All Forum Posts by: Jin Zhang

Hi everyone, 

I am interested in getting to know more people who are interested in real estate. Any recommendations on good meetups in the Bay Area, especially near Fremont/Hayward? 

Thanks,

Gin 

Hi everyone, 

I am a new investor here. Recently, I have seen a house in Riverside California, which fits all my criteria other than the fact that it has a septic leach pit. I do not know much about a septic leach pit and recall heard people warning new investors to stay away from them. I would like to get advise from more experienced investors here. 

1) Should I stay away from it? The description said it is a newly replaced septic leach pit. 

2) If I decide to go ahead with it, what should I be careful about it?  What should I pay attention to? 

3) What would be the cost to fix it or replace it? 

4) What would be cost to hook it to the city sewage system? 

5) Anything I should know but have not asked yet? 

Thank you! Any insights or advise would be greatly appreciated! 

Best,

Jin 

Hi everyone, 

I am interested in purchasing a single family and rent out to students there. I could not find much information about if this is a good idea in Sacramento. So I want to reach out to the biggerpockets community to see if anyone had student housing experience for Cal State University Sacramento. Any experiences or tips you could share would be greatly appreciated! 

Thanks,

Gin 

Hi everyone, 

I am considering trying out the rent by room strategy. What is the best way to test out the demand for rent by room in a specific area? Do you have any recommendations? Any tips and advise would be greatly appreciated! 

Best,

Gin

Hi everyone, 

I am new to the area and would love to hear your expert's opinion. What is your thoughts on the appreciation potential of San Antonio in the next 10 years? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! 

Thanks,

Gin

Hi everyone, I have two units in San Jose CA which I just started to rent out as STR and MTR. They are older properties and do not have an AC. Even though it is not super hot all the time in the summer, it will have about 7 days reaching 90 or higher from June to September. It could get a bit uncomfortable in the late afternoon. I do not want to install an AC. Because they are very expensive to install in Northern California. To improve the comfortable level, I am considering installing a whole house fan. But they are not cheap neither. Also, adding them will increase my electricity bill. Electricity is very expensive and kept on increasing in CA. I am not sure if they would be a good investment and what kind of return I could get on it. My thoughts is that the pros is with whole house fan and improved comfortable level, it could improve occupancy rate. But the cons is that this might increase my electricity bill. I do not know what I should do. If you are in my shoes, what would you do (which option would you choose) and why?

1. Install a gable fan

2. install a whole house fan

3. Install a whole house fan + gable fan 

4. Do nothing and keep it as is 

Thank you! Any input is greatly appreciated! 

Best,

Jin 

Quote from @Bryan Noth:

@Yuxi Li I have used Airbnb to great success for the MTRs.  As @Jordan Moorhead said, make sure the renter checks out when requesting to book on the platform and use your specific screening materials or questions.  I use a second agreement all tenants / guests have to sign in advance on STRs and MTRs.  

You will gain attention if you put your listing on the MLS as @Celine Crestin mentioned, but you will also likely incur significant lease up fees, potentially on both sides (listing and showing). If you have an HOA that has 3 or 6 month minimums I believe this could be a viable route but a 30-40% lease up fee for a single month alone would likely devastate the profit margin.

Hi Bryan, do you do background screening with your MTR guests through Airbnb? If so, do you or they pay for the screening fee? Thanks 

Quote from @Zeona McIntyre:

You can find leases on legal sites like LegalZoom and Rocket lawyer which are specified by state. I only use leases if I rent directly, not on a platform like Airbnb & VRBO but something like Furnished Finder or if the guest extends offline. 

Instead of listing on the MLS, if you are trying to capture seller's or buyers looking to rent furnished for a few months in the interim you can get a lot of requests from Zillow.

Do you do a background screening on your MTR guests from Airbnb? Do you ask them to pay for it or you pay for it? Thanks 

Quote from @Celine Crestin:

I would personally screen my MTR tenants and have them sign a lease. Anything over 30 days is lease-worthy IMO. You can also list those rentals in the MLS with a realtor and probably find quite a lot of traction, as there are many home buyers who sold their home and need a short term place to stay (1-6 months typically) until their new home build is completed and utilize their realtors to help them find something.

You can screen tenants with a variety of services online; I like to use my smart move, but there are several others. Many of the online rent collection sites also offer tenant screening. 

Hope this helps. Feel free to reach out should you have additional questions.

Hi Celine, have you asked Airbnb renters to go through smart move? I just started on Airbnb as MTR. There see several groups approached me. But they all disappeared after I sent them to smartmove. Do you or they normally pay for screening? How do you go about asking them to do it? Thanks! 

Hi everyone, 

I just started doing MTR on Airbnb. I have written in my rules about background check and sign a lease. I have a few groups approached and all confirmed understanding the rule. I ask them not to book since there is cancellation penalty for hosts. I want to vest them before booking. But once it reaches the stage of background check, they disappear. It seems like that they do not want to pay for the 45 dollars to go through it. Have you run into this before? Do you ask for background check? If so, do you pay for it or the guests pay for it? 

Any input would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Jin