Hello, I am from Los Angeles, lived overseas for 7 years and then moved home and was looking for a good deal for me to actually own my first property. I knew what I could afford and wasn't looking to invest but to actually just get a property. I was tired of all the booms and busts of the stock market and I wanted to have a property that would be there even it dropped it price. I wanted the certainty of owning something instead of a piece of paper.
I knew what areas I could afford and that were tolerable to buy. I found a couple gems of neighborhoods that surprised my agent, and we definitely looked at a lot of random properties. I eventually made an offer on a nice condo but did not get it. I then settled on making an offer on two different condos in a different city. One said no and the other said yes. One thing that was appealing to me was that there was a section 8 tenant in there and the rent was high enough to cover the mortgage and HOAs and then some. I kept thinking I couldn't lose because the numbers were so good. My mortgage would have been less what I could have got for rent. The complex and area wasn't the best, but I would be 7 miles from Manhattan Beach and share the same weather with those $3 million houses.
Well, I ended up getting a new job that took me to other side of the country and so I never actually moved into the place. The section 8 tenant has been in there the whole time and I have raised the rent slightly since taking over. This was a little over a year ago. I became an accidental landlord but there was a part of me that was more than happy to let that tenant keep paying off my condo for me.
I am a natural saver and after clearing out all my money for the downpayment a year ago I found myself with a good chunk of cash again. I started thinking about investment property and as I was doing research I found BP. It didn't take long to dive in, listening to the podcast like crazy, reading up about certain areas, and even calling a few guys from the site to pick their brains.
I recently found my first deal through the marketplace and one of the guys I had talked with on the phone prior (thanks Jorge). At the same time I found another duplex in the same neighborhood that had good numbers too and so I made an offer. I am in the process of getting my loan for the second place, and waiting to sign some papers with the first deal. If everything works out I will have 5 units in Ohio and my original unit in LA. These two new purchases will wipe me out, but my goal is to start saving again and hopefully get a couple more in another year.
I am bit addicted and see myself expanding my portfolio annually. The only thing slowing me down is my cash is gone. Hopefully once I prove myself and grow my network other options such as partnerships will start to come to fruition.
I am happy to have found BP and hope to be a part of this community to become one of those guys that newbies call just like I have done already myself with some of you.
