All Forum Posts by: David Affonso

How about those first time home buyers that want it to be a BRRR property? Are you able to swing this type of work without a ton of construction knowledge and using traditional first-time home buying financing like an FHA,? San Carlos is a bit out of my commute range but we have family in the area and it's "on the cusp" so could theoretically make it work for a great investment.

It'd be a 1-5 year live/reno/flip based on our careers and the commute.

I'm also interested in this.  Is there any specific information that should be included in a yellow letter besides contact info?

Is it worthwhile to indicate you "pay cash" in the letter?  I have several properties in my local neighborhood and neighborhoods I'm familiar with I'd like to send to but I don't have the cash or a buyer.  I presume if I get a good price I can find a buyer pretty easily but also don't want to mislead on the yellow letter.

Any suggestions from those who do send letters?

@Jay Hinrichs  Not sure if you are still acquiring properties on your own credit, but if not head over to www.flyertalk.com and more specifically:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credit-card-program...

This will get you first class tickets on any airline to any country and more.

@Mimi H. can you link your meetup?  I may be taking a client out for my day job but hopefully can try and make it.

@Amit M. It does seem that all the seasoned investors expect a softening rather than a crash.  I'm always the one in the room hoping for the meltdown so I can get in with a big holding.

Originally posted by @Joe Bertolino:

The incomes I see in the Bay Area are staggering, even those that are not tech related. Public school teachers are pushing $100k in many districts. My favorite restaurant in SF has about 12 seats and does about $2.5m in sales. It is not a normal economy. Tech is very important but it is far from the only game in town. When folks in the Bay Area feel
a pinch, they dump their second or third house in Carmel, Santa Cruz or Tahoe.

I've heard of a lot of folks struggling after moving out of the Bay Area to "cash out."  People make so much money here and appreciate is very high so if you sell out of the BA, it'll be really hard to buy back in unless you have a high probability of getting one of those high paying jobs. 

@Arpad Racz @Tanya Allen

There are a few REIMs in the South Bay linked below.  

http://www.meetup.com/San-Jose-Real-Estate-Network...

http://www.meetup.com/Bay-Area-Real-Estate-Buy-Hol... (this one hasn't been active in a while but I believe it comes back in Octover and it's been a really good one).

I also think @Arlen Chou hosts one in Milpitas but I can't find the link.  I went to it a month ago and it was great, all networking.

I'm also located in mountain View and am interested in accomplishing the same goal. I don't have that much money to play with but could probably pull off 1-2 SFH down payments in the 15-25k range in the next 6 months. I'd be interesting in grabbing a drink in Mt View sometime. @kevin wood is doing this right now in Houston. He was just guest for podcast 166 and lives in mountain view. It was a seriously good podcast as he was really a BP bred investor.

Originally posted by @Chris Mason:

Your realtor or lender can pull a title report and tell you who is on title and what the mailing address of the property tax bill is within like 10 seconds, but that is only AFTER you identify the specific property. 

 Got it, thanks!

This probably is a pretty newb question, but where would I get a list site for owners of properties in CA?  I'm especially interested in a few small apartment buildings (10-20 units), but also some less-maintained single families.  

My goal is to use my IT Staffing cold calling skills to try and understand why they aren't adding value to maximize rent.  I feel that I could then either try to find a buyer or recommend certain value adds that would allow me to get in with the owner/PM.  

If you're in Mountain View or the general bay area and have tips or do this work yourself and need someone to dial for dollars.  I can hit the phones pretty hard and know how to develop my value add script.

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

Thank you for the response, David, it means a lot!

Your advice is very sound and I take it all on board. I also believe I need that 'real work experience', or certainly the skills it enables me to further.

Jye 

 My dad job is in the staffing industry.  I'm confronted with people with little work experience looking to jump into something before they are ready.  It is important to take some shots and learn the ropes if you want to be successful in real estate or otherwise.

I would continue pursuing the job.  You can always not take it or quit if it's really preventing your dreams.  It sounds like the skills learned from the work experience could even be beneficial to your real estate career.  Most industries (including real estate) have aspects of sales and marketing.

I'd also recommend taking the job as it seems like you don't have any true work/career experience.  I feel that having gainful employment under your belt of any kind will be helpful in teaching yourself about accountability, time management, and also help you secure future employment if you catch an early bad break in real estate.

If you're really interested in real estate and need a cash job to help you become an investor, a lot of folks recommend working at a property management, development, construction, or other real estate related business to learn about a specific sector of the industry.