On top of the fact that you have some little baby $300k mortgage on Silicon Valley real estate, there's a little thing in California called Proposition 13 which makes long-term ownership of residential real estate tax advantaged.

3 years ago I bought my first home. A single family 4 bed 3 bath 1800sqft with a decent size lot. Currently I rent one room out to my sister who is attending the local university. Just landed a solid full time job thi...

Jason, others may have had a different experience but in my personal experience hard money lending is - like much of business - built on personal relationships.I would recommend you start going to a local REIA such as the RI Real Estate Investors Group (rireig.com) or Black Diamond REI (BlackDiamondREI.com) and network, maybe identify a few promising folks, take them out to coffee or a meal, etc. and just look to start building a few relationships and identifying good prospects.Then when you have a deal you're looking for a lender on, you'll have a few people to start asking and maybe if they don't know someone they can recommend you to someone else in the group (one of their contacts).People are much more comfortable recommending people they already know and have "vetted" as having a minimum amount of knowledge, so that's what you'll really be trying to do - establish that you've educated yourself, didn't just get out of your first seminar last weekend, are committed to real estate beyond this year, etc.All that said, if you think you really have a good deal and have a compelling case to make to a lender*, by all means announce it at one or more local REIA meetings and you may end up making a connection right away.But if you don't already have a good deal & value proposition for a lender then I'd say go the long-game, relationship-building route.

Also if your value proposition is that your properties are 'professionally renovated by ___' then make sure you can actually do professional quality work

There are many building in bad shape that have good site amenities but the structure is bad, should these be bought and re-sold, is there a market for this or is it a "lose-lose" proposition in terms of cash flow.Thanks in advance for your input and discussion.

This due diligence would include an initial walkthrough of each property (I’ve only seen _________ so far) as well as verification of all income and expenses.Please take all the time and precautions necessary to fully consider my proposition.

Parking/storage is not a rapid return proposition.

Yes, you should find a unique selling proposition and brand yourself that way.

As a first time investor this seems like a risky proposition.

Yup :)The next step is to identify someone you want to learn from and "proposition them" While you can search the bp membership list in your area.