All Forum Posts by: Abhishek Banerjee

@Usman S. Curious to hear how this plays out for you. I've been interested in student rentals and looked at both Evanston and Champaign (my alma mater) a little bit. Mark Ainley has a good episode on Evanston as well. 

How large of a property is the one you are considering in Evanston? 

Does it matter to you if the existing tenants are students or not? 

@Jaime Rossini My wife and I are in contract on a duplex in the bay area that we plan to househack. Happy to walk you through the math we did if interested, send me a private message.

Small world David. I went to AA for grad school, and have been in that house for a few parties! 

Do you invest in AA?

Congrats Joe! Who did a conventional with 5% on a 3-plex? I've met lenders willing to do on a duplex, but not 3/4 units.

@Lawrence Leung Are you referring to condo'ing out a duplex, or finding a duplex which is two separate buildings on one plot, and splitting them off so they can be sold as SFH's?

@Lawrence Leung Can you expand a bit on the duplex strategy?

@Account Closed Thanks! I'm keeping an eye out to see how the market evolves in the coming months.

@Greg San Martin Good point. I suspect ADUs work better on commercial property where NOI drives value. In residential, it doesn't add value but if you plan to hold long term, the cashflow might still make sense? I can't speak to the cost of them. I suspect they are cheaper to build in a garage versus a free-standing one? Have you had experience with them?

@Nerissa Sarantos I imagine you're focused on SFH, correct? I went to UM for grad school, and am always tempted to go for a MF or a large SFH as a long-term hold. This would be student housing so a totally different ball game.

Are you focused on flips only at this time? Have you explored the student housing market at all in AA?

@Rachel S. I do too, but might need to wait on that a few years given the location of my work!

@Ryan Avila This is helpful. I did read about the self sufficiency requirement but overlooked it during my math. I think I'm leaning towards a duplex anyways, but just to clarify the self sufficiency test: is it 75% of rents from all units including the one I am in, or 75% of the rents from the remaining units that I am not living in?

You're right, neither really works in most areas, but just for my edification.

Good to know about the ADU.

@David Song Does this align with my goal of a cashflowing investment for the long term? I'll certainly get a SFH with a yard when we're ready to have kids, but had something else in mind for now. Unless I'm missing something.

@Aidan W. Makes sense, I've heard about the contractor issues with smaller jobs as well. Thanks for all your insight!

@David Song Yea, the commute concern seems universal. I think those towns make sense. I suspect I'd want to stick to San Mateo and Redwood if I had to pick. They have a sense of a downturn, closer to SF living.

Do they both have decent duplex inventory or does one show up on the market rarely?

@Greg San Martin Interesting read, thanks for sharing. None of us can tell the future, but I am betting on WFH not being the new normal for the vast majority of companies. Therefore, while there will be softness in the near term, I'm buying with the belief that it normalizes over a 5 year horizon.

Your other point is definitely fair. A lot of Berkeley and pockets of Oakland have seen incredible appreciation and that rate might not continue. Your comment about declining property value in Oakland is news to me. I spoke to a couple of agents recently and they both mentioned a slowing in the growth compared to the last few years, but still growing (not even flat). However, there might be specific assets available at a better price today than a year ago given the near term population trend out of the Bay Area plus some of these other rules in place.

I think your overall point here is to be careful - rent could come down further, and appreciation may not continue at the same rate. Definitely agree and understood.