All Forum Posts by: Josh Justiniano

I think you need to re-evalute the vacancy rate. It's really area by area, and a triplex full of studios you're going to get a lot of vacancy, and your maintenance will be higher, because studio renters on average tend to stay shorter lengths of time.

Try rentrange.com. They give you est. local vacancy. It's a paid service, but it could be worth it.

I use Able property management. They're pretty decent. Just make sure to keep tabs on any property manager. 

You should check out the website rentrage.com. It costs about $1 per search for rental comps. I'd then look at all the addresses of the rental comps and try to find pictures online and add or subtract rent prices depending on condition.

The local economy is OK. There's a lot of logistics and warehousing that has helped overcome the oil crash. Ag isn't doing very well b/c of the drought, but I haven't heard of very many lay offs like the oil layoffs in ag.

As far as sales, anything over about 220k is sitting on the market for a long time. Mid range properties are still selling (120 to 190k).

Middle range rentals are probably a good bet right now. I think the higher end of the rental spectrum will experience longer rent up times judging by the higher priced sales sitting on the market. Low end rentals in Bakersfield I don't really mess with so I don't have much to say about that.

I had a buyer I work with almost invest in their fund! We spoke about it. Ultimately he didn't end up putting in any money. I'd like to see how this turns out.

You're welcome. I'm do some wholesaling in Bakersfield area, and whenever I get leads or contracts from Taft it's so hard to get off. Just be careful and know that there's a limited buyer pool and limited renters. Good Luck!

Personally, I'd stay far away from Taft. The only thing there is really the community college, other than that, you can expect high vacancy rates and unpredictable income, and high unemployment.

@Paul Wynne I think that question really depends on your goals. I'd probably partner up with some people and buy more property than I could on by myself, lowering my risk for each individual property while making sure I can at least make a little $$ should I have to sell them on the market (Meaning buy under market value by at least 15%). Of course, all of them would have to cash flow as well.

After sometime, maybe 3-5 years, rebalance the portfolio and sell off the ones where your return on equity is low (Yearly Cash Flow / (value of RE - debt)), (or at least refi), and buy up some bigger properties. That's my plan and we're doing that right now. But I'm young, so my appetite for leverage is probably higher than someone who is looking to retire.

Long story short, what are your goals? 

meet partners. And work on increasing your income with the purpose of buying more property. 

Also, read everyday. That is probably #1. 

I bought my first investment property at 23 with a partner. Having a partner at that age is key. 22 is young but you can start now. Just network, find how you can create some value, then go for it. 

Harpreet, 

1. Ask property managers for vacancy rate. That would be your best resource. Bakersfield is very diverse. Some areas are 5% vacancy some areas are 15% vacancy.

2. See #1.

3. There really is no "cap rate" for SFH, but I still like to find out what it is to find my rate of return. Just make sure the "cap rate" is adjusted for risk, and is higher than your mortgage constant. If it's built in 2010 then you're probably in a decent area.