All Forum Posts by: Vanessa Ganaden

@Sharlene Burch From some of the comments, it's interesting to see that no matter what age people are in, they always feel like they are starting late. But think of it this way - you're in a much better spot now than you were last year (where you haven't even begun this journey). It's easy to fall prey to comparisons with other people especially when we see how successful they are (I still do the same), but what we also fail is to see is that we are different points in time, experience and growth. We only need to look at our own growth and be laser focused on it. 

I'm 28. Got my RE License at the beginning of the year. Have a full time job, but learning on BP and gobbling up every info I could find so that I'm prepared when I start investing. Sure, I feel like it's too late sometimes. But all I know, is that I know so much more now than I did just 9-10 months ago. 

Keep going at it, Sharlene! 

We need more of that female energy around :) 

My strategy for looking for cities out of state, which is the same strategy that I use finding cities in state, is to find cities where there is a strong and growing job sector (medical/tech). I also tend to focus on smaller cities rather than the metropolitan areas - less competition :) 

Check out this article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2018/05/15/growth-in-america-has-tilted-to-smaller-cities/#63f7d2695601

Goodluck on your search!

@Andrew Atakpo Congratulations on your start of your journey - both in marriage and RE Investing ;) 

I'm also just starting out in my RE investing and I've been weighing the pros and cons of investing in-state or out-of-state. Eventually, I settled in investing in-state for my first RE deal, preferably something within 30-1.5 hr drive from where I live. This is my first investment property, and I would just feel a lot more comfortable if it was closer to me since I will be self-managing it myself. My whole goal is to learn the ropes with an investment property close by. And then I can scale it to out of state. Would out of state properties make more cash flow? Sure. But I would rather make mistakes with a property that is within my driving distance, than with a property that is a few states away where I have to rely on other people for everything. 

With that being said, I've been analyzing a lot of duplexes in and around of Los Angeles County. I'm seeing some good properties in Long Beach, like Rose Park for example, which is starting to be gentrified. Outside of LA County, you could take a look into Ventura County. They still have some relatively cheaper housing over there. And in San Bernandino County, Redlands/Loma Linda is a strong market. 

It just really depends on your risk tolerance, your price range and your criteria. Feel free to ask any other questions regarding this, I'm in the exact same path as you so there are a lot of things that would be similar. 

Goodluck with your search!

Gosh, that's scary. But thank god that it was intercepted before it was lost. I had a somewhat similar experience happen to a friend's father. His email got hacked and they learned his writing behavior, his contacts and his patterns. They sent an email to his secretary to wire money to a bank account, which wasn't out of the ordinary, since he buys antique cars all the time. fortunately they caught it in time and the money never made it to the perpetrator's account.

Scammers are becoming very sophisticated and we must stay ever the more vigilant.

Thank you for these tips. I will keep these in mind.

Hey everyone!

Vanessa here from sunny California, more specifically, I hail from the very expensive market of Los Angeles (gasp). Quick story about me, born and raised in the Philippines where my father was a real estate developer. Moved here for college, where I started out as a pre-med student but graduated with a business and marketing degree (yep, that happened). I've been involved with startups for as long as I can remember - eventually landing myself in a fast growing recently IPO'ed startup in LA, working as a Product Manager for their software engineering team. 

I've always known that I would never gain financial independence working for someone else, something I learned from my father. He started out as a fire extinguisher salesman (didn't even know those existed!), who quit his job and started in real estate, eventually becoming a well respected developer. I'm hoping to make the same leap of faith in a few months. I've been in a lot of different industries but I guess it does come full circle, as I find myself in the same career path. My father passed away a year ago, my mother a few years before that. I often think about why I wanted to get into real estate. It goes beyond financial independence. In a way, it is to honor their memory. And use the money that I achieve from real estate as an instrument to give back to the world and make it a better place than I found it. The same way they have. 

Bleh, it wasn't as quick of a story as I had hoped. But there's my two cents. :) 

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to learn from BP and its community. And if you are in LA, let's grab coffee. As a self-confessed coffee addict, I know all the good spots around ;)