All Forum Posts by: Brandon Cristiano

@matt 

@Matt K. appreciate your perspective and I'm finding myself thinking like you in regards to the lack of protection / risk of being a landlord in CA. Unfortunately for right now, my partner is receiving a gift from her parents and they are strong advocates against rent control areas. They have multiple buildings in the bay area, some in rent control but most in not and they are really driving us to invest in non-rent control areas. We are limiting our search to these areas for now. But my gf and I plan on investing out of state like you said to give us the cash flow we'd like to have in our portfolio. 

So invest in the bay for equity / appreciation and in the future invest out of state for the cashflow. 

@Brian Garlington we're pre-approved (fully) for 2-4 units at different price points. And are actively searching for properties right now. 

@Brian Garlington thank you for the response! I'm not familiar with how Section 8 or Adobe programs work other than their rents are paid for. My follow up questions to you would be: 

- Is there a limit to section 8 / adobe rent? How much are these programs willing to pay? 

- What extra precautions / legal compliance do you have to take to have these types of tenants in your property? 

- Curious as to what you were able to get approved for higher rents? Oakland's CPI from 2021 - 2022 is 1.9% - were you able to beat that? 

@Greg San Martin thank you for the detailed response and perspective on Berkeley RE. I'll definitely spend more time looking into TOPA, joining BPOA and finding a good RE attorney. I think you're right that it makes more sense to find a more "saner" or stable city to invest in the bay area before entering Berkeley. The whole TOPA thing is worrying as an investor, sounds like a very strange way to go about business for landlords. What's the further incentive if you're fighting off  lawsuit after lawsuit in Berkeley (which I anticipate would happen given the demographics of the city). 

Hi Everyone - long time lurker here on BP but really am hoping to get y'alls perspectives on potentially investing in rent controlled cities like Oakland or Berkeley, CA. My gf and I are 1st time home buyers in the Bay Area and are looking for a 2-4 unit property (owner occupied) to jumpstart our RE investing journey. 

If you're familiar with the Bay Area RE market, you'll know that rent control is a popular thing in the area. I'm not totally against buying something in these rent controlled areas but we've been giving advice that we should avoid at all costs. However, the supply in the Bay is limited and a lot of MF properties in the Bay come from Berkeley/Oakland. 

Any advice, input, perspective would be greatly appreciated as we continue on in our search. Has anyone found success with investing in rent controlled areas over the long term? What creative solutions did you use to become successful? What about any failures? 

Hoping this sparks a conversation and I'm sure other RE investors in the Bay Area are considering the pros/cons here as well. 

Thank you! 

@Brooke Noth

This is perfect and thank you for sharing this with me! Definitely something I'll need to investigate more but good to know I don't need to liquidate until much later in the process. 

Hi Everyone - just as the title states, I'm looking to buy my 1st multifamily property at some point this year (in the bay area so market is insanely competitive). I remember reading or hearing things about having the cash for a down payment in your account before you go to close on a property. 

If anyone has knowledge about what lenders/sellers are looking for in terms of stable cash accounts, any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, since I'll most likely be taking some sort of 401k loan out - how long before seriously looking to buy a property should I make that withdrawal? 

Thanks in advance! 

Hi Everyone - I could use help looking at this potential deal. quick backstory - my aunt recently passed away so my mom has been given the house in the will but is looking to sell asap. I'm interested in purchasing this home as my 1st investment. It's located in Pittsburgh, PA and i'm currently running research on rent prices for SFH in the area (I'm anticipating 1k - 1200 per month.)

Would appreciate if others could look at my numbers and let me know your thoughts on it. Thank you!

Hey everyone! I'm just getting started in my RE journey. I currently live in the Bay so RE is way too expensive to invest in at this time. I'm originally from Pittsburgh, PA and still have family in the area. Ideally I would be looking to get started in Pittsburgh so I have some people to watch over my properties. I'm looking to get into multi-family with a strategy to buy & hold. Target neighborhoods would be surrounding the colleges and where tech companies are beginning to build in. 

If you're in the Bay area or Pittsburgh I'd love to connect and discuss more. Looking forward to building new connections!