All Forum Posts by: Helen Zhang

@Joe Scaparra I stated on my profile that I live in Alhambra, but I actually live in Austin. So I agree with you are saying about Texas. 

The thing is... I can't fully agree to what it is going to be like in Cleveland yet as I have never lived there. Before I invested in Texas (I actually invested in Texas before moving to Austin), I had this ugly imagination of Texas that if I were to invest in rentals, no one would live there. It was absolutely wrong. In fact, discovering Texas to be a great rental place made me felt like Columbus discovering America. Now Cleveland could be a brand new "America" that I haven't got a chance to discover. 

I remembered that both you and I had a discussion with someone who is heavily interested in Bay Area (who probably just never take a look at outside world) on a different thread. And I don't want to be that person who never gets to look at the outside world =P 

@Hau N. Clovis is considered as a different city. From an outsider's perspective (and I might be wrong of course), Clovis looks like a suburb of Clovis. For July, 2017, Clovis' unemployment rate is 6.9%, and Fresno's unemployment rate is 9.4%. You can google these information via google by type in "fresno, ca unemployment rate". 

My point is that I'm not convinced that employment rate is heavily impacting the decline of population. There has to be more than just "no jobs" for Cleveland's population drop. 

@Joseph M. totally agrees to the fact that gentrification should "naturally" happens in a desirable location within a short distance from downtown in high-density cities. 

Interestingly, there is movement on Cleveland in terms of gentrification as there seems to be a small spike in terms of Cleveland downtown population. Here is Cleveland's gentrification map: http://www.governing.com/gov-data/cleveland-gentri...

I think the gentrification may trigger affordable housing "crisis", not the other way around. The high-density population with millennials who wants to live closer to downtown will trigger gentrification. 

P.S. I don't have enough funds to bet on gentrification. This is just for the sake of discussion.

Here is my list:

Paint (less than 2 per squarefoot for material + labor)

Flooring ($1 per squarefoot for new carpet, if you are selling instead of renting, laminate is abt 3 dollar per sqft, tiles is abt 4 per sqft)

Kitchen Counter, cabinets paint and cabinets handle. (Price varies). Surprisingly very a few buyer/renters notice if you put in nice cabinets, but countertops are very noticeable. Somehow cabinets handles can make old cabinets look great after it is being painted. 

@James Wise , I appreciate that you have been actively responding to most of my posts, and I am glad that the information that you are providing me matches to the picture that I have painted in my mind about Cleveland. I am not seeking for Cleveland Suburbs, as the rent ratio that I will be receiving from Cleveland Suburbs are really no different to many other suburbs from Texas or California that I already own. I am seeking for exactly the B & C neighborhood in Cleveland, and I care very much about the rental culture. I want to know what kind of tenants I should be targeting, and what behavior that I should expect my tenants to have. And thank you for making contributions on my Cleveland Rental Culture post. 

@Jay Hinrichs , While most of the investors here are mom&pop and def not 200mil investment, I still believe that many (or most) of us here are at least 7 figure investments. Due to the fact that I am seeking for B/C neighborhood, there is no way I will just buy one with 1031 exchange. Just like any business owners, when you scale up, you must be sure that you are making the right business decisions. I get what you meant that you don't think macro big data matters, and I would agree with you that big data may only give us the right direction for investment. It is the small data that makes income. You can always make money off real estate even if you choose to go against the big data. But why would we want to take that risk? why not try get both of your big data right, and get the small data to confirm your big data and feel confident on investment? 

@Ryan Arth , I put into some small research time after I read your post. 

If it is just stereotype, then that's a great thing as the city continues to change in the right direction the perception will change over time. I am also not a fan that believes that Cleveland is just piles of steel. 

Although Cleveland clinic is a now the biggest employer in Cleveland, I can't seem to relate this to low rent apartments. As @Irina Belkofer pointed out previously, these tenants are nurses. My understanding is that nurses are being decently paid, how are they not able to afford houses that are in at least B neighborhood?

Pessimistic evaluations are great for me so I know what risks I am taking. If I happen to scare other investors, that would be a great side effect. =) 

@Brad Nelson, this is biggerpockets, not biggerdonations, or biggercharities, and absolutely not biggerliberals =) 

@Juan Rango , this might sounds like a dumb question but it is probably a question that I have always wanted to ask everyone who choose to invested in stocks/investment-profolio/trust-funds: 

Why do you think there's less risk to give all your money to someone who you have no idea about and let him invest your money into some stocks that you have no idea about? 

While the tenant that you have accepted could destroy your house overnight, at least that was the tenant you know about and you knew he could destroy your house by look through his history and credit information and you took a risk on it. You had all the right to make all the choices based on the risk that you knew about. That "know-it-all" is the reason why I choose to invest in real estate. 

@Irina Belkofer , when I was referring to recovery, I was referring to credit recovery for people, not the city. Totally agree with the fact that people who have bad finances are not good tenants, but hard to agree that they are better than nothing....(especially to the copper diggers =P)

@Tom Ott I strongly believe that I CAN and SHOULD generalize tenants and this is the reason why there is such thing as differences in class of neighborhood. The reason why A class neighborhood is different from D class neighborhood is not because of the construction of the houses, but the people who are in the neighborhood. Cleveland is not New York where people cannot provide commitment due to the mobility of their jobs and thus produce a huge load of "mobile" population. This is actually one of the reasons why I wanted to invest in Cleveland.

@Federico Gutierrez Thanks, I will keep that in mind. Would you mind share with me on the attorney cost per eviction?

@Steven Aviram I would love some new perspective on the picture that I have painted for Cleveland renters, and the reasons that you have listed are generally true for all general renter base. But here is the reason why I don't believe the renter base are really that broad in Cleveland:

Many simply don’t want to deal with the hassles of home ownership. If a hot water tank, furnace, roof, etc. goes bad, the landlord is responsible for it (if they’re a good landlord), not the tenant. <--- This falls under the personal finance problem. All these problems can be fixed by having good finances. I am not very convinced that if they have good finances and cannot take care of this. 

Some lost their homes in the housing crisis and didn’t have the credit to buy. <--- housing crisis is 10+ years ago. I know Cleveland had a slow recovery. Even 5 years is enough to recover all credit. I am not very convinced they couldn't fix their credit in 5 years. It is likely that they always had bad credit and bad with finances.

Others have very good paying jobs, but may have to relocate after they finish medical school or residency (lots of med students in Cleveland because of the top-ranked hospitals). <--- This type of tenants are not what I am seeking for. I am looking for long-term tenants. 

Others are young people just starting out, who don’t want to commit to buying a house yet. <-- There is no reason for this when rent price is way higher than the mortgage unless they fall under one of the reasons above. (Not knowing the fact that rent is higher than the mortgage also belongs to the category of bad finances).

It is not a bad thing that the tenants that I am going to have is bad with finances as this is sadly the way how investors can make an income. But the fact is that I will not be in local, so in case if frequent evictions I would have to send an attorney to deal with it. =( 

@Federico Gutierrez , I have a trip planned to Cleveland on Jan/Feb 2018 to Cleveland. Until I could drive up to 20 hours on neighborhoods, I am likely not wanting to invest. Yes, you are correct I am looking for reasons why I wouldn't want to invest in Cleveland as I already know all the reasons why I want to invest. 

There's a massive amount of deals in Cleveland, and deals aren't the problem. If any investor says they can't find deals, they are probably not actively seeking for it and deeply believed in numbers.