To be honest, I´m in the Maintenance & Construction for corporate businesses for some US companies in Mexico and we do some Real Estate down here also, but it´s way much different than the US, so I have much to learn from a lot of people around here and as @Julio Gonzalez, I think this is pretty much the right pad and place to start and to break my fears to start all over again from scratchAlso, I´ld like to hear more from @Justin Brickman why he voted for his city, pros and cons, it will help to read from a local...As I said before, thank you all guys for taking the time to write in this post and share some experienceDo you plan to owner occupy. $40k will not get you a non owner occupied San Diego property unless you find some unlikely alternate financing.

I would recommend finding some local meetups to attend, and also tuning into the Straight Up Chicago Investor's Podcast.

If you are just looking to network I would go the route of meetups locally (you can check above at the toolbar, hoover over forums then to the right you have events and meetups.If you are looking to wholesale and build a list of buyers that fix and flip for deals you may have then I would pull lists from 3rd party sites like Property Radar or propstream.

Found this property through our local online foreclosure auction site.

Have you tried attending your local REIA's and real estate meet-up groups?

I put my money where my mouth is on this.We lend our own hard-earned money to local real estate investors.

I'd suggest checking local Airbnb/VRBO data or using AirDNA to see occupancy rates and average nightly rates in the area.

I recommend reviewing your local laws to understand the requirements involved.

I think the borrower is better off trying a local bank or broker in that area.

Attend the local and regional Real Estate meetups.