All Forum Posts by: Jamie Shah

@Gorden Lopes that would be great. Sending you a DM shortly and would appreciate you adding me. Thanks! 

@Daniel Highsmith I know this is an old post from a few years back, but trying to research the Huntsville market for opportunities in the MF space and wanted to see if you had been able to get some background on zip codes in Hunstville to invest in/avoid? Looking at B-/C+ neighborhoods. Thoughts would be appreciated. 

@Jesse Vasquez - here's a good article from Buildium that can help start your search. Depending on the strategy you want to employ, the list can be a good start. 

https://www.buildium.com/blog/up-and-coming-real-estate-markets-2020/

Do you have other properties that your property manager manages and how long has he managed this property for you? What I'm trying to get at is, through your experience with the property manager, has he/she been proactive in managing your property, finding tenants, fixing issues/repairs, etc.? You need to gauge whether you trust your property manager to do the right thing or not. You cannot partly trust him/her. 

If you believe your tenant will stay for 3-5 more years, there are other ways to increase rents. Offer them something in return (e.g. if you provide appliances and those are old - try to replace the stove or dishwasher), so it seems like a softer blow to the tenant. You want to find a way to reduce the possibility of turnover because that can cost you money that will typically take a while to recoup. BiggerPockets forums have numerous other tactics you can take to increase rent if you really want to raise rents. Good luck. 

@Kamal Sharma both Oregon and LV are good markets, just do the research and make sure you have a good team or have a turnkey provider that has a good reputation that you are buying from. Oregon, for example, similar to CA has laws that favor tenants versus LV has laws that favor the landlord. I agree with what @Arlen Chou mentioned. Focus less on the $ barrier but figure out what your goals are. Is your goal buy and hold or is your goal a 1031 or is your goal a fix/flip, not only that, but is your goal appreciation or CF? BiggerPockets has a lot of research available, similar to other CA investors looking to buy properties. 

Check out Real Wealth Network (RWN) based out of the bay area and they support a number of markets across the nation. This may be something that could interest you. Good luck. 

@Kamal Sharma with a 50k down payment, it will be difficult to find a property that cash flows. At that amount you’re looking at purchasing a property in a C- neighborhood that will be difficult to manage. Every town has these areas, I would just recommend to nail down your investment strategy and goal. If your goal is cash flow, choose out of state.

An an approximate $300k property, you are looking at 75k down (25%), not to say you couldn't find products with a lower down payment requirement. But if your goal Is cash flow and investing in California and considering a 5% vacancy reserve, 5-7% repair reserve, 5-10% property management, you are not going to cash flow with a low DP. You may with a 30% down. Again, this is just assuming vanilla MLS deals.

Tracy, Lathrop, Sacramento are tough for this strategy. Maybe Stockton or Modesto might be ones you could consider. All towns have rough neighborhoods and you want to make sure you have a good RE Agent and Property Manager that you trust, that can steer you away from things you wouldn’t ideally know if you’re not local to the neighborhood.

Hope this helps.

@Courtney James ah, "analysis paralysis"! I was stuck in the "analysis paralysis" mode for years. Know way too much about that :) 

The best learning, in all honesty, comes with doing a deal and dealing with problems that arise from the entire lifecycle of a deal - everything from analyzing, buying, and rehabbing properties.

I still work full time and am an active investor. We purchase buy and hold properties in the Central Valley.

@Courtney James congratulations! Investing in RE, working FT, and pursuing grad school, is a lot to do simultaneously. Only a small population of individuals actually end up creating a goal and trying to pursue it at a young age. 

With that being said, the amount of time is very dependent on each person's end goal and strategy. Key is allocating equal amounts of time researching and looking for deals as it is to build relationships with brokers, agents, local banks, etc. 

I currently spent between 10-15 hours per week, mostly on building relationships and analyzing deals. Try to spend 4-5 hours a week reading books and on BP, researching different topics. 
 

@Jessica Sarantakis I agree that there is no magic to the madness, but it is important expectations are cleared before the partnership is entered into. If the other partner would just like to be a passive investor and is ok with a fixed return for the hold period, that is one way to proceed. A lot also depends on how much meat do you think is on the bone to structure the partnership on a specific flip. But as other folks also mentioned above, there is no set guiding rule. The only advice would be to make sure expectations are clarified upfront and they are documented, in case things were to go south. Good luck with your project. 

@Tarun Maharana - is there a reason for specifically picking Tracy?  Taking into account vacancy cost, maintenance reserves, property management, etc. on top of your mortgage, insurance, property tax, it will be difficult (not impossible) to find a property in Tracy that breaks even at best unless you put in a substantial (as Alpesh mentioned - 30% DP). I had researched the market a few years ago with the hope to invest in Tracy but was unable to pull the trigger, because of negative cash flow. If you are willing to go past Tracy, there are markets in the Central Valley that would still have a small amount of cash flow possible. Happy to provide insight, DM me if you have questions.