All Forum Posts by: Assaf Furman

@Ali Boone Where are your properties located? Are they SFH/MFH?

Welcome to Biggerpockets Emily!

The market is actually slowing down as houses stand longer om the market, which may present an opportunity for you to buy a fixer upper with your VA loan in areas where there aren't many buyers looking. The 70% rule isn't a very good rule of thumb for house hacking in this price range, as it doesn't take into account the fact you're housing payments are also your investment.

Also, when you look for comps to derive ARV, do you also look for larger homes in that area? One of the strategies for house hacking is to buy a small house and extend it, something that may not be very profitable for rehabbers since it can take too long (especially in San Jose). Just an idea to think about

@Jin Kim I thought about suggesting to buy a SFR off-market that's been rezoned for multi, but running the numbers I realized the costs to convert SFR to MFR are too high, and it could take a long time to do it.

@Jin Kim Gotcha. I'd look for a fourplex with a 3/2 main unit. 

If I wanted to be more creative, I'd look for a residential multi-unit zoned areas and try to sift through it for lots which currently have anything other than a multi unit on it. I believe agents have the access for this kind of information.

@Jin Kim

As you can see from the comments above there is no one answer, especially when your own dwelling preferences are involved. You began with the question of how to invest a certain amount and continued with asking about living in that investment property since you're also considering moving with your family (or at least it appears that way).

In my opinion you should begin with separating the two: Where to live and how to invest. Figure out your goals for each, what are the ramifications for each scenario, and you may end up realizing you can achieve those goals by living in your property. Then again, you may not and that's OK, you'll just have to find an investment property (or vehicle) in addition to your home.

I'm actively looking for a deal in Gwinnett, especially the better parts of Snellville, Lawrenceville and Suwanee 

Shalom Isca and welcome to Biggerpockets! 

It's my pleasure to welcome you to here, I hope you could get the most out of this wonderful community and turn the wealth of information to actual wealth. Feel free to shoot me a message to share whatever comes to mind.

I'm not a market expert either but there's definitely evidence for a slow down. For Santa Clara County the median sale price has gone down 1.5% the past month, the inventory has filled up and DOM has gone up a bit.

One of the explanations is that the interest has gone down to a point where PITI payments became more affordable than rent, and those who had sufficient funds for DP could go above asking price just to lock in the rate. Sellers became more and more greedy seeing they could list the property at a higher price than it's actually worth, and gradually a sort of a gap was formed between what sellers expect and how buyers evaluate the property.

It's easy to find statistics to support a notion you already have and draw conclusions from it. There are many areas in the bay area with a relatively low percentage of Asians. Did those areas  appreciated slower? (Los Gatos, Saratoga, Los Altos Hills for example) That's something you ought to look at and include in your research. Same for Alpharetta, Sandy springs and Buckhead. To complete the picture, look for other areas with high percentage of Asians outside the cores (Fremont, Milpitas for example ). How did that fact impact RE prices there?

@Account Closed

If you  take a loan in the first place you lock funds into the property (20-25%). The point that makes this strategy work is the higher appraisal of the repaired property which allows you to withdraw those funds and even more, that is, had you chosen the right deal. In the example you gave you can take out $75k (assuming a typical 25% DP) to buy another one of those and pay yourself $25k on the way and let your tenants pay the mortgage.

Furthermore, it depends on your personal goals as others have mentioned in this thread; you can be happy with a handful of free and clear properties, or want to grow a large portfolio for greater cashflow without the need to bring additional funding for each one.