All Forum Posts by: Jason J.

Thanks for the help guys.

If any of you could message me with contact info of an experienced RE agent for the DFW area that is competent about the market and works well with understanding investor goals, please message me his/her info. I'm hoping to purchase a buy-and-hold rental.

Disclaimer: Please don't recommend yourself or any company you are affiliated with. I'd prefer to hear someone who has invested through an agent and had a good experience.

@Hattie Dizmond @Greg Carr @Richard D.  Thank you guys for your advice/info!

I am currently looking for an MFR/SFH (purely for rental purposes), but being out-of-state, it's difficult to assess which areas are worth diving deeper into.

I'm definitely going to be visiting in the next few weeks, but I want to prepare myself as much as possible before I go.

I'd love to get your guys' analysis on the bottom picture I have displayed.

Which numbers would you grade as "A" ? 

I'm looking for low crime, good/easy-to-find tenants, job stability, and a bit of appreciation.

Really going for strong cap rates and good tenants with this purchase, as it will be my first out-of-state buy. I want a good experience so that I can gain some confidence in OOS investing.

Thank you all for your wonderful and helpful responses. I'm now more inspired than ever.

@Elizabeth Colegrove  - very impressive background and future plans! I noticed it says you are in California.... I wish I could afford to buy 6 properties near where I live! 

Are you sticking towards rentals away from major cities? Would love to hear your thoughts on how you plan on tackling this huge (but awesome!) goal. I'm looking at MFRs near 400-600k around Los Angeles county, but I always love learning from the strategies of more experienced investors.

I want to get more into real estate investing (looking into buying my first MFR soon), but I'm also concerned about how this will effect my purchasing power down the line.

Okay, i know that's a pretty general statement, so I'll post a more specific hypothetical scenario:

Lets I'm 29 y/o and make 100k/yr right now in Los Angeles. 

I buy an MFR for 500k (purely as investment, no interest in living in it), and things go smoothly with renting it out and soon enough I'm making a little bit of money on the property.

5 years down the line, I get married, have to move to Boston for work (or some other city far away), and I'm ready to buy my first real Residential home to live in. Now I'm looking to buy a 1-million dollar home.

How much will the 400K that I borrowed for the MFR effect my ability to buy my new residential in Boston... 5 years from now? Let's assume I'm now 34, making 125k/yr, and the MFR is paying for itself.

a) Will I only be able to buy a small house since I already have a 400K loan?
b) Financially speaking, what are some things I need to think about?
c) Am I no longer qualified for the FHA (assuming I never lived in my rental)?

(Sorry if this is an amateur question, I just want to know what my limitations might be down the line if I end up buying an investment before my residential). 

Could anyone check to see if my math/estimates are right for this property I found on Redfin? https://www.redfin.com/CA/Los-Angeles/608-E-23rd-S...

Here's the calculations: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13ieez4soHg...

I just kind of did this as an exercise to test my analytical skills and see if other more savvy investors think that I'm calculating things correctly. I'm definitely a beginner with the number crunching, so I'd love to hear what people think about where I messed up, where I under-estimated, etc (anything highlighted in orange means that I was kind of unsure about the price). 

Lastly, based on the numbers, what do you think overall about the property? In general, what am I "missing" ?

I made a few assumptions about managing the property, since I have a few handymen who are good with doing my repair stuff (they work with me on my other properties), and I've generally not needed a PM company (yet!).

Thanks. Will definitely keep that in mind

@Benjie DeVera  - Thanks for the recommendations. I'll definitely stay in touch with how things go - best of luck to you too sir.

@Joe Moore - West Adams is particularly intriguing to me, as I work in downtown and Santa Monica - the proximity between both areas is great, and overall, the area looks like it has some good properties to invest in. If you don't mind me asking, why did you sell your home/leave the area? I'm a little concerned about the crime/safety aspect of that area, but I can't honestly say that I'm extremely familiar with the district. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what areas to avoid, and what areas to focus on.

@Andy Mirza - Thanks for the advice, Andreas! It took me a while to realize it, but now I finally see (and completely agree) with the differences between residential/investment properties. My goal now is to buy an MFR in the LA area and do it with the "house hack" style you mentioned, Hopefully I can find something closer to work (downtown/Santa Monica), but I will definitely take a look into San Bernadino.

@Gene Hacker - Did not know about this. Will definitely keep watching the trends in the area. Thanks!

Thank you all for contributing and helping a novice out - I've learned a ton. Very glad to have found the BP community - hopefully I will have some updates as things progress!

Hey @Benjie DeVera 

I think I'm going to postpone looking around directly in the downtown area for now, and try to look for better cash-flow investments in cities that are in southern California, but not as high in demand. Also doing some research into finding some up & coming areas.

Currently looking into West Adams, Bakersfield, or an MFR near a college town. Still need to look into this more though.

But I would love to hear anyone elses' thoughts on MFRs in up & coming areas in SoCal that are great from a ROI perspective.

If anyone has done any research on the LA area, I'd love to hear more about what you think are the top 2-3 cities around LA that you would look for duplex/triplexes in?

Preferably in an up-and-coming area. Thanks in advance for any assistance!

Hi @Ewa Reza - thanks for the encouraging words.

I may sound like a total amateur asking this, but is it really possible to make enough money from renting out a SFR/MFR on the Eastside/NELA to pay for my monthly rent in DTLA (~1700)?

My other two properties (in lesser known areas) only make me like ~300 a month, so I just figured that making ~1700 would be a pretty big stretch... but I'm starting to think I'm completely off?