All Forum Posts by: Brandon Hopkins

Hey Phillip! I'm also in Madera, small world!

Regarding a real estate agent, I have one I use locally, but contacting an agent would be the last thing I would do. Get your funding, down payment and everything else lined up first.

Then start looking for deals, in this area you're going to have a very difficult time finding anything that cash flows.

A real estate agent doesn't care about you and your business as much as you do, they're just there to write the offers and do the paperwork (my opinion) and you shouldn't rely on the them to find deals. You should tell them when you're ready to see a home and make an offer.

I don't do much investing locally but one of the best deals I've seen lately was a duplex downtown (not the best area), across from one of the banks, Wells Fargo I think. It would have been about A street or somewhere near there. It was about half a block from Yosemite. The duplex was recently renovated listed at $110k then dropped to $90k if I remember correctly.

It was old (1960's built I think) and might have been 1% if you could get both sides rented, keeping renters would have been tough in that area. I would estimate rent for one of the duplexes at $450-550 but when you account for expenses you're not making much money. Like I said, deals are hard to find around here!

Good luck in your new venture, it sure is fun!

I work with a great PM in Madera. Not sure if they come to Fresno. You're going to have a hard time cash flowing in Fresno especially if you want to stay in a nice area.

Sounds like he has worked hard, earned his retirement and you're looking to cash in on his work. Reading a couple books doesn't make you a flipper. I don't do flips but I do light rehab and I haven't found one that was under budget yet. Don't sacrifice your dad to move up your timetable.

I paid cash for a condo with high HOA fees. I still have it and obviously it cash flows but it's not a great investment. I was anxious and saw something I could afford and jumped on it.

Sorry to hear about all of the unexpected capex! I can't help but feel your pain.

Bad idea! I just closed on a house and the sellers wanted to stay 7 days to get the stuff out because they needed money from the sale. The day before closing chandeliers were stolen along with other items (inside job). I can only imagine the problems if I would have agreed to 7 more days. The seller wrote me a check to cover the stolen items and damage.

Without a good realtor and PM investing out of state is asking for trouble. With good people it's the same as investing locally. My real estate agent sent me pictures of everything, inspector did the same. PM found a couple minor things like a couple light bulbs and a stuck window. Those are things I wouldn't have noticed if I walked it myself.

Since you can save $20k per year, why not start with something small so the tough lessons don't hurt as much? If you spent a total of $20k on a down payment and closing costs you should be able to profit a couple hundred dollars per month.

What do you want to do? I don't like to do construction so I prefer homes closer to rent ready buts that's my preference. What's your preference?

Are you trying to invest in your backyard? That's my problem in California, returns are poor. My solution was out of state investing.