Different Ways to Invest in Southern California Real Estate


Most people associate property investment with rental properties or flipping houses for profit like you see on TV. 

Looking to sell a home in Southern California? 
Looking to buy a home in Southern California? 

Everybody’s heard about flips, and you see them on TV all the time. Of course, there’s also the route of buying a new property and renting your old home. Today I’m joined by Jonathan Marshall with Bella Vita Property Investments to talk about some other options that many people don’t know about. 


Start with determining what you hope to achieve. Do you want a more liquid investment that you’ll have in a year, or more long-term, meaning you might not have it for years and years? Another way to look at it is; do you want cash flow or appreciation? Or maybe both, if you can?

The good thing is, you’re not limited to traditional residential property. When renting a home, the chances for losing a tenant (and the cash flow) is extremely high. Investing in an apartment complex can have less risk, whether you’re investing alone or pooling the investment with a group. Your investment is more secure; losing 10 tenants in a 100-tenant complex still leaves you with 90% occupancy. 

There are other options with trust deed investing as well. Sometimes opportunities arise to invest in a residential rehab in which the initial investment ran dry or the first investors pulled out. These opportunities allow you to bring money into an investment short-term; maybe six months to a year. 

Then there are commercial investments, such as office space or warehouses. With these projects, you can expect to wait about 2-5 years before the expected cycle and exit strategy kick in. These terms aren’t absolute, though. For example, we were just looking at a commercial office revitalization that was scheduled to be completed in 18 months. 

If you have more questions for us about property investing, please don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email! We’d love to hear from you.