All Forum Posts by: Tony Silva

A buddy of mine in college became a broker and we recently reconnected.

I asked him about real estate investing and told him I am looking strictly for bargains, etc.

His advice was "always buy your own place first before you start investing in rental property. It will get you familiar with the business".

I rent a very cheap place right now and am looking to save as much cash as possible for inivestment properties. I kind of like renting at this point since it is so cheap and allows me to relocate easily if possible (I do not have kids). Also, I live in california and it would take massive capital to get involved with my own house here as a first investment. I would rather not "get pregnant" with a house here and a huge loan...I can always buy a dream house once the investments pay out. At the same time, renting always puts money into someone else's pocket. Any thoughts for a first investment?

TimWieneke wrote:

Hey Tim, Does this mean:

You can obtain 15 properties at $10,000 each... each generating $500/month in rent?

This makes the idea of buying that investment SFH for $150,000 ridiculous. $7,500/mo far outweighs the monthly gross rent you can get on ANY $150,000 property in the world today.

It's worth the risk if you ask me... not only are you diversified into 15 properties (less risk)... you also have potential to gross at least 5K more per month over that middle-class 150K property.

I'm assuming these 10K properties take some skill to find though ? ...and my guess is that they would need some work before being rentable at 500/mo? Even so, you still end up with a wide margin in diversification and monthly gross :beer:

As always, thanks for sharing!

Thank you so much for the information. It is truly invaluable to have a resource like this forum... much more interactive than a book! haha

Well, I am interested in PM'ing both TimWieneke and 4rmgt. I tried but i have to be a "buddy" or something. Haha

I think both of you live in Chicago and invest 1-2 hours away?

Thank you much for the information.

It seems tough to make a career out of REI out here. I need to either invest remotely or move to a more lucrative area.

I want a large portfolio of rental properties at the end of the day... and California is making it real tough to achieve that goal. I just really love Cali.. :cry:

Looking at Properties on the California coast where prices for single-family homes rarely head below 350K and even condos start above 250K...it seems unwise to begin a career in real estate investing here.

Occasionally though, I will see a 1-bedroom condo in Los Angeles or San Fran in the low-100K range or so...or maybe a 2 or 3 bedroom condo for 150K. It seems like a good deal for coastal standards...

Obviously a number of these foreclosures may have their share of "catches" (location, distressed, etc..) and would need due investigation, but all things considered, would you conosider it a reasonable approach to begin a real estate investing career on properties like these if I live on the west coast?

(I would prefer to start local before trying to purchase RE remotely)

Thanks!

Hello,

I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Tony and I live in San Diego and am in my mid twenties. I am currently work with computers but I am considering dabbling in real estate investing (with the plan of eventually doing it full time).

I live with my fiance and we make a combined 160K/year from our day jobs. We have about 30K in low-interest (2%) student loan debt and 5k or so in credit card debt. We both have credit scores over 800. We live comfortably... currently rent a big four bedroom house. We take a couple vacations a year and generally do the things we want to do without regards to money.

I am considering Real Estate for the long haul (and started reading books), but am hesitant to get started for a couple reasons:

-The prices of homes in San Diego deem it nearly impossible to have positive cashflow from rent anytime soon!

-The prices of homes in San Diego deem it nearly impossible to own more than one decent property at a time (since I would be financing 400K in the very first property)

-The prices of homes in general seem to be heading down at the moment

My vision is to own 10-20 properties down the road. Maybe flip a couple to get an initial nest egg and then go strictly for long-term cash flow properties. I have been considering investing in other cities... but have read horror stories about remote management.

Any suggestions for my situation? I am more than willing to learn what I need to.

I have many more questions and am so glad I found this forum. Thank you in advance! Tony