All Forum Posts by: O'brian R.

Loving this thread! So many great tips here to take away. My wife and I both work full-time so it's inspirational to see many people have successfully done REI.

@Dawn Anastasi Is there a good rule of thumb for how much reserves you should have on hand? I'm just starting out and you're right, it is very tempting to just jump right in.

Welcome Rico! My wife's parents actually live in Stockton and bought their house well before the nosedive. Their home value now is roughly the same as when they purchased...nothing quite like 40% so great timing on your end!

@Christopher Cafferty

Thanks for sharing. I haven't had any personal experience with HOAs, but your experience sounds like a train wreck waiting to happen with you as an investor having little to no control to avoid it, other than not investing in them from the beginning! If we meet up at Ali's thing, we should definitely talk more.

@Matt R.

Hope to meet you at Ali's as well!

Thanks @Ali Boone for organizing the event! I'm excited to meet you all :)

@Christopher Cafferty

I hear you on the SoCal market and it's nice to know other investors are facing similar challenges. While some folks say that the deals are out there (even here in SoCal), I'm having trouble finding them. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough, but in any case, like you I find the numbers in Texas to be attractive. That and being a new investor any mistakes made early on will be less costly than purchasing locally here in CA.

Regarding your properties that are cash flowing, why are you looking to get rid of them?

@Elizabeth Colegrove I've heard of the difficulties of managing from a few hours away, but how have you been able to manage from out-of-state? When I think of out of state investing, I automatically assumed that I'd need the additional expense of having a property manager.

@Jeff Greenberg Thanks for the welcome! Been listening to the podcasts over the last couple months and they've been great.

@Brandon Turner - I was just thinking about adding those keywords, thanks for the tip. Quck question...sometimes when I write a post with the @ symbol tagged to another member's name, it doesn't seem to keep the link when posting. Is this a glitch or something?

@Ali Boone That's an amazing coincidence! I've met a lot of engineers hoping to leave their day job one day so it's refreshing to hear that you've actually done that and are working for yourself on your own time. I imagine it must have been a lot of work investing on the side while holding a full-time job, but well worth it in the end. I'd love to hear more about it sometime.

My goal in a sentence would be...to passively earn enough cashflow from my rental property that would match the salary from my job.

@Joe Fairless Between SFH and multifamilies, I'm not committed to either, but open to whichever numbers make sense. Multifamilies (2-4 units) sound appealing since a vacancy in one unit doesn't quite hurt one's monthly cashflow as it would a SFH. Also, since my long term plan is to one day live off these properties' cashflow I'll need to acquire upwards of 25 units, so having units closely connected together would make managing them easier right?

There are likely other factors to consider that I'm missing, but would you recommend picking a strategy first (SFH or multi) or just invest where the deals happen to be? I'm still in the education phase so I'm all ears.

@Zaid R. - I'm definitely interested in the the Riverside and San Bernardino market since those are within driving distance.

Though some of my concerns would be in the economic outook in those areas and whether job/population growth is expected. I still need to do the research, but if anyone knows any good resources/sites for me to check out, I'd love to hear them.

Also wondering whether I can effectively manage the property while living a couple hours away. Since I work full-time, I'd most likely only be able to visit on the weekends. The other alternative is to hire a property manager, an additional expense, but could be worth it. Anyone have experience managing property several hours away?

@Curt Davis - Thanks and while I've still got a lot to learn, I'm definitely interested in the Memphis market. I'd like to hear more about your turn key properties and whether any BP investors have purchased through your company and are cashflowing.

@Vicky Covarrubias - Thanks for the warm welcome. Good luck in the new year as well!

Thanks for the helpful tips @J. Martin. Agree with your strategy and plus I'm looking for a way to invest part-time so fix/flip is definitely out of the question.