Posted by Matt B on November 20, 1998 at 09:24:47:
Sorry, but there’s no way you can be successful if you live in California. It is the only state in the United States that prohibits success in creative real estate. Oh well!
OK, sorry for the sarcasm. There are plenty of people who live in California that post on this board that are very successful investors. I’m sure you will be receiving posts from them shortly.
Read every tidbit of information on this site that you possibly can. The more education you can get, the better. Ask questions here, and study some more. I am relatively new to this site myself, but after only a couple months, I have completed 2 mobile home deals, and just last weekend purchased 2 more that I will be showing this weekend. I bought them at $700 and $800 and am asking $5,000. It works!
Read my Success Story under the heading “1100% Yield on my First Mobile Home Deal”. Hope it helps. Good luck in your real estate investing future.
My husband & I just discovered this website, and think it’s great! Our only concern is that we live in California, and we noticed that most of the deals/success stories we’ve seen happen in every state BUT ours!! Is it really possible for two broke beginners to be successful in CRE in California?
Re: California Success Stories - Posted by Walt(SF,CA)
Posted by Walt(SF,CA) on November 20, 1998 at 13:38:53:
With housing prices in Ca. being about the highest in the nation, we usually wind up playing with bigger numbers. The important thing is that the principles work here too. Sometimes we just have to look a little harder and a little longer to find a good deal but when we do the reward can be bigger so it all evens out.
My wife and I live in a house we purchased about 4 1/2 years ago as an REO. The forclosed loan was $320K (did my homework)and we bought it for $235K and spent another $30K (didn’t need to spend that much but we knew we were going to live in it) to fix it. When we were through it would have appraised at about the original $320K. I had the cash to do the deal myself but if I didn’t I know with a $55K profit to split on a $55K investment(10% down, $30K fix up) know I could have found it.
With what prices have done here in the San Francisco area in the last year and a half or so the house is now worth almost $500K. We aren’t going to sell 'cause we like it here but if we did we would realize a nice tidy profit.
Can you make money in California? I’d have to agree with Gary C00per when he said “Yup.”