All Forum Posts by: Andreas Blomst

Hi Everyone thanks for the good advice! The drive way is shared not in that it is two driveways that butt up against each other, there is only one long drive way that forks like tree branches going to the different units. How this came to be may help explain. Originally the property was a farm. It was purchased by a developer who build condos on the land but kept the original 100 year old farmhouse. The condos have an HOA but we are not part of that (we pay no dues). From the street it looks like a SF house. when you drive down the drive way you can hang a left after 70 feet and pull into our garage or you can continue to the condos. Whats happening is that the tenant in the closest condo is parking in the shared section of the driveway making it impossible for anyone to come or go. She does this during the day when the other tenants are gone and she says she does it for just a few minutes while grabbing something from her house. My tenant is an on call health care provider an comes and goes all day. She has been blocked in several times and the tenant doing the drive way blocking refuses to stop parking "temporary" in the driveway. The police have been called out because of this and have stated that they could not do anything because it was private property. At this time my Tenant is parking on the street because she needs to be able to leave at a moments notice. I am planning a trip to the property this weekend. I will post no parking signs and see about getting a tow company to monitor the driveway but technically I think the Condos own the driveway and we just have an easement to use it. Last thing the HOA for the condos states that one car can be parked in front of the garage for each unit and one car can be parked in the drive way. So technically I think her parking is allowed by the HOA but there is no defined spot and the drive way is too narrow to allow for parking.

Hi all, Another question brought on by my excess of equity. I have a $350k property that is a SFR free and clear that has a 5 year rental history currently at $1700/month. Also have a primary worth $720-$750k and only a first at $470k. It has a 150sq ft studio on property that brings in $1100 a month (Santa Barbara CA). I would like to buy an other rental with my equity for around $200-250k.Any advice? Best way to do this? Stated income products a plus because I am a small business owner.

Hi all, I have a a SFR that has a shared drive way with a duplex. Nothing in common except driveway. My tenant has contacted me several times because her car (when correctly parked in her spot) is blocked in by the car of one of the Tenants in the closest condo. We don't have a formal HOA and the police won't do anything because it's private property. I have been trying to get a hold of the owner of the condo to ask them to help me with their tenant. But I am not getting any call backs. The rental is a couple hours away so I may just need to take a road trip but that still means I can only speak with the other tenant as the landlord lives out of state. I have also already sent a letter to address on file with county. No response. What can I do? I'm afraid I'm going to loose a great tenant because of a bad neighbor tenant.

Hi Justin, I love Ca! I would recommend checking out Atascadero Ca. It's a small town that still qualifies for USDA Loans but the 101 freeway runs right through it. 12 miles south is "the happiest city in American -Oprah " San Luis Obispo. 15 miles north is Paso Robles which was a traditional farming community until wine showed up. 12 miles west you have Morro Bay a nice beach community. We have one property in Atascadero and it's easy to find tenets both local and commuters. Property values are significantly less than neighboring San Luis Obispo or Morro bay. California buy and hold deals are like broccoli, not really very exciting and not super beneficial to you off the bat but overtime really good for you. Good luck!

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. Wow lots of information available here! I hope to be able to contribute as much as I gain from Bigger Pockets and all your wonderful advice!

My wife and I own a SFR outright that rents for $1700/month and is worth about 300K. We also have our primary residence that is worth 720k and we owe 479K on it. We are ready to purchase our next rentail and want to pay cash for a fixer. My plan was to get a LOC on the rental that we own free and clear and then use that money to purchase and fix the next property. The idea was to then turn around and get a morgage on the fixer property once its rented and pay off the LOC. I keep being told by the banks that they dont like doing LOC on investment property. I would not mind using our primary exept that the lenders I have dont seem to want to go over 65% LTV on HELOCS and that leaves us almost nothing. I know that there are better options but walking into banks in our home town has proven a disapoiment. Please help!

Hi Everyone!

 My name is Andreas Blomst.  My wife Shannon and I live in Santa Barbara Ca. Shannon is currently working on her licensing in Architecture. She works as a Project Manager for a local Architecture firm. I have an online business and also work for a Santa Barbara based technology company as the Business Development Manager. We both went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.  We bought our first house in 2009 and lived in it until it was possible to rent it with a positive cash flow. Then we bought the cheapest house we could find in Santa Barbara. Using friends family and youtube we renovated the house including gutting the kitchen and master bath. Now we live in the property with a tenant in a back portion of the house with a private entrance. The property is an R-2 Lot and my wife has drawn up plans for a secondary dwelling unit on the lot. We love real estate and look at open houses every weekend. We are very excited to be new members on BiggerPockets and are excited to share and Learn!