All Forum Posts by: Jen L.

@J. Martin  Hi J, will Bruce Norris be one of your guest speaker?  I missed his prediction talk and want to catch up ;)

@David Zheng  Congratulations!!!  Are you investing in Missouri?  How's the market there?

@Matt Leavell  Do you use the vinyl flooring for the entire house?  Or just bathroom or kitchen?  Do they look like real hardwood?  Is the savings on labor installation?  

@Farakh Zaman I don't know much about the CO market but I do know red hot market.  In the SF Bay Area, it's not uncommon to have people looking/making offers for 1+ years with no purchase.  And these are people buying primary homes and are desperate to get in.  They go to open houses every week and many can pay cash.   Sometimes, even cash buyers need to pay full price.  So, don't be discouraged.  This is just how red hot market works.  

@Kerry Grimshaw  I love your range hood!  I'm picking the same wall color going forward - beige!  And I actually got compliment from some applicants on wall color.  I guess beige never goes wrong.   

@Jheanell R.  Hi Jheanell, how much did your contractors charge for painting 3 coats?  In the Bay Area, $3k is already in the low end to paint the whole house, not including any other fixes.  

@David Faulkner  Very true!  Thanks for breaking it down that way.  I can't imagine turning the place over every year and how much work that will be.  

@Mike Roy  Hi Mike, I think you have the best of both world.  You know the market in Maine & Boston, so you have both appreciation market and cash flow market.  

I'm staying in the Bay Area for now because of several stories I heard.  My doctor's parents bought a house in the 70s for $45k and now it's worth $1.8M, 40X for 40 years!  Now, I'm not expecting the same 40X but I do expect some appreciation.  My hair-dresser and my co-workers told me similar stories from 30/20/10 years ago and I experience tremendous appreciation over the last 5 years.  

However, I do want to learn about cash flow market as Bay Area market is a very capital intensive.  I need to start taking vacation more and seeing the cash flow markets! 

@Derek Okahashi  The property is in the middle of San Jose, next to all the Tech HQ, not a hood in Oakland at all.  If you call around, painting alone is going to cost you a few grand(w materials).  

When I called their previous owner for reference, he said that they were his best renters.  I now wonder who that guy is....

@Derek Okahashi  Painting alone will cost you some $$ unless you can do it yourself.  Believe it or not, I actually enjoy managing the property myself.  I don't mind the calls that much.  I was scraping the melted candle wax in the drawer and I can never expect the property manager to do this.  However, if we want to scale up, we will eventually need to hire a property manager so maybe you're just jumping ahead!  

I do think it is beneficial to manage a property yourself for a period of time so you know what it takes.  Plenty of successful people invest out-of-state and find freedom.  You're just taking a different route than my own.  Congrats on taking the first step!  Just remember to add some $$ in move-out cost.