My Real Estate Investment Journey from AZ -> PA -> FR

Hi there! My name is Jasmine, and I’m a California Realtor who’s gone rogue, buying properties in and out of the US.

Many of us have been trained to believe that the most important property to buy first is your primary residence. As a realtor and resident in California for over 10 years, I can tell you firsthand that buying Bay Area real estate is easier said than done. I knew almost immediately after moving here that I wouldn’t be able to afford to buy a house… that is, unless I married rich. And since I don’t like to depend on men for money, this was not an idea that appealed to me. So instead of buying a crappy and costly home in California, I bought my first investment property in Tempe, Arizona.

Tempe appealed to me for a number of different reasons;

1) I grew up nearby in Chandler, and when I entered my college years, I attended Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. After living in various apartments across Tempe (4 places in 5 years), I knew the area quite well. And I am a big fan of starting with what you know if you don't know where to start, so buying in Tempe was a no-brainer.

2) My mom and dad were both living in AZ at the time - my dad had a place in Phoenix, and my mom was living in Chandler. Geographically, Tempe was the perfect midpoint between their two locations.

3) Arizona State University, one of the 10 largest schools in the country, is located in Tempe. With tens of thousands of students attending ASU, I knew that investing in a property near the school would work in my favor as a landlord, since there would always be a constant flow of tenants.

4) Tempe is substantially more affordable than California. I paid $180,000 for my 735 square foot loft in Tempe in 2019. That same property in Silicon Valley would have cost at least 3 times the price, or more, depending on the neighborhood.

"That same property in Silicon Valley would have cost at least 3 times the price"

After my Tempe pad was up and running as a short-term rental on VRBO, I was itching to buy another place. I didn’t know what I wanted to buy or where, but I knew that it had to be farther away than Arizona. In the back of my mind, I was dreaming of investing overseas one day, but that day wasn’t in the near future just yet. First, I needed a stepping stone to help me get to that inevitable international purchase.

As I started exploring different stateside markets, one of my Bay Area realtor friends had suggested Philadelphia, PA. This isn’t normally a market that hits investors’ radars, but he liked it because it was centrally located near an international airport, reputable hospitals, and multiple universities. But from my perspective, it was appealing for a couple of other reasons… Not only was it located in a different time zone, which would give me practice for managing from farther away, but I also had a small team on the ground there.

At that time, I was working with a virtual assistant who lived in Philly. After working with her for several months, we built a strong relationship and I knew that I could trust her. She had also shared with me that she had a passion for real estate, but she wasn’t quite sure what exactly she wanted to do with that passion. So I told her that I would buy my next investment property in Philly, and then she could manage it to see if either property managing or real estate investing was a good fit for her.

When I purchased my 396-square-foot Philly flat at the end of 2020 (for $145,000), she was an integral part in getting the property ready & rented. Not only did she help me paint and put up removable wallpaper inside the condo, but she also helped procure the tenant by simply posting about the property on her Instagram. That one Instagram post resulted in us finding the perfect tenant - she was a friend of a friend of my virtual assistant, and she has been living in the condo for the last three years.

"That one Instagram post resulted in us finding the perfect tenant"

Switching gears from Philly to France was an exciting transition. Philly was much more of an impulse buy, whereas I actually put some time into researching different markets and price points in France. After filtering through thousands of French properties on my favorite site, properstar.com, I realized that I couldn’t afford a property with a view of the Eiffel Tower, so I opted for a view of the Mediterranean Sea instead ;)

When I went to France for the very first time in the Fall of 2021, I fell in love with the French Riviera. It was similar to California in some ways (like the weather), but it was much more cultured and calm by comparison.

During my week-long vacation in Nice, I searched for a local real estate agent. After visiting 2-3 offices where the agents only spoke French, I finally found a Century 21 agent in Nice who spoke English. We had a brief meeting where I told him about my search criteria: I wanted a view of the sea, a balcony, and it needed to be airbnb-able in a desirable location. After our discussion, he showed me 3 properties on his computer that were within my budget. I looked at each of them on his computer screen, and I said “no, no, yes.”

For that one “yes” property, I asked him to line up a showing within the next 48 hours because I was about to head back to the states. He did, which allowed my boyfriend and I to be able to see it the morning before our flight.

When we toured the tiny, 248-square-foot flat, I asked my boyfriend what he thought. Considering the fact that it was the ONLY property we had seen while we were in Nice, he advised me to keep looking. He’s an engineer and is much more analytical than I am, so this was a logical response that I expected. But I am much more impulsive, so I told him that I appreciated his opinion, but that I was going to buy it anyway.

 "I closed on my first international purchase"

And 7 months later, I did! In May of 2022, I closed on my first international purchase in the town of Villerfranche-Sur-Mer, France. Compared to Tempe and Philly, this was the most expensive property I've purchased so far. But it was worth every Euro... £248,000 to be exact. And at the time when I made the purchase, this equated to about $289,000 USD.

Since closing on the France condo, I've had it listed on Airbnb as a short-term rental. It has been booked consistently from March through October, and I've been able to enjoy a few weeks there in the off-season. In fact, my business partner just finished our annual trip to Villefranche, and we had a blast!

As the years continue, I hope to spend more and more time frolicking in France (and other countries). By the time I'm 40 (in about 4 years), my goal is to live a life where I'm traveling 6 months out of the year and working 6 months. During the 6 months when I'm traveling, I'll be able to stay in my AZ and FR condos at a very low cost, and then I can visit other places along the way.