All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Hello BP.  I'm currently analyzing the Birmingham and Huntsville markets and would like some feedback from investors or professionals who have done business there within the last few years.  My research indicates that both markets have been rather flat with regard to appreciation and monthly rental cost.  Huntsville is actually on the downward trend with monthly rents, however the city seems to be attracting a good number of millennials especially in the tech sector.  I'm thinking that within the next few years, the rental cost curve will start to swing up in Huntsville, at least more so than Birmingham. Is this what you suspect also, or am I wrong?  What are other details I should take into consideration when comparing these two markets? How do you think this information would affect appreciation and/or monthly rents?  I would appreciate your honest feedback. 

Hi @Steffany Boldrini and @Dylan Mathias

I've been in the bay area for 8 years now and always enjoy chatting with local investors or professionals.  Feel free to connect with me

@Dong Yan

I do not have Earthquake insurance either.  The most obvious drawback is that it is quite expensive.  Secondly, once the claim is made, insurance companies fight back as hard as they can to avoid payment.  I'll share a brief story that is relevant to your question.  There have definitely been multiple cases where adjacent buildings suffered damage during a natural disaster, but the insurance company refused to pay a dime and was not held liable in court.  Consider two adjacent buildings, A and B.  Building A has earthquake insurance while building B does not.  Both buildings are damaged during an earthquake. Part of building B falls and comes into contact with building A as clearly observed in the aftermath.  The owner of building A files a claim with his insurance company citing damage done due to earthquake.  The claim is overturned by the company.  The insurance company refuses to pay.  The owner of building A takes the insurance company to court stating the company is liable to cover the losses to building A.  The insurance company states that the damage done to building A was not caused by the earthquake, but rather, was caused by part of building B falling into building A.  The insurance company's defense states that since building B is not covered by earthquake insurance, the liability rests either on the owner of building B, or the contractor who built building B.  The court rules in favor of the insurance company since it could not be proven that building B did not cause the damage to building A. This is actually a true story and is testament to the nature of how insurance companies operate.  

So, if considering earthquake insurance (or flood insurance, or the like), it should only be considered if the surrounding units and/or buildings have the same type of insurance relative to that natural disaster. 

@Adam Robertson

Thank you for the confirmation, Adam.  I noticed the same thing when I was looking into Memphis a couple of years ago and am considering it for a rental property once again.  Good to know the positive trend is still strong there. 

Welcome to BP, @Cedrick McKinney. Congrats on the move to one of the most expensive markets in the country! I'm also in San Jose and am also from the midwest (Chicago area). Like you two, I'm itching to get my RE investing started. I'd like to get to know other REI in the area. If interested, I'd be happy to buy you both a round if you'd like to chat RE with me sometime.

@Shane Pearlman

Shane, out of curiosity, are you moving to the Canary Islands due to mission accomplished through real estate investing? 

Before fill out this poll, I should point out that although there is a number of people planning on moving out of state (probably), there are more (a lot more) coming into the state, especially the bay area.  This influx is being driven by the expansion of the tech companies and the creation of hundreds of new tech-related jobs (my wife works for a major tech company in the bay area so I've got the inside scoop). 

• Yes, I live in CA
• Yes, since 2010
• all around the bay area
• I will be staying
• the job keeps me here (and my wife likewise)
• teacher

@Logan Aardrup @Vince Mack

I feel I have enough experience about Rich Dad to provide some helpful feedback. A few years ago, I dropped a few G's on a Rich Dad "coaching" program. This program required weekly call-ins to an expert that led the one hour lesson. As I recall, there were 10 or 12 lessons. There were homework assignments, which I found minimally helpful and informative. I have to say, however, the course was definitely not worth what I paid for it. Come to find out Robert Kityosaki, although I find his books inspirational and motivating, basically produced a marketing strategy full of hype about real estate then sold it to a third party who uses his likeness as a catch. I think Robert receives royalties from it, but the "program" is actually independent of his teaching. I found the program to be deceptive and, in fact, we (the "students") were flat out lied to in several occasions. For example, our "coach" mentioned in one of the first weeks that Robert Kiyosaki himself was going to make an appearance on the call-in and we students would have the opportunity to pick his brain. That never happened. In addition, the Rich Dad company sells the contact information of the people who sign up to other parties. I received more than one phone call from companies claiming to offer a service that helps people establish an LLC, obtain a business credit card, and help build their client's business credit worthiness by making purchases on said business credit card on behalf of the client without providing advance notice to the client! I never fell for this, but later found out that many people were taken advantage of financially and ended up filing for bankruptcy.

In short, The Rich Dad program, I found, is at least quite shady and at most a scam.  Recall that Robert Kiyosaki and Donal Trump wrote a book together and they are good friends, as I understand.  They seem to share similar practices with making promises they never intend to fulfill. Take Trumps real estate school, for example.  Total scam. 

In any case, I have found that the information contained on this site through articles, ebooks, podcasts, blog postings, etc FAR outweighs the little information I gained from the Rich Dad program.  In fact, the information I did gain from the program can easily found on this site for FREE.  My recommendation to you is that this site is pretty much all you need in terms of education. 

Hope this helps and best of luck,

- Chris

Hi @Franklin Bird, 

I was looking into Austin and Nashville a couple of years ago.  I came close, but didn't actually buy in either market.  The deterrent for me in Austin was the taxes that many out-of-state investors typically don't see coming.  As they say, everything is bigger in Texas, particularly the taxes! Nashville seemed like a decent market, though it has been some time since I looked into it. 

Hi Desiree, 

Good to meet another south bay-er on here. I worked with Dave Setti at Tunkey Mortgage Solutions (Campbell) recently and was quite impressed. My wife and I didn't buy with FHA since Dave helped us find a way out of it, but Dave is THE guy when it comes to financing real estate deals. He is a wealth of knowledge, down to earth, and knows how to close (I think he's a former marine).

Good luck

Chris