All Forum Posts by: Elliot Blanford

@Diane G.

How to tell if something is discrimination: replace “3 young professionals” with “immigrants” or “Jewish people” or whatever group you want and see how that question sounds.

The answer is yes, it is discrimination because you are assuming, without knowing much about the people, that they are going to be bad tenants. Regardless of whether it turns out to be true, what you are proposing is discrimination. What if they are all traveling salespeople and they want to share the apartment because they are only home 4 days a month?

I think your actual question is are they a protected class and can I legally discriminate against them.

Oh ya I was just kidding the current rent is probably around 5k.  

@Ben Biggs do you have any insight into how people are pricing 2-4 unit properties in san diego? Cap rates are all over the place, it seems like they are going off sqft and comps.

Hi guys,

I was looking around redfin today and I saw this property that has not very much info, but it's been on the market for 5 months and had a price reduction already so I'm gonna assume it's not a great deal. But there's not a lot of info on the description so I started thinking, if I went to see the property and talked to the owner, is there anything I could possibly discover that would make this place a good buy?

I'm curious what you guys would say? I mean sure 13,000 in rent and a bunch of cash stuffed in the walls would be a start, but hypothetically what would you look for? Another hypothetical, if you were the one who inherited it, what would you do with it?

https://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Diego/4383-Montalvo-St-92107/home/5351890

Hi Patrick,

Welcome to SD! Looks like you are pretty sharp and have done a lot of research.  I don't know if you are from here originally or just coming for college, but I think you'll find out pretty soon that you can take all the heuristics people use in other markets and throw them in the trash.  I started UCSD from 2008-2012 after getting out of the Marines and of course I wish I had been able to buy something at that time.  I can give you a little advice from personal experience, but I'm not that experienced I just live here.  Like some people said already, you can't use your financial aid or BAH to qualify for loans so you need to find private money.  

I think house hacking is a good strategy when you are in college, but you aren't going to find any deals like you read about where the tenants pay the whole mortgage.  Also, I would advise against opting into a 30 minute commute to school if you are serious about engineering.  In UTC you might be able to buy a 3 br condo, rent out each bedroom to other students, then rent the living room to another student, then live in a tent in the backyard and maybe get some cash flow :D (BTW, I think there's a law in san diego that you can have a max of 4 unrelated adults living in one house. You should check before doing anything like that)

That being said, I just bought a condo in UTC last year and on paper the value has gone up 40,000.  I'm looking to buy another and you can see from the past sale prices, people who bought 3 years ago are cashing out around 100,000 appreciation.  So I think the problem is you are competing with investors who are willing to take negative cash flow for a piece of that appreciation and you'll get outbid every time.  Anyway, send me a message if you want to talk more