All Forum Posts by: David Fawcett

@Wes Blackwell you are telling me that Stockton's population is growing?  Once again you are reading into statistics.  For a former resident of Stockton you should know that Stockton's population grows every year for a couple months, because of the farming community.  That population also leaves just as fast as they came.  But, even if you want to believe your statistics that Stockton's population is growing you are forgetting the rest of the rules for investors.  

Stockton is the ONLY city to file for bankruptcy.  Stockton has a suffering fire dept, police dept (waiting for the you to post the article that Stockton has more police than every before, because that's what they tell you)  and is STILL struggling with its finances.  Stockton has zero job growth.  Stockton has businesses leaving town, not coming to town.  Of the two major malls in Stockton, one of them is almost completely empty.  That's right, all the businesses left.  Stockton had an opportunity to lure an Amazon distribution hub, but nope Stockton leadership wanted to tax the heck out of them, so they went to Tracy (who gave them tax breaks for two years).  See Stockton's problems are deeper than your statistics show.  This is the point I'm trying to tell you.

Personally if you are telling people to invest in downtown Stockton, that is the worst advise you can give.  Downtown Stockton is dying.  They keep throwing money into it because every guru tells them a thriving city has a wonderful downtown, but once again Stockton's downtown is not dying, its dead!  Downtown Stockton is one of the most violent places in Stockton.  The city adjusted the reporting districts of "downtown" so it would look like crime is down, just to lure businesses.  It didn't work.  Once the new downtown theater was built, they virtually had cops standing on every corner protecting it, but that didn't work either.  Stockton's problems run deeper than you are telling your clients.  Once again, I'm not saying you cannot make money in Stockton, but it is not going to grow like Sacramento.  

@Pavan Sandhu I never questioned Wes'.  To be honest most people on this site have more real estate experience than me.  I'm not a "know it all" person, and I love to learn.  I just would hate to see an out of the area investor get a raw deal.  My purpose behind this was not to attack Wes (hopefully Wes does not feel that way), just be aware that realtor.com and a couple stats that the city releases may not be gospel.  I pay people for their expert advise, and I usually follow it.  If you look at my short bio I might claim to be an expert of this area =)

@ Wes Blackwell here's the thing......anyone that has taken statistics knows that you can argue the numbers any which direction.  So, with that being said, crime is not down in Stockton.  Ask anyone on this site that lives in the Stockton area and they will tell that crime is alive and well in Stockton.  I'm not bashing Stockton and to be honest, I used to live in Stockton myself.  What is happening is less crime is being report and new technology is out.  So the police do not even respond to all crimes, which means people may or may not file a police report over the internet.  

Lets take car crashes accidents as an example.  The police used to respond to all car crashes and take an accident report.  Now the police do not respond unless certain criteria are met.  The police will instead tell you to report this to insurance.  So, if I told you car crashes were down would you believe me?  I hope not, just less of them are being reported.  This is the problem with the police being so short staffed.  

Stockton has some very nice parts in it, but it's not like most cities.  Stockton has been under poor management for many many years.  The only reason Tubbs won by a landslide was due to other candidate being arrested for child molest.  Of course he won.  Tubbs is trying his hardest I'm sure, but you cannot fix Stockton's problems the way he is trying to. 

Stockton's population is not going to grow the way its projected.  It hasn't in 17 years since I've lived in the area.  Stockton has financial issues, which is why it went through bankruptcy.  Stockton needs to lure big businesses for tax base money, then the population will rise.

There are other places to live just outside of Stockton.  A lot of people move to the outskirts of Stockton and get more bang for their buck.  All I'm really trying to tell you is Stockton is not going to be the next big thing!  Can you make money in Stockton, yes.  

@Wes Blackwell. While I respect your numbers and comparisons to other cities, I do not agree that Stockton is a good market for (most) investors. The reason for low prices is because Stockton has lots of problems. We can start by saying poor city management and high crime rate (one of America’s 10 most violent cities per capita). Stockton city council recently passed a program to pay criminals not “to shoot guns”. They don’t care if you rob, rape, sell drugs or commit other violent crime, just no “gun violence”. So for most investors who choose to purchase homes in “good neighborhoods”, Stockton in general does not cut it. I’m not saying that you cannot make money, but I’ve seen people list duplex’s on the marketplace that are in absolute war zones. So to say Stockton is going to be #4 metro market, I don’t buy that.

Jonathan McGee welcome! Sounds like you have a fantastic start in the business. Welcome to BP!

Hi Tom. I’ll give you my two cents. Without getting into details on how the suicide occurred, I do think proper clean up is a must! I’ve been inside many crime scenes (more than I wish to talk about), and there are many health risks you need to consider. Like I said depending on how this person took his own life will probably depend on the steps you need to take. Every state and county are probably a little bit different, but I know we have a county office called “Victim Witness”. I’ve seen the county cover the cost of clean up (sometimes partial, sometimes full). If you have any questions of me, please don’t hesitate to ask.

I know people that use craigslist, hotpads, and rentometer.com. Usually between the three you get a good idea. Hope that helps

Welcome to California. It’s truly a wonderful place to live! I have lived all over California, but I would not invest in the beach communities. They are fantastic to live in and visit, but they are very very expensive. If I were going to invest I would look towards the Central Valley of California. Just my two cents. Let me know if you have any questions.

Hi everyone. I’m a California based investor and I’m looking for a real estate agent in the Memphis, TN area who has experience dealing with out of state investors. Any recommendations would be fantastic.

Victor I’m sure it will perform as anticipated. That was kind of one of my questions that I️ asked MIP, “how do you know it will get the rent you are thinking?” They have a very good database to support the figures they provided you. Yes you will have prepaid items at closing. You will have to pay for insurance (I️ think a year in advance) and taxes (I️ think 3 months). Hope that helps