton, Sacramento). I took a day trip to Tracy/Stockton/Lodi/Antioch/Pittsburg over the weekend and visited a bunch of homes I found on Zillow and stores/shopping centers in each town to get a feel for those areas and the people. They didn't seem too bad. Even the worse neighborhood in Stockton I didn't feel like my life was in danger (there was kids playing out, but it was the middle of the day and I just drove around the supposedly worse "hood" in Stockton called "Kentfield"). Anyone have any experience of REI in this region of CA? My concern is the economy is really bad in these parts; like 20%+ listed unemployment and high crime indices (source: city-data.com). Do you guys think it would be a good idea to start out with my first property 1-2 hours away? Or is even out of state viable for a first timer? I have decided to allocate a sizable chunk of cash starting out in REI, but want to minimize the cash risk starting out and will definitely be extremely patient in finding that "awesome" deal for my first investment.

Also does anyone have any recommendations for good REI clubs in the SF Bay Area (in particular the South Bay). I went to rei-club.com/creonline to search the directory and started going to the meetings of this club called "SJREI". Those meetings were really good, I started networking with a few folks already there and the speakers were really informative, but I want to see what else is out there before I actually join a club and fork over full dues.

Thanks again.