All Forum Posts by: John Sharpe

A short and simple old book that I haven't seen on many lists, but I've found helpful in adjusting my mindset...  Acres of Diamonds by Russell Conwell  

I'm in a very similar situation.  My rental condo has average returns and very little appreciation, but a stable trustworthy tenant in place.  I decided to keep it and go ahead to purchase my next investment property while holding onto it, for now.  

I think  there will continue to be strong demand but probably some frustrated/bruised small landlords selling to get out of the game, just not enough selling to drop the market.  

Optimistically, I don't think there will be a big wave of foreclosures as people have a lot more equity in their homes this time around and will fight harder to hold onto them, unlike the financial crises when so many were underwater anyway. 

The cost of repairs/renovations/maintenance seems to be rising so that will possibly continue upward pressure on newer home prices.  I could also see lower- and middle-income buyers in a lot of markets getting frustrated at high prices, so it's hard to predict.  My strategy is to neither buy nor sell.  

In an ideal situation the PM is using their network/reputation/experience/cost-efficiency-of-scale to get a better/faster/cheaper repair done for you and are then marking-up the invoiced cost to you, which is usually a fair deal for landlords.  But if you feel that's not what's happening then yes it's fair to ask for a meeting/re-evaluation.  

I know this could be very dangerous so I'm not recommending it as a blanket statement, but I started going outside and taking a pic of the license plate of each car parked on the street in front of the neighboring problem property.  I would text it to the sheriff deputy I was in contact with.  "Customers" would see me and it got a lot quieter, especially since a lot of these people have warrants, are on parole, are using borrowed cars or cars with lapsed registration etc.  I guess they found a more accommodating location to use.  

I would use discretion in your case but find a way to let them know the neighborhood cares instead of pretending not to see anything.  

I also found the owner of the property's address and wrote her a letter.  She apparently had no idea all this stuff was going on and helped become communicative with the police as well.  

In California we have Prop 13 that gives owners who have had their homes for many years a strong incentive to stay put.  That was the correct intent of the law, that it would prevent Californians from being priced out of their own homes so I guess we'd consider it a success.  

Also, if boomers with large homes wanted to downsize, there's fierce competition to buy high-quality smaller homes anyway so it probably doesn't sound so appealing.  

But I agree with the above posts that it's mostly about home construction figures not keeping up with demand and a lot of that has to do with NIMBY-ism, short-sighted governance, prohibitive regulations, etc.

@Vinci S. I don't have a rental here, I just own my own home. I moved here about 2.5 years ago and love it. I'll probably never sell my current house and will probably turn it into an STR if I ever move away. About half the homes on my street are STRs.

The biggest attraction is our fun little lake, Lake Gregory.  There's also hiking trails, and the town puts on lots of fun events (on pause for Covid of course) during the Summer and holidays.  I recommend homes near Lake Gregory, or something with an "airliner" view of the flatlands below (hence the name Crestline).  

Because we're about 1,200 ft lower than Lake Arrowhead there are some days when it's snowing in Arrowhead and Big Bear but not here. We do get snow though, in fact we get all 4 seasons including Fall colors. I think some of the STR renters come up just to experience the seasons, play in the snow, or to cool down when it's hot below. We're closer to metro LA but farther from ski slopes than Lake Arrowhead, and Crestline definitely has a lower price point for investment. Big Bear is kind of different because it's also a ski town in the winter so that's the major draw there.

My friends with STRs in the area say they've never been so busy!  My impression is during the warm months they're very easy to rent and in the colder half of the year it's mostly holidays and weekends with the weekdays being empty, so I'd say it's about the same as many vacation areas.  I'm really not sure about the LTR market around here, my guess is most people with stable jobs would just buy something.  

I do think Crestline has a lot of investment potential, being just a little bit easier to get to than Lake Arrowhead or Big Bear.  

Hi Adam, Crestline resident here.  

It feels like just about every county in the western US is seeing increased fire activity, and I don't think fire risk is much of an issue as long as you're properly insured.  Insurance rates here vary considerably by carrier.  Many of my neighbors have an affordable California FAIR policy wrapped into their normal homeowners' policy.  My insurance through USAA is quite reasonable.  

Some insurance companies will quote extremely high premiums because they're not really interested in writing many policies in the area, so it's well worth shopping around.  

You can probably call your current insurance company and ask for an estimated quote on that particular house for reference.  

I don't raise rents on existing tenants.  Inflation is low so unless rents in the neighborhood are rising noticeably AND the tenant has been there long enough to drag down the return %, I would rather keep the tenant in place.  I understand landlords who do the opposite, just not my style.