All Forum Posts by: Andrew Brewer

Hi all, I wanted to throw out a question about investing in Oakland and wondering anyone has any ideas or advice to share.

I am wondering about buying SFH vs MFH in East Oakland, specifically because it looks like SFH are exempt from rent control ordinances under Costa-Hawkins. I have analyzed a number of MFH properties but none of the numbers make sense because the rents are too low because of rent control with the only way I see to really increase to market value being on duplexes and triplexes after owner occupying for two years. Since SFH are exempt, theoretically one could use the BRRRR strategy very effectively in East Oakland (lots of distressed properties) and not have to worry about rent control. Ive seen a number of SFH which could cashflow if given some TLC.

Any thoughts, ideas, or opinions?

Hi everbody, I'm ready to take the plunge and purchase my first property in the Bay Area. My plan is to buy a small multi family in East Oakland and live in one unit while renting the others. 

I grew up in the Bay Area and just moved back after five years out of state. Growing up I avoided deep East Oakland because of all the horror stories I heard, i've been surprised to hear from some folks that the area is starting to turn around. 

I wanted to get some opinions from local investors about what its like to live/own in East Oakland. Is it a nightmare trying to be a landlord in this area? 

I am married to a (I think) beautiful woman and I want to be able to go to work during the day and feel like she'll be OK if shes at home.

Hi Everyone, I am wondering if anyone has any insight on finding off market deals from out of state. I live in CA at the moment and want to begin investing out of state. I know about a lot of the deal finding methods such as driving for dollars, direct mailing, etc but I am wondering how that applies to out of state investors. Should people like myself just stick with the MLS or is there something I am missing here?

@Eric Weireter awesome, thank you

@Mateusz Prawdzik @Eric 

@Eric Weireter undefined

not looking for luxury, looking for around a 1500 sq ft home that is suitable for renting in the W Cornwallis/Chapel Hill Rd neighborhood. I am not from the area so i'm not sure if that is a B or C class neighborhood, but a family member has a house there that she wants to turn into a rental. The problem is that the existing home was not maintained and has major issues (foundation, sagging floors, mold, possibly a new roof and new electrical) so I'm trying to get a ballpark for what it would cost to bring the existing house up to rental quality vs what it would cost to just bulldoze it and build new, or if its even worth touching at all considering the value of the property. 

Hi Everyone, I am wondering if anyone can give me a rough estimate on how much it would cost per square foot to build a new house (land not included) in Durham North Carolina?

Hi Everyone, my mother-in-law has a house in Phippsburg Maine that she is interested in turning into a rental. She owns the house outright. The house is listed as a 3bd 1 ba but had the attic built out into two more bedrooms. 

The kicker with this is that the house is not really in livable condition. Water is provided from a private well, but a purification system would have to be added because its not drinkable water due to high iron content. I also don't believe the septic system is in great shape and I also believe it is too small. My assumption is that it is a standard 1000 gallon system for a 3bd house and was not updated when the additional attic buildout was done. The house needs overall cosmetic maintenance and rehab work, maybe some drywall work also. 

The house is located about 9 miles from Bath, 17 miles from Brunswick, and 40 miles from Portland. 

In order to make this house livable we would potentially have to

-do cosmetic upgrades and drywall work

-install new septic tank

-install water purification system in the well

-add 2nd bathroom

the money to do these upgrades would come from my wife and myself because my mother-in-law doesn't have the cash to handle upgrading this property herself. my wife and i would gain a substantial share of the equity in the home if we went ahead with this. the zillow estimate for the home is a little more than double what the house was bought for. (Paid ~100,000 cash, zillow estimates ~210,000 listed at 3bd/1ba). I haven't had any inspections or appraisals done, i'm just working on the info I got from my mother-in-law. my wife has said that she thinks we could rehab the property and refinance to pull out all our money and then rent it however I'm not sure if the rental market is strong enough for that. I don't want to risk having the property sitting vacant for large chunks of time while we're trying to then pay a 30 year mortgage

I have doubts about the viability of this project including but not limited to

-The rental market in Phippsburg doesn't appear to be very strong. It is 40 miles from Portland and the industries there and Brunswick appears to be in decline (naval base closed, hospital went bankrupt, etc). The real market I see for rentals there appears to be vacation rentals and airbnb, however the house is not a waterfront property, its a few miles from the waterfront.

-The rehab costs could potentially be quite large and if the property can't be steadily rented we will have invested a lot of money in a nice house that we can't use(none of us live in the area)

It would be great to be able to help out a family member but I also don't want to badly invest my wife and I's savings and end up losing it.

Can anyone share some insight on their thoughts on this project. Does anyone think it has any chance of success? Am I missing something?

I'm looking for my first deal and was thinking of buying a turn-key rental to get my feet wet. I've never been a landlord before and i'm not a contractor or well versed in fixing stuff or doing rehab. I live in the bay area and work full time so i don't have a lot of time to spend on rehab anyway and the entry costs for the bay area are too high for me. for this reason i was thinking of looking out of state. 

I've heard that buying an out of state turn-key is a big no-no especially for a first time investor and also to a lesser extent that buying a turn-key is a big no-no. I'm thinking of doing it for my first deal to get the experience of actually purchasing a property and then being a landlord. i would hire a property manager but would want to be in more constant contact to get a feel for the whole process.

does anyone have any tips on what to look for in a turn-key rental, especially out of state? does one go through the same inspections as in any other property. what are the red flags i should be looking for when screening potential turn-key properties?

any other advice is appreciated

Hi Everyone, I am new to the RE investing game and looking to buy my first property. I am 24, I work full time and I live in San Jose. The housing prices in the Bay Area are crazy right now so I'm trying to figure out what the best way to get started would be. I have some money saved up to invest with but not enough to invest in San Jose. 

I have a general understanding of construction and rehab and a small amount of hands on experience, but i don't feel confident enough to rehab a house or estimate costs or even make sure that contractors are giving me an accurate quote. This is something i want to learn, but at the moment i don't have the knowledge. 

My question is: what kind of deal should i look for first? The strategy I want to follow is long term buy and hold for passive income. I'm thinking that something needing a lot of rehab work would not be ideal for a n00b like me, nor would investing out of state in an area i don't know about. both of these are deals i feel i could get to eventually, but for a first purchase i'm not sure.

does anyone have any advice on a good starter property and where? 

Hi everyone, I am new to BP but i've been reading through the forums since I joined and catching the weekly webinars and want to get started on my first deal.

I am brand new to the real estate game and trying to learn to analyze. I was thinking to start with a multi-family home in the Los Angeles area (where I live). I was thinking to try financing with a FHA loan and live in one unit while renting out the other(s). Being new to real estate investing I have a few questions, specifially

-estimating cost of repairs or updates. I am not a contractor and don't know how to come up with an accurate number of what I would need to pay to rehab a property. Is this something I need to hire a contractor to tell me, or would this information be provided as part of a general inspection?

-ROI, COC, CAP, etc. I've listened to the webinars and read through some blog posts. Accepatable numbers seem to vary based on location. How would I find what these numbers are for the LA area? or any area for that matter, ultimately I would like to invest out of state as well and would need numbers for those areas. I am familiar with the principles of the 2% and 50% rules, however in watching Brandon's webinars when he analyzes properties it seems that those rules don't really get used as much(unless i'm missing some part of the equation), especially in expensive areas.

-also just a final theoretical question about the market in general. There are rumblings about a bubble forming in the real estate market, especially in LA, however since there are more people in LA than rental units demand for units is high. Since multi-family units are priced based on income provided to the owner, are the less susceptible to market fluctuations(from a long term buy and hold view)? Logically I would assume that market fluctuations would not affect these types of properties as much, it seems rising or falling rent prices or gentrification would affect these properties more.

If anyone has any advice I would appreciate it. Thank you all for your help