All Forum Posts by: Tanya S.

@Steven Scott All of my family lives in the LA area, and I find that cash flow rental properties there are not only super expensive, but older and often run down or in so-so neighborhoods. 

All over Texas, you can buy something built in the last 10-15 years for a fraction of what you would spend in LA (or DC, for that matter), which will save you long term on repair costs. Tenants are also attracted to newer properties, especially in great neighborhoods with desirable school districts. 

Take a quick weekend trip and go tour some homes with an agent in a market you are interested in - you'll quickly see that its not as hard as  you might think. While you're there, also go visit property mgmt companies. If you pick a good mgmt company and a solid, cash flowing property in a desirable location, you really can't go wrong, imho.

Oh - and I don't live in the U.S currently. I'm in Caracas, Venezuela :)

Hi Steven - Welcome to BP! I ran into the same trouble while living in the Washington DC area about 2 years ago, so I switched markets (Texas!!) and never looked back. Don't be afraid to consider a market you can't drive to - it really can be done. I spent a good year nearly every night online studying my new market, made one trip to tour homes (i live overseas), and got to the point where I was super comfortable with neighborhoods in the new market that I could make offers without seeing the house myself. 

On this point, it also helps to find a local agent and inspector who are tech savvy - I've been using FaceTime to tour properties and be "present" at inspections, which has worked out well and saves me money on airline tickets!

There is a whole world of great investments out there - just not in the LA area at this moment. BPers are investing in all kinds of markets outside of where they live. You can too! 

Roselynn,

You can check out www.coursera.org

I'm currently taking the Wharton Business School's intro to financial accounting course for free. Even if you can't join this class, I believe they repeat them every semester or so.

@Mike D. I attended the REI Expo in Baltimore earlier this year and found it to be worth a weekend and the associated costs with driving up from the DC area and staying overnight. Although there were a few guru seminars that were very sales pitch oriented, I found them to be the exception rather than the rule. many local investors groups from the surrounding area were also invited to speak and I found these to be, by far, the most useful presentations.

Additionally, in Baltimore, there were usually about 4 speakers going at any one time, so if you found that one wasn't really covering items of interest, you could wander out and into another presentation that was more interesting.

If you are investing in the LA area, I would recommend going. If you are investing more in your local market, I think the expo will give you some good general ideas, but won't be as interesting for your market specifically.

I am actually interested in investing in Texas, so will probably fly out to attend one of the expos held there at some point. it's a great way to meet local vendors, which I think is also one of the best parts of the expo.

Benjamin - For your financing issue, have you thought about peer-to-peer lending? In one of the last BP podcasts - number 29 with Dawn Anastasi - she talks about Lending Club. There have also been other investors here who have tried that route with success. Given that you don't need to borrow a huge sum of money to get to the 25% down, it might work for you as well. Good luck!

Brad - so nice (and very smart of you!) that you are trying to get your wife involved. I have the same challenge of trying to get my husband more involved in RE, so curious to hear how your efforts go with the cashflow game - if you decide to purchase it, of course.

Keep us updated ;)

Marion Lee Try www.washingtonreianetwork.com which is in Bethesda, just up Connecticut. BP's own Jason Cohen was organizing a BP meetup in Columbia Heights for a few months running, though not sure what the status is now.

It's true that for most everything else, you will need to drive to the burbs, whether that's in MD or VA. They are only once a month though, so I find it's not too hard and well worth a visit to meet new contacts.

Welcome Marion!

There are a number of DC area investors on BP and active in the area. I encourage you to check out some of the local REIA meetings if you haven't already. Meeting people in person is a really great learning opportunity as well as a way to connect with others with the same goals.

Even if you are just starting and feel you don't have much to contribute yet to the conversation, don't be shy. Every one started where you are at now, and there are many out there who are generous with their time and experience.

Happy investing

Hi Ivan, Congrats on your savings goals. If you have some free time in addition to your main job, Google "side hustle" and you will get all kinds of ideas to make a little money on the side.

My favorite is the side hustle series on the blog Budgets are $exy - people have some super creative side jobs.... good luck with the plan!

I interviewed a bunch of agents back in 2010, before this law went into effect. picked the one I liked the best and worked exclusively with him. Have been happy, so haven't felt the need to change. You could try each one out with a short term agreement (whatever length of time you feel comfortable), but this may or may not not have the effect that you are hoping for. how hard would you work for a client that only wants your services for one week or one day?

I think a good interview at the beginning and maybe calling a former client or seeing whether the realtor has been reviewed anywhere (Yelp comes to mind), can certainly save headaches. really though, you won't know how good they really and truly are until you start the offer process, are under contract, and something goes wrong.

I should also mention that you can cancel buyer's agreements as well, as long as the realtors brokerage firm is ok with this. I actually did this with my Va realtor that I like because I wanted to look at regions in VA that he didn't service. so there is that option as well.