All Forum Posts by: Ana Marie B.

@Bruce Huynh - Wecome to BP! You'll find that many BPers live in the SF Bay Area but invest OOS. House hacking is a great strategy to get your feet wet in REI. I prefer to invest in cities OOS that I like to visit and vacation ;)

Good luck on your journey!

@Darwin D Wu - First off congrats on your 1st property! 

I don’t think there’s a right or wrong here, but my suggestion is to wait to post your rental ad until closer to when your renovations are done.

I find that in my experience, applicants prefer to see finished pictures of the unit and also want to move in within a month of responding to an ad (or thereabouts).

Good luck!

Hello @Gurmanpreet Singh - This is a good question. Here are some questions I used to find my OOS realtor:

-How long have you been a realtor?

-Do you also invest in real estate? What types? 

-Do you have any experience assisting OOS investors? 

-How responsive are you? (I like an agent who responds quickly esp. when making offers.)

-Do you prefer communicating via text, email, phone

-What’s your current bandwidth like? (Try to gauge if he has time to work with you.) 

-Do you primarily use MLS or do you also know of any off market sales?

@John Morgan - I hope the 2 kids left with their dad and didn’t stay with the mom and her gang banging bf.

Glad you finally evicted these scum and as others have said, love your attitude! 

"Plummet" is such a harsh word. I just renewed a 12-month lease for a 3/1 SFH in South San Francisco for $3600/ mo. about 2 weeks ago. No issues thankfully.

I probably could have done a slight increase, but decided against it due to COVID-19. 

@Victor Lee - I opt for realtors who hustle, because I do the same in my own work. I look for realtors who respond ASAP when making offers. For other matters, within 24 hours. There are realtors everywhere who have the hustle mentality — you just have to interview several.

I’ve fired realtors for their delayed response. Never regretted it. Actually an agent even thanked me because it helped him realize he needed an assistant.

Good luck!

Hi @Jordan Roberts - Even without knowing the price of your property, I would recommend a $2M umbrella policy. More coverage = more security = better night’s sleep. And, as you mentioned, the cost is relatively low. Good luck to you! 

Welcome @Surendran Palanimuthu and @Tyler Garcia! Always great to see new investors from the lovely Bay Area :) If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask. 

@Jordan Roberts - You typically get umbrella insurance from your auto insurance provider. 

In my case, I use Geico and highly recommend them. I have a $2M policy and pay around $250/ year. 

@Account Closed - First off, thank you for having compassion for your older tenant with mental health problems. If I were in your shoes, I would at the very least advise the tenant (via phone or letter) to reach out to his/her social worker ASAP for help on finding new housing. I would also suggest the tenant contact family for immediate support or look into section 8/ other subsidized housing for the future (these often entail long wait lists).

Lastly, I would try to provide the tenant some additional time to find new housing but be firm about the timeline. The current climate with COVID-19 further complicates things. As far as I know, evictions are still on pause. Hope this helps and good luck.