All Forum Posts by: Erick De casas

@Erick De casas

It scares me that so many people are living in older homes with bad electrical wiring. And that many people focus on how pretty the house looks (nice floors, cabinets, etc) when buying but there could be major problems underneath. The electrician gave me lots of helpful advice and that I could buy an inexpensive tester and that electrical outlets should be three pronged. I would have never known this - I almost decided to just have the kitchen cabinet doors refaced. Good thing I didn't. They did a new electrical panel also. Now the house is safe for renters and future buyers, if I should sell it in the future. Thanks!

Hi Erick,

I'm also in the Bay Area. My real estate investing started in Indiana. I rented out my house instead of selling it when I moved to California. You have great goals and allotting time to study markets and analyze deals is so important. 

Your experience and knowledge as an electrician will be really helpful when you look at potential rental properties. I just did a 4 month long renovation on a house in the Bay Area which initially was supposed to be mostly cosmetic. The contractor uncovered major electrical wiring problems after the demo. The electrician did a walk through with me and showed me all the problem areas (burn marks in the wood beams behind the sheetrock from the old knob and tube wiring in an older home). All the electrical wiring was updated in every single room and the proper number of smoke detectors and electrical outlets were also installed and it passed inspection. 

I also read Rich Dad Poor Dad. I get a lot of information on YouTube. I watch Morris Invests. InvestWithAce (Elliot@InvestwithAce) and Sam Primm have lots of free information. Ace talks a lot about tax benefits of owning rentals and how to register an LLC on Instagram. I would ignore the parts where they try to get to buy products and a mentorship program and listen to just the free information in their videos.Good luck!

 Hey Erick!

Welcome to the community. Hindsight is everything, if I were to start off over, I would focus primarily on getting multiple House Hacks here in California. Then after awhile get multis and still acquire a new house hack every year or two.

The reason why is because our Cali, especially in places like the Bay appreciate extremely well. Out of State is typically better for Cash Flow in the beginning, but even over time a Cali property has the potential to pass out of state because our rents are typically higher (rental appreciation, people don't talk about this as much). 

Also think if you get your first property and it cashflows $500 a month = $6000. If you get a $500,000 Cali property that appreciates say 10% that's $50,000. The out state property will appreciate too, but typically not as much. To me its a matter of what gets you your next deal quicker.

Amongst all the other added benefits - Owner Occupied financing is the cheapest way to finance your property purchase, at as low as 3.5% down. Most investment property loans will require a minimum of 25% down. So think about how your cash outlay looks as well.

Hope this thought process helps.

As far as mentorship, I recommend you attend local meet ups, that's what I starting doing in 2017 and you can meet some people that will really inspire you to action.

 I'll teach you everything thing I've learned if you help me update my ugly can lights lol

But on a more serious note, you got a huge advantage being in a trade and friends of others in different trades. The money side of stuff is different, but not that much different. You will have a better ability to see problems and fixes then most...and that'd give you an edge over a lot of your competition.

 There are many investment properties they can buy with $10 across the country.  My first advice would be to get the investment property now - before buying your own house!  I believe the "American Dream" has been homeownership for many decades, but this should change to the American Dream owning Investment Property. I hired on a couple to manage one of my apartments, a 42-unit, in which the lived onsite. They told me they would stay a couple years and then buy a house to live in. I explained to them that should buy investment properties now and later those assets will help them get their own home. They bought two positive cash flow duplexes while living and working at my property part-time while having full-time jobs. Then eventually bought their own house. Backwards? Most would think so, not me. It's smart and doable.  Think outside the box, don't follow the crowds. I am way more impressed with someone with multiple rentals and I couldn't care less if they own the house the live in.

Hey Erick, 

If you're just starting out you'll want someone that can work closely with you.

One of the best ways to start out is to have the analysis already done for you.

Browse the listings on Awning.com for an example of this.

Then you can analyze the properties and do your own math and research to see how it compares.

Let me know if you'd like to hop on a quick call!

Dennis