All Forum Posts by: Edward Tamayo

@Joe Splitrock

Agreed 100%

@Caryn Seifert

Do you have your own umbrella policy as backup?

@Rick Albert

Yea I get it. Making it happen for your clients. In 2011 when the market was down & nobody wanted to buy, I bought a home FHA 3-1/2% down in Boyle Heights for $180k, It doubled in 3 years & I sold it & got a bigger place in Windsor Hills, But that was a whole different market. I had an awesome agent who made the deals happen simultaneously. Great agents make all the difference, so if u can pull off an FHA deal in this market, that's amazing. I know it can't be easy & takes some extra hard work. & I also commend those who are brave enough to buy rentals in LA given the rental climate which is not in favor of the small investor. A friend of mine bought a duplex in San Pedro & inherited a tenant that burned him for 10 months rent during Covid. Then the tenant ended up dying of a drug overdose which is how he got the unit back. (his first rental). Another friend of mine bought a triplex in Glassell Park about 5 years ago on a 3-1/2% FHA & the PMI was $800/month on top of the $4000 payment. I think he's finally breaking even on his monthly nut (hopefully with the equity he's done a refi by now). I love my LA house but All my rentals are in Bakersfield, much better for property owners/landlords. Low risk, good returns. Stable rental market & recently there has been some decent appreciation, (not like LA of course)…

@Jack B.

Congratulations, you’ve done well for yourself Jack B, and at such a young age. Your success in real estate investing is top notch and no one can take that away from you. You’re like “The Six Million Dollar Man”! (that was a TV show in the 70’s, you probably don’t remember it). As far as whether to cash out or parlay equity into other financial instruments or avoiding taxes or paying taxes or deferring taxes or market appreciation on X many properties or how many millions they’re worth are really questions only you can answer going forward since only you know what you want, and only you really know what it’s gonna take to get there. But it doesn’t hurt to seek advice, that’s why we’re all here. To bounce off ideas amongst one another & maybe learn a few things (for those who are actually taking your question seriously).

Now you’ve got a wide audience with all kinds of perspectives and opinions. At first your post comes off as if you’re pretty much bragging about your net worth & your great success even putting down your own girlfriend as not as savvy as you when it comes to investing. But part of what I think is maybe you’re just stating the facts of your situation, & there’s nothing wrong with that. (personally I think u got bigg bragging rights & im happy you’ve shared your story). But However, It’s like if I was to say that $6 million dollars in real estate valuation amounts to about 4 or 5 homes on my street in Los Angeles & probably worth about 2 or 3 homes two blocks away (gotta factor in the ocean & city views of downtown LA), not really a big deal around here. & sounds like business as usual for our friends up in Marin county as well. (Even though I do agree that she misread a small bit of your post). But it sounds like if you’re content retiring in the middle of nowhere driving around in your used vehicle to the fast food drive thru, then it really doesn’t matter what moves u make regarding your investments. I think at this point you’ve probably got enough invested to cover that lifestyle for a long time. I think you’ve asked and answered your own question; How to retire on single family residences, alot of equity. Good job! & happy holidays…

@Andy Luis

The thing about EastLos (&Boyle Heights) is that unless u got deep pockets to make really nice renovations to those rental units, you run a real risk of getting stuck into general slumlording, which anyone who knows about that knows it pretty much sucks. & even if u are able to make those units nice, usually the rest of the neighborhood is beat down & no one else in the area is on board with trying to fix up the block so u have the only decent house on the street. Which ultimately ends up scaring away the tenants that are actually willing to pay more. They just end up going somewhere else. & let’s not forget that ELA is still very much infested with gangs that pretty much control who’s gonna live in the barrio & who their gonna decide to run out because they don’t want their hood to change into something better. Which keeps the rents down to this day. Is there money to be made there now? Maybe. I bought a house there in 2011 to live in & sold it 3 years later for almost double. I will say I was sooo happy to move out of that area, it isn’t that hard to find a nicer area to live in once you’ve lived in the Eastside, just saying…

@Todd Kozak

Very interesting post. The deal was great for a reason.

Any seasoned landlord/property owner/manager will eventually go through something like this, more or less (hopefully less). So what did we learn here?

1. When the deal is that good, there’s gotta be a catch somewhere. (That’s why we’re in RE, because it’s still the safest investment. We’ve already fallen for all the other scams & we’re tired of it! We are believers in the value of real estate investments regardless)

2. Stop listening to the tenant. She managed to drag you out several months b4 u actually started the eviction she knowing she wasn’t going to pay or move. Why? Because she pulled it off w the last owner & she figured she could keep getting away with it, she mistaked your kindness for stupidity.

3. She’s not your tenant. You inherited her from the previous owner who obviously gave up & dumped his problem on you. Sellers &/or their agents aren’t ever willing to disclose how bad the tenant is that u are about to inherit. (we landlords are the blind optimists. Always thinking we can fix broken)

4. PAPERWORK. She was never gonna sign an agreement with you because she already knew that it was gonna be that much more complicated 4 u to evict her without a written agreement specifying that she owes rent to you. Unless you hire a lawyer or professional evictions service, it’s gonna be difficult getting her out. She knew that.

It isn’t the extra thousand it’s gonna cost to get her out, it’s the extra $10,000 it’s gonna cost to get that place back to rentable condition after all her sh#% is finally outta there…. Much luck going forward. Sounds like after this big bump you’re gonna make this work out for the best!

@Joe Splitrock

Thanks for the response. U are correct, busy landlords like myself just let the accountant deal with the tax stuff. I’d like to know more, Anything else you can add?

Much appreciated.

@Derriere Hendricks

Yeah, total scam. Good luck!

@Kristi Tietz

DONT, do classes, seminars, groups, coffee talk, or the other nonsense.

DO, research the market every day, get to know the prices, talk to real estate agents, talk to lenders, look for private money lenders in your area, find deals that are realistic for you, not pipe dream houses you can’t afford right now. Property is a move up game, you’re not gonna get the million dollar home on the first try, probably gonna take a few swings to get on base. In this market the properties choose you, you don’t choose it, just make the acquisition & make some cake out of …. Well u get the picture

@Jorge Raygoza

There are plenty of condos in Inglewood for that price range. I personally wouldn’t buy investment property in LA city unless you enjoy paying your tenants at least $10k to get them to move out every time you want to evict a bad tenant. All my rental HOUSES are in Bakersfield. Much better landlord climate, tenants rights in LA county are off the chains in favor of the tenants. & the small landlords get seriously burned, I got stories for days. U gotta be a big institutional investment company to make any money in the LA rental market. & the pro bono (free) tenants rights advocates are more than happy to represent dead beat tenants because when they win the case against the inexperienced beginner landlord (you), the judge usually ends up ordering the landlord to pay all the legal costs for the tenants lawyer, plus the relocation money for the tenant, After not paying you rent for 3 to 6 months. Hey good luck finding that investment property…