All Forum Posts by: Gary F.

Ive seen many online courses and prices ranging.  Amazon has a CA licensing course for only $99.  Anyone ever used or had experiences to share?

Hello BPers.

I have an old central air system that needs replacing.  Its 18 years old and wasnt used much but the compressor isnt working anymore. Looking into the mini split systems it seem like this would be more energy efficient since you're only servicing rooms/zones not the whole house.  Are they all the hype? Ive seen them more in Asia, but not much here in the states.  

Hi Arlen Yes the agent thinks I’ll make up ROI. HE says buyers are looking for move in ready and nice. Especially since it’s a SFR for families they want to be comfortable and not have to fix up themselves. But you’re definitely right about time. Three large projects might be too much to make the prime summer selling season. Plus I’d like to get to my life after moving

I’m going to be listing my house on the market. I’m shooting for mid-August listing. Talking with my agent he suggested replacing the roof. It’s a 30 yo wood shake and ugly. Also new paint. It’s about 25 years old. And new pavers. I have concrete driveway with a a couple minor cracks Will I see substantial enough ROI to make it worth my time and money? I’m in south San Jose. Prices still are going over asking here.

Oh my. I’m renting rooms in my house for $725-$850 with paid utilities. I guess I’m below market

I’m still looking at thailand condos. I’ve looked at a Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket. These are luxury condos which I think are overpriced. And these developers just decide to raise prices randomly. This seems to artificially increase the market as it starts a feeding frenzy. Mostly Chinese and Russian investors, but mostly the Chinese buying these like cookies. They literally look at the miniature model displays in the sales office, tour the model unit, and buy 8 after 30 minutes sales pitch. They buy these pre-construction and start making payments with the hopes of guaranteed 5-8% return over 3-10 years. Sounds good right? It can be if you’ve cash burning a hole in your pocket. And then sell after a couple of developers price increases. But if you need to finance, even at 4% loan, profit gets eaten by the management fees of up to 25%, local business tax, and other fees. In looking at 8 complexes my cash flow was a paltry $100. Without factoring in utilities cost and misc repairs and being overseas it just doesn’t compute Also in looking at luxury condos that are about 10+ year old, the equity drops tremendously. Now buying an older resale unit seems to be the best value. More often than not they’re still in great condition as new builds. I just saw a listing for a nice complex 1.5km from Kamala beach, Mountain View, 105sm, 2-bedroom penthouse for $68k. This might be worth a looksee

Yep. Can only 1031 an investment property. This investment property can be your primary residence if you had tenants in there for about a year (to season it as such for IRA purposes). You would then 1031 only the % of the House that was occupied and used by the tenants.

Building anything too close to the property line is asking for trouble. Build too close and it’ll be major nightmare. They’ll just force you to move the building or tear it down

As always the best safest first and last place to check is your city building and code department AND any local HOAs. I was all set to go then found out my neighborhood HOA had a bylaw preventing ADUs, even though my house is a SFR

It’s great to see some response here. After I first posted there was none but now we have life!! I’m now vacationing and researching in Thailand. I looked at some Bangkok and Pattaya luxury condos. Prices are actually a bit high considering it’s still a developing country, not a strong economy. Nor do I see much future growth. There’s also much inventory so it’s a buyers market. These complexes do sell though mostly to European and Chinese investors (who’d have thought that !!??). The rental income for cash flow isn’t great and I don’t think neither is the equity There’s plenty of new developments pending but with many sketchy developers promising this and that it can be a crapshoot. I saw one building sitting unfinished in Central Pattaya. Supposedly the builder went about 8 floors too high over their original plans. The community and government stopped them and now it’s sitting idle. How stupid can you be!!!?? Now all those buyers have nothing but a cement eye sore. So in Thai time only God knows when it will be done. Lesson: Don’t buy promises. Not all developers are this dumb of course, but being that it’s overseas and a foreign culture, it can get dicey at times. I think I’ll just rent if I ever move to Thailand.