All Forum Posts by: Gary F.

To fill the dents, you'll need the area to be rough and porous. Putty needs a porous surface and surface area (roughness) to stick. Try using coarse grade sandpaper, dust out, then putty. You'll likely never be able to match. Even changing just the one board to match will be near impossible due to color variations even with boards from the same box and more so, over time the colors have changed due to wear and drying out. 

You may have to just putty and color match with the dyes as best you can.  Short of changing all, the boards, that may be your best choice. And since its a rental, sooner or later, with folks moving furniture in/out, it'll get scratched again, so I wouldn't sweat it. 

 Excellent!

HI Rollan.

I'm new also, but no where near your progress. I'm just starting. I'm also in San Jose and looking to buy and hold and rentals. Maybe we could connect at some point. 

Gary

@Randy E.:

Excellent excellent advice and info. 

That's good to hear the realities of the pros and cons of Section 8. I didn't know it was a sliding scale reimbursement for tenants on the program. That makes a world of difference. 

 @Randy E.:

OH, now that makes sense. The section 8 tenants get a flat rate reimbursement regardless of what neighborhood they're in of the city.  Hmmm. "Light bulb".  Ding ding. That means then the best way to invest if you're thinking of potentially renting to Section 8 is to:

1) Find out what that flat rate is for the city.

2) Find a property in a neighborhood with lower rental rates than the flat rate.

How does one find what this flat rate reimbursement is? Section 8 admin I suppose.

I think it comes down to what you can afford to buy. Bottom line.

Obviously more potential pool of tenants, faster appreciation, and higher rents in the city, but that's all negated if the property is over one's budget. 

Here's another thought. Try to find the "burb" that's possibly the next "city."  Here in the Silicon Valley, unless you're old money or Mark Zuckerberg, its very difficult without mucho capitol. But now that the dot.commers are growing again, the burbs are beginning to become their own cities.  

 Who asked you to lower the rent? The tenant or the Govt?  What would have happened if you declined, which is your right as the landlord I would think? Especially if  you're lower than market.  If you're really that much lower, is it worth it to rent to Section 8 then, and just rent to regular folks?

 Thats interesting.  I'm just curious though. Why would the tenant and Govt agree to pay more than market if they could just go to someone else who's renting at market or below? 

I'm planning on starting with a smaller investment in rentals. There's still somewhat more affordable homes in the Central Valley. But also open to other investment opportunities. I'm one jump into something and certainly won't do that simply because I have a HELOC.

I'm hoping to hear from others the Central Valley

I've heard it said,"1/2 the profit is better than no profit"  And like others said, since its your first deal, it can be a good start. I wonder if you could have both mutually choose a RE attorney draw up the deal. Then at least you both know you're protected and its done correctly in writing.