My name is Max Nelson, I am a Bay Area based Investor with a single Family home in Santa Cruz, CA that is a Short Term/Mid Term Rental and a Duplex in Bend, Oregon.

I own the Bay Breeze motel, just north of Menominee on M-35.

Becca, the strong play in the Bay Area is value add.

I'm looking to exchange a multi-use property I own in the Bay Area for a multifamily property in Phoenix (looking at 15-19 units).

  ( 250 investors 50 mil) all loans were fractionalized ( this was Oakland CA and Bay Area loans) I could legally do those as a CA RE Broker. 

I have a loan on mine (pulled out a cash out refi during COVID and used money to help pay for renovation to Bay Area rental).

This is a good question.I found that meetups are kind of like you described not much really happens there and for sure REIAs and their monthly meeting kind of the same people talking about the same thing then bring in ( at least what i have seen with the PDX reia) folks that are presenting on things that worked decades ago.. and want to sell their stuff for a few grand.For me personally the best networking hands down was SF Bay Area events  San Jose Reiaand LA  FIBI events.folks in those markets are very real estate centric and generally more experienced and in San Jose so many tech folks that have done really really well.. maybe not in RE but have done great in TECH and have quite a bit of bandwidth for investments..

Having said that, prices and rents are higher in the Bay Area in CA than many in the lower-priced states, so it might justify the investment a bit more..

Dan, we are in the Chicago area industrial sector, albeit in the flex, small-bay arena. 

If you're curious about what your current home is worth feel free to reach out, I'm also an agent based out of Green Bay.