All Forum Posts by: Da Shiek Woodard

Hi all,

Since the last time I was here, I purchased a primary home in Northern Virginia.  I backed into a rental property a few years ago by taking a job in Washington DC, so I relocated without selling my California home.  Now it cash flows $700 per month, which I'm grateful for and inspired by.

Now to the question: After purchasing my primary I don't have a lot of cash. A few hours away from me in various states (PA, MD, VA) there are duplexes for $50K or even lower sometimes on Zillow. I'm more interested in cash flow than equity because I want to build up my cash reserves, but I'm sure there are other ways besides searching Zillow. Have any of you succeeded with alternative strategies like auctions or driving for dollars, or creative partnership deals I'm not thinking about? I'm handy so I can offer sweat equity in a partnership, and I will have some cash to bring to the table as well (right now about $10K to $20K). Any advice or success stories you can share is appreciated, I need to expand my knowledge and imagination on what's possible.

Hi all, I own a house in California that I am renting to a tenant through a property management company (I live out of state now so I opted for property management). My tenant’s lease expired July 31 and she hasn’t paid rent for August or September. My property management company says they cannot evict her due to California’s moratorium on evictions through January 2021. When I read the Senate bill it doesn’t seem to allow a tenant to live rent free without penalty, is anyone else dealing with this?

@Ali Boone I’ve probably delivered mail to you, I used to work in Venice many years ago. 😁

You and Dan both have great points, I’m curious of how you weigh the expenses of owning a home against the expenses of renting one? Home ownership provides certain tax relief and major markets like LA tend to appreciate in value. Even if they only appreciate flat with inflation, renting doesn’t appreciate at all. With the theory of “I have to live somewhere” it seems advantageous to have an asset with some liabilities (mortgage) rather than a complete liability (renting). The ideal situation would be house hacking but between the two listed above am I still not looking at the whole picture?

These responses have been great. I tend to agree with those that say I should find a primary residence first. As long as I shop with the mindset of making the primary into a rental after the obligatory one year of residency, I can acquire cash flowing properties while I continue to learn about teal estate investing. This would become my second rental property and I could do this for the next few years until I generate enough equity to seek out a nice multi unit property to house hack.

I think this is a good solution because I have to live somewhere so I need to pay myself to do that. It also keeps me walking toward my goals until I can sprint toward them.

@Eric C. Multi family units are not common here unfortunately, at least not 2 - 4 units that would qualify for 3% down. House hacking is always an option, just a bit more challenging for families because of the security logistics involved. Great points though on your part.

Picture it: Washington DC, 2020...

•$20K in cash allotted for real estate

•Excellent credit

•One rental property that cash flows $300

•W2 Salary $90K/yr

•Renting primary residence at $2200/mo

My question is do you think it’s more important to focus on adding doors to this portfolio or to purchase a primary residence to eliminate the rental expense?

@Isaac White I believe they were single units. I am much closer to Baltimore but it seems to be an extremely volatile area like Detroit. Plus, Maryland is rather challenging for investors from what it seems. From initial research it seems to me that Ohio is more investor friendly.

@Brian Downs this is gold, thank you. I’ll immerse myself in these websites and keep running mock numbers for a bit to get a feel for this region. I can see myself focusing on this area, especially since many of you are doing exactly that.

@Pete Barrow I agree, I think that’s what intrigues me is that it is doable for me to go research a bit. It seems to be an interesting market though.

@Robert Ellis I’d love to learn more. I am in the DC area but I own a rental in California so I’m not terrified of long distance investing or using property management companies. My liquidity is not strong enough for DC so a smaller market is very attractive to me.