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Rick Edu | SoCal Realtor®️

@rick_therealtor

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🫵Specializing in First Time Homebuyers who want generational wealth
🫡Real Estate Advisor
🏡 LTR, MTR, STR Investor
📍 San Diego
🪪 DRE #0198112

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Someone else's idea of success might be the very thing keeping you from recognizing your own 👀

Ask 8 people what waking up early means, how much money feels like a lot or what their dream vacation looks like and you'll get 8 completely different answers.

And somehow, we convince ourselves there's ONE timeline we're all supposed to follow.

By 25, have this saved.
By 30, own a home.
By 35, be financially comfortable.

But who decided that?

Someone buying their first home today looks at someone who bought in 2016 and thinks, "Must be nice."

Someone who bought in 2016 might have been stretching every dollar to make that mortgage payment, wondering if they were making the biggest mistake of their life.

And someone who bought in 2021 with a historically low interest rate might have had to compete against 15 offers, waive protections, or pay well above asking just to get their foot in the door.

Different circumstances.
Different challenges.
Different opportunities.

And that's the part we wish more people understood.

You cannot measure your progress against someone else's circumstances.

Maybe your version of success right now is buying your first condo instead of your dream house.

Maybe it's staying in your rental another year while you build your savings.

Maybe it's selling the home you worked so hard to buy because the life you want today looks different than the one you wanted five years ago.

None of those decisions makes you further ahead or further behind.

The strategy should change depending on YOUR goals, finances, priorities, and season of life.

And that's something we celebrate at The Avenue, too.

We're a team of wildly different personalities, backgrounds, ambitions, and definitions of success.

We don't need everyone to think alike to move in the same direction. Those differences make us better at finding solutions that one perspective alone might miss.

Because the goal was never to make everyone follow the same path.

It's to make sure everyone has the support, knowledge, and confidence to find their own.

Your timeline is yours.

Your definition of success should be, too. ❤️

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What if building a real estate portfolio didn't require 20% down on every property? 👀

Meet Rick, The Avenue's out-of-market investing guy.

Between helping buyers find opportunities in more affordable markets and operating his own Airbnbs, he's learned that the best strategy isn't always the one everyone talks about.

Here's how to approach the buy, live, rent, repeat strategy. 👇🏼

1️⃣ BUY WITH THE INTENTION TO LIVE THERE.

Eligible primary-residence loans may allow as little as 3–5% down. You must genuinely intend to occupy the home and follow your loan's occupancy rules.

2️⃣ RUN THE RENTAL MATH BEFORE BUYING.

Don't assume rent will cover everything. Estimate:

👉🏼 Mortgage, taxes, insurance and HOA 👉🏼 Realistic market rent 👉🏼 Repairs, vacancies and management costs

If the numbers don't work as a rental, reconsider the purchase.

3️⃣ PLAN YOUR NEXT MOVE CAREFULLY.

Once you've met your occupancy obligations, you may be able to keep the first home as a rental and buy another primary residence.

But ask your lender:

👉🏼 Can I qualify while carrying both loans? 👉🏼 How much rental income will count? 👉🏼 What cash reserves will I need?

Moving every two years doesn't automatically qualify you for another low-down-payment loan.

4️⃣ THINK BEYOND YOUR ZIP CODE.

This is Rick's specialty. A lower purchase price elsewhere can open doors, but compare rent-to-price ratios, local jobs, taxes, insurance, vacancy rates and rental rules before calling anything a deal.

5️⃣ REPEAT ONLY WHEN THE NUMBERS WORK.

Ten years and five houses sounds exciting. But it's a goal, not a guarantee. Equity can grow through principal paydown and potential appreciation, while cash flow depends on actual expenses.

The secret isn't buying doors as fast as possible.

It's making sure each one puts you in a stronger position to buy the next.

That's the kind of investing conversation Rick brings to The Avenue.

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6th annual AREAA golf tournament 🏌🏽⛳️

Golfing with your buddies while raising money for first time home buyers.

Proceeds from this year’s tournament will benefit the AREAA Foundation First Time Home Buyer Assistance Program, helping create more opportunities for families to achieve the dream of homeownership.

#fyp #golftourney

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Weekend for the books with the @groundzerosd team.

There’s something pretty cool about being able to mix good times with people who know how to do business and get shit done.

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Who needs more information on this property now that you've seen the primary shower?

We fit the most of the team in there… but somehow that’s not even the best part of this house.

If this Del Sur beauty was sitting in your “maybe” pile before, it might be worth another look at it's new price.

And yes, the shower is absurdly big.

But beyond fitting an unreasonable number of Realtors in one bathroom, this home has the kind of space, layout, and details that truly one up its neighbors in all the right places.

If you’ve been looking in Del Sur, thinking about making a move in North County, or you’re just curious what this much house is currently going for…

Comment below and we’ll send you the price & property details!

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If buying an Airbnb in California feels impossible… maybe California isn’t the answer.

I sat down with @rick_therealtor , who has become my go-to for out-of-area Airbnb investing outside of Cali, and we got into the stuff I actually wanted to know:

How does he choose a market?
What does a property need to gross before he’ll touch it?
What does “profitable” actually mean after the mortgage and expenses?
And how do you get comfortable buying somewhere you don’t live?

His numbers were way simpler than I expected... and his strategy around national parks immediately got my wheels spinning. 👀

Watch the video because if you’ve ever thought, “I’d love an Airbnb… just not at California prices,” this might open up a completely different way of looking at it.

🚨🚨🚨 Now I’m curious: where would YOU want to own an Airbnb?
Drop the city/state below ⤵️

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I’d like you to meet Noni 🤍

This is a little bit about her story.

Recently, @nonic_realtor lost her husband after walking through an incredibly difficult season together.

And there are moments in life like this that change the way you see a home.

It stops being square footage and bedrooms and resale value.

It’s the kitchen where you made dinner together.
The living room where you laughed until you cried.
The place that held the ordinary Tuesdays, the holidays, the hard conversations, the traditions, the people you love, and an entire chapter of your life.

Sometimes selling a home isn’t a celebration.

Sometimes moving forward means saying goodbye to a place that holds more memories than you know what to do with.

And in those seasons, you don’t need someone rushing you toward the next step. You need people who understand that the transaction is only one tiny piece of what you’re actually navigating.

That’s something we probably don’t show enough of at The Avenue.

Yes, we like to have fun.
We laugh loudly.
We celebrate wins.
We care about growth, production, strategy, and getting the job done.

But we also show up for each other when there is absolutely nothing to celebrate.

Because eventually, all of us will walk through seasons that ask more of us than business ever could.

Noni is living that in real time, and still showing up with the kind of perspective, compassion, and humanity that can only come from having lived a little life yourself.

Not every move is an easy one.

But having the right human beside you can make an impossibly hard chapter feel a little less heavy.

And if you ever need someone like that in your corner, Noni is a pretty incredible representation of the kind of person, partner, and Realtor you’d hope to find. 🤍

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JUST CLOSED 🎉🌊

We officially closed on two side by side duplexes in Imperial Beach, just two blocks from the ocean!

Each property sits on a 5,000 SF lot, and our plan is to add two new 2 bed, 1 bath ADUs to each lot, taking us from 4 existing units to 8 total units across both properties.

Our strategy is to develop both properties, sell one, and keep the other as a long term hold.

I’m excited to add another project to our Imperial Beach portfolio and continue developing in a market we believe has a lot of long term potential.

Two properties closed and a lot of development ahead! 🏗️✨

Follow along as we take these properties through the development process.

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How are you outpacing 2021 production in this market?

Simple.

You stop treating culture like the thing you build after the business is successful.

You build the business through it.

One work best friend has been linked to a 7x increase in workplace engagement and productivity.

Three? The likelihood of reporting happiness, satisfaction, and fulfillment at work jumps by 96%.

If a CRM, AI tool, lead source, or productivity app promised numbers like that, every brokerage in the country would be asking for a demo.

But because the answer is relationships?

It gets dismissed as “soft.”

We think that’s a mistake.

Because in real estate, the environment you work in affects everything.

It affects how quickly you recover when a deal falls apart.

How willing you are to ask for help before a problem gets bigger.

How freely people share the script, strategy, vendor, negotiation tactic, or opportunity that worked for them.

How much energy you still have when the market gets hard.

And whether Monday feels like something you have to survive or somewhere you actually want to show up.

The goal was never to build a room full of individual producers protecting their own little corner of the business.

We wanted people who celebrate each other loudly, share what’s working, jump in when someone needs help, and genuinely like doing life together outside of closings.

Does that automatically create production?

No.

You still need skill.
You still need systems.
You still need accountability.
You still have to do the work.

But put talented people inside an environment where they feel supported, challenged, connected, and excited to show up?

That compounds.

So when people ask how we’re producing at a level that outpaces one of the hottest real estate markets we’ve ever seen…

There are a lot of strategic answers.

But one of the biggest might also be the simplest:

We actually really like the people we work with.

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A beautiful property, thoughtfully designed.

Loved touring this stunning home with The Avenue Collective and taking in all the details that make this property stand out.

Another beautiful home, another great tour!

📍 15897 Trent Pl, San Diego, CA 92127

Contact for inquiries 👇

Melissa Sofia | 858-705-1922
Amanda Lee | 858-722-8637

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🔥 We beat the heat this weekend at another sitewalk!

It’s always a fun time to share what happens behind the scenes with our community members; alot of work goes into getting a structure standing!

This time around we dove deep into one trade: Framing 🪵 Our superintendent and master framer shared his experience in the industry and a few nuggets on how he problem solves in the field - while it’s actively happening.

First floor’s done, onto the second floor! ⬆️

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