All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Chai

Investment Info:

Condo buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $165,000
Cash invested: $20

Originally a house hack but turned it into a MTR after purchasing a home for us to move into.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Needed a place close to live by work.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

MLS. Acted quickly as it was a hot hot market.

How did you finance this deal?

Conventional 5% down

How did you add value to the deal?

Buying in a prime location and beautiful furnishing

What was the outcome?

Great so far. Cashflows fantastic right now.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Dealing with HOA and a condo complex. No control of neighbors and HOA fees can keep increasing.

Hi guys,

I’ve got my first rental property that I’m using for student rental at a local university. It’s currently rented to 4 different students on separate leasing contracts. The house is currently under construction to add 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. During construction, we found a huge leak in the sewage lines (of course, right?!) 

Replacing the sewage lines has blown the budget out of the water and dragged the construction process longer than anticipated. Regardless, I understand that it’s a tough situation for the current tenants. I’ve offered to reduce rents by 15% over the next two months, which they agreed upon a couple weeks ago. Now, one of the tenants is asking for further reduction. 

Curious as to how you experienced landlords would handle this situation? I understand that it’s noisy and frustrating living in a house having work done on it, so I’m not opposed to renegotiating, but I also don’t want to set the precedence for constant renegotiating. Anyone have some thoughts? Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the advice guys. It is meant to be an investment property and there had been multiple interests/offers on these different properties. I definitely understand and can appreciate the ethical issues some of you have mentioned regarding submitting an offer in bad faith, and would not like to begin an investing career in that manner. I was rather looking for clarity if that type of strategy was even heard of or if I was getting played just so the realtor could tie me up in a deal.

Hello folks of BP,

I'm a newbie trying to get my first investment property here in southern California. I have been working with a realtor and for every property that is somewhat promising the realtor is suggesting to put an offer in close to asking to get it accepted. Her goal is to "lock it up" so that the seller can't accept other offers and we can then view the property inside and negotiate for any changes if needed.  Does this sound appropriate?  I asked if there were any penalties or down payment that would be forfeit if the seller and I were unable to successfully negotiate costs for repairs and whatnot after the offer is accepted. The realtor was pretty firm that I wouldn't have to pay anything unless we opened escrow, and that the initial deposit would be refundable 17 days from the opening of escrow. 

It just doesn't seem right because if an offer was made and accepted I feel that both parties are committed or am I just a newbie and these things are normal in which offers which are accepted can be rescinded if needed without issue.

Thanks in advance for the advice!