All Forum Posts by: Sam Lee

Thanks for the info, i am from the bay area and looking at investment opportunities. I'll check out SJREI

Hey, I would also like to know good areas to invest in South Bay.

I would say that the biggest factor in real estate and also the stock market is job creation. If you don't have a job, you don't want to buy a house, expensive furniture to furnish the house, and consume/go out and spend.

Right now the unemployment rate is hovering at 8%. Looking at the stock market for gains in real estate is not such a good idea. However, there is a general rule you can follow, the stock market is a lot more receptive to what is going on in a day by day basis. Whatever the crisis/boom might be that day,week, or month.

Real estate is generally slower and more stable. If the economy were to pick up today, the stock market would definetly rise instantly. However, in real estate, it might take 2 years for the news to effect house prices.

PS, the stock market bottomed out in march 2009. I suspect real estate is just now slowly bottoming out right now in 2012 in most metro areas. Real estate lagggg

Yeah, i'll think about it. I haven't really considered doin that. I only have $40k, can I do anything substantial with that? I genuinley have not educated myself in real estate investments with such small downpayments.

Currently, that money is in stocks (apple). I have been quite fortunate to have that sum double twice within a span of four years, so stocks have worked out for me thus far. It is more of a factor of getting lucky with the market timings now that I think about it :D

Yea, I will look into investing in like a duplex with a $40k warchest

I think you are right when you say I want a passive role in real estate. But then again, I simply don't know, maybe I will come to enjoy owning an apartment that has double in value in 12 years.

Hardmoney lending is sort of like being a limited partner in a real estate partnership with a little more skin in the game. I wouldn't count out partnership as long as I team up with a 20 year vetern general partner that I trust, and I can be a limited partner with cash flow benefits and an equity stake in the building.

Right now, I am focusing on my career in finance. That's why passive investing appeals to me

Hi all, I am on my way to save $100,000 in 5 years and wanted to know about what the mentality of a successful real estate investor should be. My dream would be to form a partnership each contributing $100,000 for a million+ real estate investment deal. My one concern is that the stress of managing the tenants or worrying about burning out and losing intereste/desire.

How should you, the successful real estate investor think? I have done my first real estate deal and was a little burned out by all the stress (by managing the house and such), and things went a little sour. I didn't lose any money, only the opportunity cost of using that money for great returns.

Do you guys have any advice? thanks :D

I have yet to purchase an apartment building but I want to know how much cash reserve you need when you first buy the building, and then when you are running it. Let's say the downpayment (20%) is $100k, how much would you generally need behind that in cash reserve?

an extra 20K? 50k? or maybe % would be more helpful

I want to know because I estimate saving a certain sum by XX year for the downpayment, but I may need to save more depending on the cash reserve

Thanks!

so 15-25% downpayment you say? How much cash would I need to get things going when operating the apartment; repairs, maintenance, ect? What % cash buffer do you retain?

Also Im looking at deals online, what other places do you look?

Ok, thanks for the quick reply. I will take that into consideration. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Honestly, I can probably bump the monthly rent to 2500 (1000,1000,500) a month easily and dont know if the 50% rule would be a real world scenario. It is not a screaming buy, I'll keep looking. Thanks

so 9.1% cash on cash is not ideal. What range would you consider investing? This neighborhood is extremely stable and I will have no problem finding good tenants. Im sure risk/stability of the neighborhood is factored in to the cash on cash return and cap rate.