All Forum Posts by: Andy Freeman

@Theresa Harris

Haha right, and for my own sanity, I don’t think a couple years would work. It would be great for a few months, to accelerate savings some, and get the ball rolling on some real estate investments, but definitely not a long term option. Thanks for mentioning that.

@Jeremy Taggart good question. Rent a small studio by work, since I’m never really home and don’t need as much space as I have, or live with family for a bit so I’m not rushed into finding something ASAP. Option A would cost me about half what I pay now. Option B would save me $4k a month.

I currently have my condo in Costa Mesa/Newport on the market (primary residence), but despite a lot of showings, no offers have come in. I wasn't really thinking of selling initially, but a couple condos in my complex sold for over $900k, and I thought I'd take a shot to see if I could get somewhere close to that. I'm listed at $899k, and don't want to really go lower. I paid $810,000 2 years back, and after paying out closing costs and commissions, I don't stand to make much if I sell for anything below the $899k number I'm at right now. However, I would recoup the dead equity I have in the house, and could likely purchase a couple rental properties using that money. The alternative is to lease it out, and because it's 0.8 miles from the beach, the comps around me actually rent for a decent 4-5k per month. If I can rent it out for $4,500, and my all in number is $4,100 per month, is that enough cash flow to justify holding on to the property? Ideally rent would increase over time, and further appreciation would occur, but there is no guarantee. Also, it's only a few years old, so repairs and maintenance costs should hopefully be held in check. I have a nice chunk saved up to get started with a rental property (location TBD), so I don't need to sell, but I'd love to hear some opinions of those who have been down this path before. This forum has really helped motivate me to not just sit and be complacent with my investment future. Thanks in advance.

Curious how you are going to get that place for $126k? Or did they bump the asking price up to 199k after you ran the numbers.

@Frank Patalano

I was raised by super conservative parents who saved methodically for years and didn't really take risks, so I don't really have them to bounce ideas off. I'm in Orange County, CA and bought a condo to get started 2 years back, but it wasn't necessarily done as an investment. I wanted to live by the beach, and worked hard to save the money to buy a place of my own. It has appreciated a bit, but I put 20% down and have a lot of dead equity sitting in there. The internal debate is whether to sell that to get the money back out to do buy some properties for investment purposes, or to rent it out (it will cash flow ever so slightly, but not $200 profit a month on $250k+ in the condo is not good). I have a good chunk of additional money saved which I should be investing in either EFT's, the stock market, etc., but I'm itching to take on a project or venture, so I'm trying to keep everything liquid. I work 50-60 hours a week, so free time is not abundant, but I really want to get some other things going so I can eventually scale back the workload in the office.

I was raised by super conservative parents who saved methodically for years and didn't really take risks, so I don't really have them to bounce ideas off. I'm in Orange County, CA and bought a condo to get started 2 years back, but it wasn't necessarily done as an investment. I wanted to live by the beach, and worked hard to save the money to buy a place of my own. It has appreciated a bit, but I put 20% down and have a lot of dead equity sitting in there. The internal debate is whether to sell that to get the money back out to do buy some properties for investment purposes, or to rent it out (it will cash flow ever so slightly, but not $200 profit a month on $250k+ in the condo is not good). I have a good chunk of additional money saved which I should be investing in either EFT's, the stock market, etc., but I'm itching to take on a project or venture, so I'm trying to keep everything liquid. I work 50-60 hours a week, so free time is not abundant, but I really want to get some other things going so I can eventually scale back the workload in the office.

 Interested as well in some recommendations for learning more about safely investing out of state. Located in Southern California and always keeping my eye open here, but want to explore other avenues as well.