All Forum Posts by: Andy Eakes

@Nicholas Miller Sounds like a great opportunity for you. I agree with you and Max. 6 months is good. 1% is very unlikely with a SFR here. And I think now is a great time to invest with a red hot rental market in SD. I'm a multifamily investor, but I think there is a good argument to be made for SFR investing with San Diego headed toward a more multifamily way of life. SFRs will be harder to come by, and people may or may not pay more to live in one. And if that isn't the route you want to go, SD is becoming more and more ADU friendly which is proving to be a great investment as well.

If you ever need a third party perspective or a fresh set of eyes on your plans, let me know!

@Jonard Lopez Defining the common areas vs personal space is huge. Also explaining how things get paid for if something in the common area breaks. You will need to create even more detailed systems and house rules to pull it off. But if done correctly, using this strategy can be more lucrative. If you need any help or an outside party's perspective don't hesitate to reach out. 

David, hopefully you got all of the vendors that you need. If not, feel free to reach out. I can help you out with some of the people you're looking for. I invest in similar areas as you. I live in University Heights and have 4 units in the North Park/Normal Heights area and looking to scale in the neighborhood. Would love to connect! 

Hey Ward. I'm surprised nobody commented on this one. But hopefully you got it all figured out. I know that the rule for attached ADUs is that they can not be larger than 50% of the "main house". I like the thinking with the duplex, hopefully the zoning allowed for it. The laws are constantly changing though in favor of ADUs though. Let me know if you need a 3rd person perspective or want to connect! I'm active in the North Park/Normal Heights areas with 4 investment units and my primary residence.  

Is there any HOA board that you can go to?

I just started using Cozy which was recently bought out by Apartments.com for my personal portfolio in San Diego. I love it. Its free. I can accept payment, track expenses and maintenance requests. The only downside is that it takes about 5 days for the money to hit your account. But to me, it's worth it. My tenants like it and I like it. It even has a feature that allows renters to use their rent payment to help build their credit. I heard about it by reading the House Hacking book from BP. 

That info is going to differ market to market, so I would say there won't be any website or one stop shop for that info unless your city/county of choice provides that. But it is certainly not secret or hidden info. Usually it is common practice for a seller to disclose what their monthly operating expenses to potential buyers. You could even locate properties that fit your criteria  (whether for sale or not), find out who the owner is through public record, and contact them and ask. It would be a great way to network and maybe even land an off market deal too. 

@Jared Smith I would check out the details on the warranty. Sometimes it's good and other times not so much. Every time I got it, I always ended up having to pay a somewhat expensive copay and the workers they sent out were always worthless and rude because they know that the work will come to them no matter how awful they are. It ended up not being worth it for me, so I stopped getting it. 

What would the rental situation look like if you rented out the extra room in your long term rental? The best short term rental strategy I have come across would be to buy a property and have it as your primary residence to take advantage of leverage opportunities and then use it as an Air BNB. I would target multi unit properties where you could live in a unit and Air BNB the other unit. If you can Air BNB it that first month too you can cash flow heavily while you're waiting on that first mortgage payment. I also have a buddy who loves to travel so he'll travel for a month or stay with family while his place is rented out. He'll stay in hostels when traveling to keep his costs low. 

Finally, I live in a city with Air BNB month long restrictions like you explain and something that I have picked up when it comes to that rule is that you don't have to rent out your place for 28 days at a time. The rule only asks that you have one renter per 28 days. So what I see is people will rent out their place for a weekend or week and then live in it for the rest of the month. You could never require a person to stay in your place for exactly 28 days. I see a lot of confusion with that rule.

And finally, I wouldn't come on Bigger Pockets and ask people to invest in the properties you want to buy unless your name is Brandon Turner. Too many newbies out there posting similar stuff, and too many "gurus" on here claiming to have the secret to REI. The best way to get investors to fund your deals and trust in you is to start meeting people in your areas. Attend meet ups and networking events. People usually work with a family member or close friend the first time they use someone else's money to gain the experience they need to prove themselves to a potential investor outside of their sphere.

Hope that helps. 

@Account Closed Congrats on getting your license and switching careers! Sorry to hear the beginning hasn't been the best for you. But don't be discouraged! Many new agents go through this. And it sounds like you have some great passion and ideas!

I may just be a normal guy but what I hear is the most effective way to scale is daily, consistent action. Post daily facts, posts, videos, etc on IG or Facebook, whichever you feel is best. And then track how each effort works out for you, and then continue and build upon the routes that get you the most business and ditch the ones that don't. The biggest thing is daily action. That's how the algorithms on social media work. You want to become THE guy that people think of when they think of real estate in your area. Which brings me to point number 2. Niches.

I don't think you need to be an experienced realtor to have a niche. In fact, I personally think that niches are best chosen as early as possible. I believe this because time will be your best friend when it comes to your niche. Becoming an expert takes time, so choosing a topic sooner than later allows for more study time. For me, historical homes are very popular and I grew up learning everything about the owners, neighbors, design, etc. So when I wanted to become an agent, I started a historic home IG and posted daily content. And then I made it a habit to post daily and still do it today. I'm only saying this to show you the effectiveness of doing this, but when I started posting quality content daily, top agents in my market started reaching out to me to meet up, same with clients and deals.

Now you mentioned farming, which I know nothing about, but you do!! Sounds like a great niche or topic of conversation. Think about it, how long was real estate investing and financial freedom around before Bigger Pockets came around? Decades? Centuries? They weren't reinventing the wheel or waiting to prove themselves in order to launch. They just jumped in and got to work. Sounds like you got this. 

Good luck!