All Forum Posts by: Jeremy Mattson

Thanks for the input everyone! Especially @Kevin Moules for taking the time with the analysis! 

We've decided to make it a rental for the time being. It's got some deferred maintenance so our contractor is slated to start work this coming week, new roof, bath remodel, windows etc.

Now I'm wondering if we should be adding a third bedroom instead of just cleaning it up. Anyone have an idea of the cost per sq. ft. for additions in the central valley? 

Hi Folks,

I recently inherited a home in the Central Valley of CA. It's a modest 2/1 on a flag lot that is about 2 acres. It's zoned residential/ag. (I attached a satellite pic with the lot outlined) My wife and I are thinking of making it a rental. It's not a typical home so the issue we're having is figuring out the best use for it. The things we've discussed are: 

• Renting it as is. 
• Selling and using the proceeds to buy other (more standard) properties to rent. 
• Converting the back to RV/boat storage and renting the front out. We're unsure how zoning would work here, but there are two other RV yards down the road.
• Leasing the back as farmland
• Leasing the back as horse property
• Possibly subdividing and adding 2-3 manufactured homes as rentals

I'm hoping that someone with experience with this type of property could give us some advice.

Thanks!

-Jeremy

It will always cost you money to drive a car. Unless it's a classic, purchased as an investment you will always lose money. The best way that I've found to drive a vehicle is something I learned from reading The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J Stanley: pay cash for a reliable model (I like Toyota but Honda is a good choice too) that is 2-3 years old with as low mileage as you can afford. Drive the car for 2-3 years and sell it before it gets into the inevitable mileage/years that will cost you money in repairs (i.e over 100k miles). This is also the sweet spot for depreciation, buy it after it has had that initial big drop in value and if you take good care of it, sell it while it is still a nice car with relatively low mileage. Take the money from the sale and put it towards buying another 2-3 year old car, wash, rinse, repeat. You can buy an older higher mileage car and you can do repairs/maintenance yourself if you'd like but having gone that route I've learned two things: 1) inevitably you will start running into higher and higher cost repairs to keep the car on the road. Having a $3000 repair bill for an old car that is only worth $5000 that you don't really enjoy driving anymore anyway is not a fun spot to be in. And 2) Changing shocks, water pumps or brake pads is not how I want to spend my Sunday. 

Hope that helps,

Jeremy