All Forum Posts by: George Li

Hi Guys,

I am doing a 1031 exchange for my SFH in Seattle and hope to swap for a MFH. It has been too heated in Seattle and I have to look out of state. I wonder is it okay for me to work with multiple agents in different states to hunt for deals? Kinda feel bad if I have to tell them I found a deal elsewhere.

I have been on MLS for weeks and it is really hard to spot ANY good deals. I am mainly looking at big metro area in the west part of the country (Dallas, Denver, Salt lake city, Pheonix, Dallas etc.). I know the hype has been for a while in these areas but as a out-of-state investor I would still prefer "safer" places.

I am looking for MFH or small to mid-size apartments in the 600K ~ 900K range. Hits me up if you have a deal! 

Best,

George  

Hi folks,

It has been a widely held view that U.S economy may enter a "recession" somewhere in between 2019 and 2021. Well, it is definitely not going to be like 2008, but when the equity market falls, will the RE market hold this time? Is this round of RE market cycle approaching to an end any time soon? What strategy should RE investors like us use to survive in bad times? 

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your reply. I want to be as much involved as I could. However, as I mentioned, I am doing a full-time job and not consider the local market. It pretty much limits me unable to be as involved as the fix-and-flip type of investor. But I still invest a large chunk of my free time to self educate, investigate different markets, connect with brokers and etc. I have been looking into large MFH but only find it hard to achieve high NOI as well given the high-interest rate environment right now. Not to mention the difficulty to get a commercial loan and the low liquidity.

My 5-year goal is to have my passive income equal to my work salary ($120,000) and I wish I could quit the rat race at the 10-year mark (after tax passive income > $200,000). After that, I would feel pretty satisfied and probably start an NGO trying to do some good back to the community.  I am currently at 35% of my 5-year goal.  

Hi folks,

My name is George and I am a part-time real estate investor from silicon valley with two years experience. I am a NOI driven investor, cash flow is all I am after and I only take home value appreciation as a gift. I have made three deals in the last two years, two SFHs in Seattle and one SFH in Las Vegas. Despite of labeling myself as a cash flow orientated investor, ironically all my past deals have pathetic NOI (4 - 5%) but appreciate like nuts (30 - 40%). I was lucky enough to catch up with the now ending hype in Seattle and I know such opportunity is very rare.

My current RE investment plan focus entirely on cash flow and NOI but after browsing through at least a hundred properties (SFH, MFH) in multiple markets all over the country (Seattle, Denver, Las Vegas, Austin, Dallas and Houston), I realize my final NOI will still probably remain under 6% at most 7%. Yes, I do plan to leverage but I found it will do little with rate being high. Taking my Las Vegas SFH property for an example, the sale price is $260,000 and can be rented for $1450/month. With $100,000 down and 5.125% 30-year mortgage, after property tax, insurance and property management cost, it generates around $400 cash flow a month, leaving a cash on cash return of ~4.8%. A MFH may give a better yield but it will still not exceed 7% according to my calculation.

I have seen plenty of people on this forum claiming their 10%+ cash on cash return but I simply found it is hard to achieve. Is such a high return only exist in lower-end properties (<$200k) in cheaper markets? I am located in one of the most infamous real estate market in the country and it is impossible to find properties with high gross rent multiplier in local markets. I prefer to invest out-of-state due to countless cash-for-key horror stories in California and rely heavily on professional property management companies.

I wonder is there anything wrong with my targets/methodology/goal or it is just a norm under current high-interest fed-up environment? How do you guys achieve higher returns? Any suggestions? Should I just turn to REIT with promising 8%+ yield instead? I have also looked into NNN Commercial real estate but only find its return not so appealing, not to mention its risk and low liquidity. Or maybe I just demand too much?