All Forum Posts by: Becca F.

 How north of San Francisco is this 10 plex? Is this considered part of the Bay Area? Just curious. Please DM me if you don't want to post this publicly. 

 Yes I meant AirBnb and Mid-term rentals, rent by the room, glamping (although I probably wouldn't go that route), buying commercial RE and running a business (for me that would be a lot of work with a W2 job and buying property locally or leasing out a space is expensive here). I know a few people involved in syndications and someone asked me if I wanted to participate and I passed. I would prefer to have control over my own property.

If I don't want the stress of RE I'm just going to buy index funds/stocks/bonds - much easier to liquidate than getting back my money in a syndication that's not doing well.  I'd consider real estate debt funds and private lending but that's not on my immediate radar right now. 

I think you have to find what your strengths are and what your risk tolerance is in different areas of RE and look at your entire financial picture. 

@Drew Sygit

I brought up that question in a post several months addressing the agents of a certain Midwest market (hint: it begins with an "O" and I don't want to stir up their keyword search lol). One claimed that their clients are getting $200 cash flow and I asked if this was a someone buying in 2024 or 2014. 

I'm not a beginning investor but my previous properties were acquired pre-2013 but I've made beginner mistakes trying to grow buying "cash flow on paper" Class C properties in 2023. 

I've talked to new investors from BP and local meet ups. I'm seeing a mix of people house hacking in the Bay Area and OOS. It's usually someone with a high W2 income buying a primary then doing Mid-Term or Short-Term Rentals with an ADU. The ones buying OOS that I've talked to at length have been mostly Indianapolis metro area (where my OOS properties are) - someone wanting to buy in Texas wouldn't be talking to me for an hour long conversation. I"m also seeing people doing STRs to get the tax benefits besides the higher cash flow.

The more experienced investors with more capital are buying apartment complexes and doing syndications (one asked me if I wanted to participate...I passed) in San Antonio or doing commercial RE. Some other cities are Dallas, OKC, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. I don't observe too many people buying multi-family in the Bay Area with our rent control laws but there are deals here. 

This is very helpful. That's about what mine cost to set a living trust with the documents you mentioned. With setting up LLCs would someone go to their Secretary of State website and do this? In California there is $800 franchise tax per LLC per year, which discourages a lot of RE investors from getting an LLC. Anderson did explain to me that there is a workaround with this fee but all this layering different entities for their costs is going to cost me more than an LLC I'll set up on my own. Since you're in Wyoming isn't setting up a Wyoming Trust a lot easier than for us out of state people?

Going back to the OP, I'm not sure what fees NY charges for LLCs and how many properties or businesses he has but I think these "asset protection" companies overcharge people. 

I got on a call with them. Depending on the size of your portfolio and what you're doing in real estate, it may or may not be worth it setting up all these entities.

I don't run any other businesses. Mine are long term rentals (in 2 states), 3 SFH and 1 mult-unit and they recommended a Wyoming Trust over a Holding Company over an LLC for each property. For me it was at total for $13,000 for first year set up with filing fees, registered agent etc. There were platinum and non-platinum plans. The second year it was less but there are annual fees. My jaw dropped open at that amount for only 4 properties. I see their ads pop on my social media and I think there are some scare tactics.

For my personal situation it wasn't worth it. I could buy a LOT of umbrella (additional liability) insurance for $13,000. Another investor recommend that I talk to an attorney who would set one up Wyoming Trust and LLCs for much less. It's not the first priority on my mind. I bought lots of umbrella insurance.

I'd recommend you talk to a local attorney and compare services and fees with Anderson. I also talked to Prime Corporate Services. Their fees were less than Anderson but I've heard mixed reviews with both companies. It comes down to your own risk tolerance. No one right decision for everyone. 

I'm taking a break from buying and my previous approach of analyzing deals in inexpensive markets, looking at hundreds of properties on Zillow and running the numbers, which I spent hours each on each day and became really burned out. Buying RE is nothing like buying index funds or stocks - Google it for 15 minutes, click on buy shares. And the exit strategy with RE is much more difficult if you buy a property doesn't align with your goals.

I completely agree with getting reps in real life, walking properties, talking to contractors and investors. This is what I recommend to new investors who contact me asking if these numbers look good. I'm now figuring out how to maximize the return on current properties and add value, efficient ways to self manage, etc. I still attend local meet ups and talk to dozens of investors and am considering other strategies like Mid-Term Rentals or rent by the room. Taking a break from buying but not from learning and networking. 

I've seen the pattern with Bay Area people moving out to Brentwood, Oakley and both cities' home prices have gotten expensive - I consider Antioch/Pittsburg as part of the Bay Area and now Brentwood. I know a few people including co-workers who moved out to Manteca and Stockton and do the horrendous commute

Interestingly there's been a bit of a comeback with San Francisco after people wanting to move out to the suburbs during COVID. I know some diehard city people who just love living there. Those that could afford the huge mortgage bought a primary, built ADU and did STRs or MTRs in S.F. The home values are still lower than pre-pandemic and far fewer multiple offers.

Vegas was the big topic among my local meet up circle. One of my commercial RE agent friends  here moved out there. I haven't heard much talk about Northern Nevada.

I'm one of the people considering leaving California for Nevada. My rental properties in the Bay Area aren't in a fire zone but I live in a fire zone. I'm scared of how much my insurance will go up after the LA fires but there is a cap with CA regulations and also being dropped. 

My property tax base on my primary is somewhat reasonable but the total property tax goes up because of all the special assessments, some of which make no sense to me (and I didn't vote for those). Sales tax is also very high. I'm kinda of tired of all the people, traffic and rat race even though the Bay Area has so many amenities,

One of my thoughts was the land constraints with Reno and prices going up dramatically.  I wish I had bought in Nevada 10 years ago (silently crying lol). 

I started a new post asking people's thoughts about insurance costs in your local area and specifically costs to rebuild and other challenges:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/95/topics/1227051-insur...

 I agree the search feature is terrible. When I've searched for something, 20 pages pops up and I'll skim through some of the posts to see if I find my answer.

I have seen an improvement with the Gurus, Book and Course Reviews forum. There used to be the one post people "the shills" saying how great XYZ's Mentorship program was. Then the owner of said program would respond defending his/her program. I haven't noticed those posts in a very long time. 

I also used to type very detailed responses and I don't have the time or energy now. I have talked to or done Zoom calls with several people from the DMs. I think those are much more productive for the person asking for help than back and forth essay length messages. With one BP poster I encouraged him to come out to a local meet up and met him in person and he was able to talk much more experienced investors in our group for further advice. I've also talked to a couple of experienced investors on the phone and I will be forever grateful to their advice and for helping me out without charging me thousands of dollars for a coaching program. 

Wow I should do the two sentences responses lol. Mine are still four to five sentence paragraphs or two. 

I"m not sure if the forums are getting worse. I've only been on here since 2022. My posting and commenting has decreased significantly in the last several months but after the LA fires, I'm participating more. I will comment sometimes, usually a California investor, asking for advice and I don't think those are AI. I don't notice the obvious AI posts - I do notice some of the copy and paste but then my brain cells are tired lol 

The "should I get an LLC" question has been posted hundreds of times. I'm not trying to scale anymore so not looking to partner with anyone etc. I'm looking at other parts of my portfolio besides RE and I will attend local meet ups to address my specific situation.

I agree that I have responded in comments to a OP or DM'ed them directly and never heard back as to what they did. It seems like 50 comments and the OP was a one and done poster. Sometimes I will hear back months later in DM, which is a nice surprise.