All Forum Posts by: Bonnie Low

We've always liked college towns for rentals as they tend to have very low vacancy rates. I'm wondering how COVID-19 is impacting the rental markets since so many Universities are doing distance learning this year? Seems like a risky time to buy rentals in college towns for the time being, but also an opportunity to sit back and wait for prices to drop if this situation continues throughout the school year.

@Dustin Ruhl - how are things looking in Indianapolis now that we're 8 months into 2020 and about 6 months into COVID-19? Where we live the market is still on fire (though too expensive) but I'm wondering how it's impacting previously hot markets elsewhere.

I'm an out of state investor looking at certain metro areas of Tennessee to purchase cash flow properties. I'm noticing lots of homes coming up in FEMA flood zones. My questions to property owners in any of the metro areas of Memphis/Nashville/Chattanooga is how often is flooding an issue and do you have difficulty obtaining flood insurance? We flipped a property in California that sat just above a creek that floods about once every 10 years and we had a heck of a time getting flood insurance for it. We couldn't turn it over fast enough!

totally agree @Jay Hinrichs - as someone living at the tip of the northern Central Valley those rents seem way too low. Not saying this part of the state is a good investment, but I’d look for possible rent increases. 

$625/mo rents anywhere in CA seems very low. Where, exactly, is this? I’m in far northern CA (by Redding) and we can get more than that in rents for MF. Redding has a crappy economy and little job growth. So I’d look closely at your rents. But I agree with others - CA tends not to be good for cash flow, which is why we flip here but plow our profit into buy and holds out of state. We’re also starting some new builds because inventory is so low here and suddenly everyone is flipping houses and paying too much for them. So look again at your rents. Maybe there’s a value add opportunity there. 

@ Adam we live near you and are contemplating the same thing. IMO, the purchase price point for flips in the Redding area is getting unreasonable. Too many people in the market willing to pay too much. We first thought we'd use flips to capitalize our investment pool for purchasing buy-and-holds but it's getting tougher to find flips in this area that will help us build our capital pool quickly enough. Plus, we want OUT of the northstate - badly! As soon as our youngest graduates high school next year we're moving east. We're focusing on Idaho both for flipping and buy and hold. Our pool of cash goes much further there. And you'd be surprised at how much growth, investment, jobs and Californians are migrating to Idaho. 

Find it, Fix it, Flip it by Michael Corbett. This is the book that got us started. Super easy read that de-mystified house flipping for me.

What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow by Frank Galinelli. Incredibly detailed financial metrics valuable for all investors.

The 4 Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. Not for everyone but there's some real freedom in many of his suggestions!

We own a 2/1 recently renovated single family home in Red Bluff CA. It is in a 100 yr flood plain. We need to get a flood insurance quote. Our current company, State Farm will not offer flood insurance. Can someone recommend other carriers? The house is on the market currently. Thanks!

It's a very bad situation and you have to feel empathy for the kids. But you also must protect yourself. There are agencies that can help her and, as you said, she has friends and family in the area. Get an attorney and get her out as soon as the lease expires. As hard as it is to be tough, her problem is not your problem. You've tried several times to be accommodating and have probably even (unintentionally) conditioned her to expect it. It will never get better. It will only be new or different problems. Try to work through an attorney so you don't have to interact with her. It will be money well spent.

Since the rest of your portfolio is paid for, it might be a good time to leverage this larger purchase for the reasons you stated like having the W2 income to qualify. One loan, especially one that's not that large, probably won't put you in jeopardy based on how solid the rest of your portfolio appears to be. And the biggest upside is that loans are at the lowest rates we're likely to see for a long time. For those reasons, I would use the leverage this time.