Fresno investors from bay area - experiences?

[Sandeep Pai]

Hi all,

Anyone here from the bay area and has invested in multi family / SFH in Fresno/Clovis areas? A couple REAs advised me not to buy in Fresno given the lack of quality tenants (issues like rent not paid , having to evict frequently, plus more dire issues like drugs). Wondering if these were specific isolated cases and whether anyone from bay area invested in Fresno and has a good experience. Appreciate y'all's inputs.

[Jay Orlauski]

"Not enough tenants"  LOL - probably the funniest thing I've ever heard about the Fresno rental market. I just listed one of my units and had literally close to 25 people a day call or email about it and even though I already rented it last week - I'm still getting calls this week about it - and my tenant hasn't even moved out yet!  It will be vacant for about 3 days - I have never had a problem renting out our apartments here in Fresno  - in fact , in my experience of investing in multifamilies over the last 20 years - I feel we have a very strong rental market and my turn-around times are very minimal. Last time I turned a unit around - I had it rented before I even finished updating it. I've had some great tenants , some good ones and some bad ones -   I screen a lot better now so it's been a while since I've had bad tenants. Fresno is like any other city - it has the good parts , the bad parts, good people and bad people.  Prices seem low to "out of town"  investors from the coast who are used to million dollar studios but when you look at the rents compared to the cost of properties - you'll see that the cap rates are only around 4 1/2 - 6 % - most of the better deals are going to be found off market - though I sense a cool down is coming soon so there could be an opportunity to start picking up properties at an even better price.  Fresno has a large population - there are plenty of renters here - the problem is not finding tenants - it's finding a building that actually cash flows with a good cap rate.