All Forum Posts by: J. Martin

@Troy Fisher, 

An hour from my Airbnb in West Seattle..!? 

@Elizabeth Colegrove, you want to go out there earlier in the day and hang out? 
@Stan K., I'm in Seattle. Whatcha up to? 

@Jocelyn Ahuja,

WEST OAKLAND - depends where you are, but definitely not Lake Merritt. 
Did you live on the Grand Ave side? Or Eastlake/International? 
If you lived on Grand side, you're up for some surprises! Eastlake, some spots aren't totally different. I used to live at 2nd Ave & International in Eastlake. Comparable to some areas of West Oakland. I don't like West St and some other stuff up there. West Oakland takes two steps forward on gentrification each boom, then 1-2 steps back again during each recession, talking with folks in the neighborhood. 

I have a LEGAL duplex in West Oakland near 32nd & Chestnut (bought w/ partner for 300K a few years back ;-). Not bad neighborhood. Still people shuttling recycling around in shopping carts, last I checked, but heard they were going to close down the recycling center. Not super dangerous, although occasional shootings - mostly crime on crime kinda stuff. Some debris dumping on streets. 

UTILITIES - Just call and ask the city what the current fees are for new meter (which can be a lot) - then can be even harder to "split" between the two units, if they're already wired jointly. 

I would not pay the normal market price for an illegal unit, because it is not as valuable as a legal unit. In a hot market, people ignore it. In a down market, it will be less liquid if you need to sell without a discount. 

I second @Calvin Kwan on having the tenant in an illegal unit. They can raise hell if they want to. 
If there is technically entry between the two (even if the entry stays locked), it's more or less back to a SFH.

Good call @Chris Mason on the financing piece. Not sure if/what lenders are ignoring the legal # of units..

RENT LEVELS
Also, remember that West Oakland gets the spill-over from San Francisco, so is a more volatile version of that.. Rents have gone through the roof in SF & West Oakland. SF is now softening on rents, especially on the high end. And $3,200 is definitely on the high end for West Oakland. With 50-100% increases in rents since the financial crisis, I wouldn't be surprised if some higher-price point rents give back the last year or two of 7 years of increases.. maybe give youself a little cushion on the cash flow.. 

I definitely don't love the deal paying that much for an illegal unit, but if you decide to do it, good luck!

@Michaela G.,

So sorry to hear this. I know you've been working for a while on this project, and bummer it didn't play out as you had expected. If you're still interested in giving it a shot, I believe you can do it. Feel free to give me a call (same number as when you lived here in the Bay - and on my profile) or contact @Al Williamson who would also have some good advice. I wish you would have posted earlier. I have several Airbnbs in the ghetto, and it's very different managing expectations, descriptions, etc.

For anyone that's experienced something similar and wants to hear some tips....

1) EXPECTATIONS, EXPECTATIONS, EXPECTATIONS - I have 3 Airbnb apartments in the ghetto. I used to live there. I know what's up. And I have a shared driveway there! So can't even keep the riff-raff from next door out. Top of description should include accurate description of neighborhood. There is graffiti (not murals - gang graffiti). Trash gets dumped on the street. When we receive a request, we repeat what's in the listing, and have them confirm they understand.  This is in Richmond, CA, just south of the BART station. 

@John Underwood,
I never would have tried this property on Airbnb if a former property manager of mine didn't insist. And she was right. I was shocked. It totally opened up my eyes to what is possible. 

- PICTURES - With professional photography, it can make your home look amazing with the right light, and create unrealistic expectations for a place that has rough edges. Consider posting non-professional pictures. Or have professional photographer tone down the "heaven lighting", and also take pictures of unfinished areas, damage, etc, so people don't just see the glowing, zoomed-out glamour shots. Like selling a used car. If you took photos of your used car newly waxed, in a photo studio, with no up-close pictures of all the nicks and dings.. do the pictures really match the expectations? 

2) REVIEWS - if you're nervous about your guests, check the reviews. The more nervous you are, the higher the bar should be for # of reviews, overall rating, and quality of individual reviews. A glowing review with details might hold more weight than several brief reviews that some host just pasted, or a boilerplate good review because they didn't want to leave a bad one. 

- ENCOURAGE GOOD REVIEWERS - Let guests up front know how important it is for you to earn their 5-star review. If they are likely to leave a good review, follow up with them to thank them for the brief time to leave a review to reflect their stay. Leave them a great review, then you can even copy and paste it and message it to them and let them know how much you appreciated them staying. Do not leave reviews for people that you dont think will leave a good review. They might think you are "pre-retaliating" and you don't want to remind them to leave one. 

3) PLATFORM - Try Homeaway/VRBO if Airbnb doesn't work. Look at one of the other 100 or so platforms. Different geographic areas, rural/urban, demographics, etc all play in to what works best. 

@Andrew Jones,
Welcome, congrats on getting into the game, and putting your health and family in the front of your mind ;) Real estate is all about pursuing the life that makes you happy :)

I own some property in Oakland and Richmond - not too far from you. One of those was a great West Oakland duplex from a wholesaler - paid $20K for the contract. Been out to Rodeo a few times, but always stuck with properties closer to the BART stations. (Most people in the Bay Area and even East Bay still haven't ever heard of Rodeo though! lol)

I agree with your approach 100% to find some other investors to network with (in person, in addition to on the BP forums.) There are a lot of great folks living here in the Bay Area. First, check under >Community>Networking events on BP and see if there is anything during the day. Then check meetup.com. Lots of events on there (although most in evening). A bunch of us in the Bay and the big hitters from BiggerPockets will also be gathering in the Bay in early October for a weekend-long networking/education event that would fit your schedule, if you can make it. 

The most important thing to getting started IMHO is to be persistent and keep meeting people. You never know when you're going to meet that person that changes your entire perspective, gets you in a new market, investing style, financing situation, etc. Try to find a niche that works for you.. 

On the wholesaling front.. I will give you one tip that I see a potential need for in the Bay. A lot of wholesalers run across multi-unit buildings - some with rent control and eviction protections - and they can't flip the property because they can't get the tenants out. (sometimes there are issues with the tenants in single family homes also.) Usually, these contracts just die, because no wholesalers see a way to flip it. 

However, there are a bunch of multi-unit and long-term investors like myself, who would buy something that can't be immediately vacated - as long as the long-term numbers work, and the price is right. That's how I bought my wholesale deal. And has probably been my best equity return so far (~100%+ asset appreciation). 

If you could get ahold of all the wholesalers and long-term buyers, you might be able to make that happen. Anyway, just a thought from what I've seen. There are a million ways to make money in real estate. 

I'll be in Seattle with my girlfriend for most of the summer (I got into real estate so I could quit my job and travel where I want to be), but I'm around during the day when I get back in Sept. Come say hi!

@Elisa Uribe, you're confirmed! I'll be in Seattle most of the summer, but hopefully will see you at a meetup before the event..

@Vinny Vu, I think @Will Barnard hit it on the head! Great networking, education, drinks.. with awesome people. These people are only together once a year. And as @Sergey Tkachev said, you'll get exponentially more out of it - spending more time making and solidifying relationships.  Make both days if you can!  (and saw you got a "cash" ticket - buy with cc for super pre-sale price.)

Will, so stoked to have you out this year! You've been on my list since I did the first event in 2014. Thanks for coming out to share and meet with your fans ;)  You mentioned the biggest challenge is finding flip deals. Anything you see as a big opportunity in today's market?

@Jenifer Levini,
"I'm there. I love this event." 
The event loves you Jen! ;)  Nice seeing you in Santa Cruz at Shane's meetup a few weeks ago. Looking forward to seeing you again in Oct if not sooner.

@Chatree C.,
We corresponded by email, and you're all set now, paid by card. Sorry for the confusion. 

@Kelly Byrd and @Victoria Byrd,
You're confirmed with a 2-day and 1-day ticket, respectively. Welcome out to the event, and to the RE investing world..! And congrats on getting in contract on your first property. Hopefully you'll make a BP post about your deal and share the link on this forum so folks can see what you're up to.. Any particular speaker or topic you are interested in learning more about at the Summit? 

Pedro,
I agree 3% of revenue is steep, but hadn't found a single (one) service that handled the things I wanted. 
I took a look through the yourporter website, and it looks like they just straight up ripped off Guesty - but nothing proprietary about that. So I will be looking into yourporter more, and try to squeeze Guesty down on pricing based on their service.. 

Thanks for the tip! :)

@Sergey Tkachev,

Gonna be great to see you again! One of the Summit's biggest fans :)

@Elisa Uribe, thanks for the shout out :) I really enjoy getting everyone together to network and learn :) (especially in Oakland!) Just wish it wasn't so much work! lol

@Alice K., Glad I got to see you while I was back in the Bay, and looking forward to meeting your brother too :)

@Mary Ann Casey, "..This was an impressive and worthwhile event last year plus a lot of fun, so everyone should mark this on their calendars as a must-attend event. @J.Martin you gonna bring your ukulele?" 

Thanks for the big endorsement Mary Ann :) And for your help. And YES, I'll be bringing my ukulele :)

@Nichole Stohler,
I have you down for two tickets! Glad you can make it out from Scottsdale! :)  I don't know a lot of folks out in the Phoenix area either, but hopefully we can get some folks to visit from out there, and I'm sure you'll have some people picking your brain on that market too :)

I'm also happy to see so many awesome women jumping in on the event! :) Like so many industries, there are not enough women in real estate!

Extremely generous Arlen! That's great. Thank you for helping out so much :)
We should be able to raise more than $10K for the orphanage this year.

I got some pictures back from them.

@Johnson H.,
Make some time for getting back out on the road! Spending this summer in Seattle. Then after the Summit, heading to India. Then Chiang Mai for the lantern festival, Bangkok, Phuket.. then over to Vietnam for a motorcycle trip to the orphanage and Tet (New Year's). Maybe go to Cambodia while I'm out there. 

You and @Account Closed are welcome to join us on the trip :)

See you all tonight! I'll be there around 5 with Arlen. Minh, we'll miss you, but I'll see you tomorrow. 

 My Mom's Rodriguez, but she didn't teach me Spanish when I was young, so no comprende/habla mucho espanol. Just enough to order food and beer and get around hehe I don't think I'm even brown enough on the outside to be a coconut! lol My Filipino buddy Roberto loves that insult lol. Send the bill over, and we'll take care of it :)

ORPHANAGE
I plan on raising at least $5,000 from the Summit for Duc Son's orphanage. It goes a lot further there than in the Bay Area too :)  It's around $50/day to feed the almost 200 children there, so it's the equivalent of feeding about 60 children for a year :)  It will be especially nice to be able to go visit them, spend some time, hopefully make them smile ;)