Originally posted by @Joseph M.:
Originally posted by @Shiva Bhaskar:
Originally posted by @Chinmay J.:
Originally posted by @Shiva Bhaskar:
Hello everyone,
I've decided to take the California agent exam, so that I can get access to MLS for deals etc. Have a friend who is a fellow investor as well as a licensed broker (again, mainly to look for deals for himself), who can hook me up with access for a small fee, once I have the license. As it happens, I'm an attorney in California, so I don't have to take the class. I do, however, have to pass the exam.
Picked up a few well-rated books on Amazon, but I wanted to see if anyone had any tips re studying, and also, how long it might take to study, if I could put in around 30 minutes per day (probably a few hours per day on the weekends)? I'd like to knock out the exam before end of year if possible. Any advice is appreciated.
You might just be wasting a lot of time...
OK First all.. If you are already an attorney, and went through rigorous law school, you shouldn't have any problem passing the real estate exam. I passed it on my first try, and I can barely add.. LOL.. OK I can add, but have problems with fractions.. OK that aside..
Why do you really want to become a real estate agent? Unless, you live in the area where you can invest in your backyard, I am not sure real estate agent license has much value. I would have highly encouraged getting your license, if you were living in Indy, or Kansas City, but being a CA resident.. I don't think so. Unless you are into some multi million dollar deals locally, most CA folks are investing OOS.
Haha, I hear you! Funny enough, I am looking out of state as well (taking trip to Cleveland in October and I think we'll be doing deals there soon), BUT yes, I already invest here for appreciation, and am very happy with the areas I'm involved with and deals we've done so far. There's a lot of good stuff in the LA area in the range of several hundred thousand (single family, not multi), and some of the areas east of here also have deals worth looking at. The investment market here is really active, even plenty of folks on BP doing quite a bit out here, but you are correct that plenty of us are also looking out of state.
SoCal is definitely an appreciation market today especially. Just curious what areas do you mean by east of here? Inland Empire area? Have you found anything that cash flows at today's prices? I know that area , Riverside etc got hit really hard during the last crash. Next downturn won't be likely anywhere near as bad but I could see them being more vulnerable than L.A
Joseph, thanks for the tips re exam. Appreciate it!
Yes, I was referring to areas like Hesperia, Victorville, there are definitely deals that cash flow (low cash flow but people are moving into the area and is growing so I think we'll see appreciation long term). It is more vulnerable though as you said, LA County definitely safer in that regard. The tenant base in these areas is a lot of folks moving from lower income or lower middle class areas in LA County, so I think there may sometimes be challenges.
I was lucky enough to get something that cash flows in the South Bay (Gardena) earlier this year, and there are single families here and there in Hawthorne and Lawndale that need some work but would cash flow well once you've done some rehab, and as you may know, with Space X, Silicon Beach etc, I think the areas are great long term. Of course, in LA it seems like every contractors phone has been ringing off the hook the past year, so making some of these rehab deals work is easier said than done.
