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All Forum Posts by: J. Martin

J. Martin has started 172 posts and replied 3650 times.

Post: New Investor in SF Searching for Tips and Advice

J. Martin
#1 Real Estate Events & Meetups Contributor
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Oakland, CA
  • Posts 3,828
  • Votes 2,925

@Joel Owens.

Thanks for the shout out :)

@Lynn Leigh,

Congrats on buying your place, and on the new adventure.. You are right. The housing market is crazy here. Good of you to give some back as part of the process.. ;) A bunch of us are meeting on Thursday in the Financial District in SF (50 or so?) to chat, network, and what do you know... talk about 1031 exchanges!!! Check my profile for the link. 

@Bill Exeter is the guy to talk to for 1031 exchanges. He was just out at the Summit, along with Joel, and has answers to all the questions. I haven't heard anyone else so knowledgeable on 1031 exchanges. And can do it in or out of state..

Hope to meet you soon in person soon Lynn! 
And welcome to getting more active on BP :)

Post: New Construction Condos in San Francisco - Sell or Hold?

J. Martin
#1 Real Estate Events & Meetups Contributor
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Oakland, CA
  • Posts 3,828
  • Votes 2,925
Originally posted by @Charles Ma:


Hello BP nation - I've got a development project in SF that I'd like to share some details on.

I'd like to just get this project out of my own head for a bit and try to solicit some different opinions on exit strategy.

Would greatly appreciate any and all feedback.Thanks all in advance!!

acquisition:

$1.2M, 1,600 SF single family house

development costs:

$1.3M (inclusive of all construction, consultants, permitting, bank fees / interest, prop tax, insurance, utilties etc).

sales costs :

~$250k (incurred upon sale only - broker fees, transfer tax, staging, closing costs)

time / carry:

acquired Jan 2015

expected completion May 2017.

finished product:

2 new construction luxury condo units, 2 floors each:

Lower unit - 2,250sf - 3 bed, 2.5 bath - one car garage spot (side by side) - deeded entire backyard (approx 1,000sf)

Upper unit - 2,250sf - 4 bed, 3.5 bath - one car garage spot (side by side) - two large decks (master bed and living room) plus deeded ~500sf roof deck with nice views spanning bernal hill to sutro.

Shared garage between the two; approx 600sf. All in all, gross SF for the bldg is ~5000sf.

Targetted sales price:

Going off a relatively conservative sales per SF price of $850/sf, total sale should be $3.8M

Back out all of the above and the potential profit is $1,050,000.

This project is in the inner Mission district of SF.

The potential for that 1M profit obviously is very attractive. I also rented out the house for 15 months prior to construction, so if sale is triggered, it will be cap gains.

For the past 4 yrs, I have been primarily in active developer mode - buying, fixing, selling.

However, the goal has always been to spend a lot of time and energy in these 'earlier' years setting up a bunch of nest eggs for the future. Given the location and the price that I would eventually pay to hold onto the units (assuming I could get perm loan to pay off construction loan), I'm looking at ~$2.5M for 4500 sf of brand new San Francisco real estate - which comes out at ~$555/sf - a steal by any measure in SF.

From the investor POV however, even at $20k (I know this is high, maybe achievable through homesuite furnished...maybe not) of rental income per month, with the following assumptions:

- 20% vacancy

- 1.15% prop tax

- 3k insurance

- 5k annual maint / upkeep

- 10% prop mgmt fees

- 4k utilities

- financing 70% ltv at 4.5%

the numbers come out to approx:

- 3.5% cash on cash

- 5.3% cap

- roughly 26k annual cash flow after all expenses etc etc etc

The obvious choice would seem to be sell this off, move onto something else - another development or maybe MF rental via 1031. But given the nature/desirability of property in prime SF, it would seem like there would be an opportunity cost in selling this off for an immediate gain. The issue is of course that the potential returns from holding as rentals pale in comparison to selling it off, or so thats how I've been viewing it thus far. I feel there are different options to consider, but I've just been stuck on the fact that rentals just can't work in SF, even when you are holding at developer prices....I would greatly appreciate some different viewpoints on how to analyze this exit!

First, congrats on your project Charles Ma :) Furnished rentals are definitely an option, but you'd have to do >30 days to get out of all the SF laws. So something to think about. Fortunately, HomeSuite focuses on 30+ days (thanks for the Summit shoutout @Ariel). 

You talked about setting up nest eggs for the future.. How about 2 luxury condos in an awesome area of a timeless city? Do you need/want the cash flow? Today or later? What do you think about the future of the SF market now vs the future? @Amit M. what do you think? Market does seem to be about as good as it gets, so maybe it depends how much of a "market timer" you are also.. 

Post: Flipping Furnished Rentals Huge Profit-- J Martin

J. Martin
#1 Real Estate Events & Meetups Contributor
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Oakland, CA
  • Posts 3,828
  • Votes 2,925

Hi Sophia, I just had my VA add your question to the first on the list for the end of the presentation. I actually just did some US-wide research (including Hawaii ;) to identify the best cities in the US for this type of business. Some of the places are fun to visit too!! :) And not to mention, you don't need to BUY in those cities. You can just rent and test it out! (better off, negotiate a rent/purchase option, or "rent to own.")

Within each city, there are ways to target specific clusters and neighborhoods for vacation rental owners, business travelers, and another special groups of longer-term short term stays, depending on what segment of the market you are focusing on. All you need is google, a map, some decent research skills, and some time. Just follow the money!! 

I'm sure others will have a similar question, so I will be sure to answer this at the meetup :) Thanks for posting up your question? Looking forward to meeting you in a week and a half! Grab me and say hi..

Post: Flipping Furnished Rentals Huge Profit-- J Martin

J. Martin
#1 Real Estate Events & Meetups Contributor
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Oakland, CA
  • Posts 3,828
  • Votes 2,925
Originally posted by @Jessica Sorensen:

Very excited for this one. @J. Martin Thank you for making the trip!

Jessica, happy to come up and share. Not as bad a trip with the top down!  hehe Luv Lif! ;) - J

@Chris Kirk,
"@David Oldenburg your events are always awesome and this one especially with @J. Martin is going to be awesome. Really looking forward to it and meeting more of the BP community in person :)." 

Thanks Chris! I'm looking forward to it. BP is an awesome community, and I've heard about David's meetups, so if you don't mind me drinking, a bit of cursing, and a couple travel stories, on top of the furnished rental discussion and awesome networking, it should be a smash!!!  ;)

Hanoi, Vietnam. Sept 2016

@Koosha T,

"@J. Martin Will be great to finally meet you. Thanks for taking a detour over to here."

How long have you been waiting!?! lol I'm looking forward to coming up. Be sure to grab me and say hi. 

Do any of you have some burning furnished rental questions you want me to answer first when we get to the meetup..? 

David,

Already started on the presentation. I'll add more based on your feedback! I'll also do a survey of what people want to hear about when we arrive, focusing on that content, and skimming over the rest. Should be a fun one!! :)

Post: Houston in Recession? Graphs! Appreciation plummets. Austin good

J. Martin
#1 Real Estate Events & Meetups Contributor
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Oakland, CA
  • Posts 3,828
  • Votes 2,925

Here's a visualization of the difference in unemployment rates by county.
Green = Good/Boom (<4%). Red = Bad/High (>7%).

@David Faulkner,

Good question.

1) I enjoy looking at real estate & economic data & analyzing it
2) I plan to use the analysis for investing more in the future (for better or worse ;)
3) I do have more time since I quit my job! I made the map above just now. But to be honest. I only made 6 graphs for the Bay. Then trained a newly hired VA to do the other 400 or so! lol

@Kevin Wood,

Interested to hear your feedback about the full report.. Looks like you look at a lot of data also..

Post: Flipping Furnished Rentals Huge Profit-- J Martin

J. Martin
#1 Real Estate Events & Meetups Contributor
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Oakland, CA
  • Posts 3,828
  • Votes 2,925

Thanks for having me out @David Oldenburg!

**Questions about furnished rentals, Airbnb, or subleasing?**
Post them on this forum, and I will prioritize them for answering when you show up at the meetup!

I'm able to travel the world, head up to Sacramento to share, and live a great life largely due to the furnished rental industry :)


Mountain View. Silicon Valley.

Happy to share what I know!
Looking forward to seeing you all in Sacramento, and hopefully finding an investment style and business that fits your lifestlyle :)


Havasupai, Grand Canyon.

@Al Williamson ,

Will you be able to make it out? Or know some folks from the Sac area that might want to join and chat about furnished rentals?  Other folks in Sacramento, Roseville, Rocklin, Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, Arden, Rosemont, Folsom, Auburn, or Yuba City want to join us..?

Post: Houston in Recession? Graphs! Appreciation plummets. Austin good

J. Martin
#1 Real Estate Events & Meetups Contributor
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Oakland, CA
  • Posts 3,828
  • Votes 2,925

@Jesse Mao,

"Excellent analysis. There are so many terminated/expired/withdraw listings in Woodland, Katy and West Houston (Energy corridor) in the past 6 months."

** Thank you! I have 50 MSA's in the US compiled now, so it's been interesting seeing how each state and each MSA is changing.. Thanks for the color on the local listings :)

@Kevin Wood,

"Long term the city should be fine, but I don't expect rents or housing prices to appreciate over the next 12 months or so."

** It seems like Houston always bounces back after oil drops. Just hard to say how long it will be depressed. Your expectation of no appreciation of rents or prices in the next 12 months or so seems pretty consistent with where the graph is going. Hopefully the employment & home price deceleration slow before going negative!

** I was just a bit surprised how quickly both job growth and home price growth decelerated so quickly in lock-step as the oil price drop set in longer. If employment growth drop to negative, I would keep an eye on prices..

@Account Closed,

"A properties rent at $2K/mo vs $1K/mo for B+, someone loses a $100K job may need to look to B+ properties they can afford while they transition from oil related work to another line of business."

** Good point about the different price point segments in the market. We're seeing a similar softening in high-end properties and rents here as employment growth slows and new multifamily apartments all come on at the high-end (given, rents in these properties are double to triple what you're looking at in Houston)

** I'll be keeping an eye on all this and posting back up when we get some interesting data... :)
Thanks for the eyes and ears from the local TX investors!! :)

Post: Houston in Recession? Graphs! Appreciation plummets. Austin good

J. Martin
#1 Real Estate Events & Meetups Contributor
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Oakland, CA
  • Posts 3,828
  • Votes 2,925

Is anyone changing strategy in Houston? Still buying? Waiting until unemployment peaks, then starts improving, to get the biggest gains..?

- The unemployment rate is shooting up in Houston. Looks similar to the last 3 marked recessions. 
- Home price appreciation plummeted.
- Austin is kicking Houston's ***. (full details in link in signature)

And home price appreciation followed, decelerating dramatically from double digits to low single digits and dropping..

Compare that to the trajectory of the unemployment rate in Austin (given, different cash flow calc here..)

But look at the stark contrast between the appreciation rate in Austin vs Houston, and the trajectory of those changes in prices..

Personally, I'd rather be buying after unemployment has hit its worst, then starts improving.. but that's just me..

What do you think about the correlation here..? Good time to jump in..?

Post: Houston?

J. Martin
#1 Real Estate Events & Meetups Contributor
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Oakland, CA
  • Posts 3,828
  • Votes 2,925

@Eduardo Chavez,

Is there a tie between jobs and RE prices? Did you hear about the oil market?
The unemployment rate is shooting up in Houston. Looks similar to the last 3 marked recessions.

And home price appreciation followed, decelerating dramatically from double digits to low single digits and dropping..

Compare that to the trajectory of the unemployment rate in Austin (given, different cash flow calc here..)

But look at the stark contrast between the appreciation rate in Austin vs Houston, and the trajectory of those changes in prices..

Personally, I'd rather be buying after unemployment has hit its worst, then starts improving.. but that's just me..

What do you think about the correlation here..? Good time to jump in..?

Post: Airbnb Open - Who's going? Let's meet up!

J. Martin
#1 Real Estate Events & Meetups Contributor
Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Oakland, CA
  • Posts 3,828
  • Votes 2,925

Who else is going to Airbnb Open 2016 in Downtown LA from Nov 17 - 19?

I should be there before the 16th, and wanted to meet up with some other furnished rental folks to trade tips, strategy, efficient operations, training & hiring, etc. Maybe check out some of the sessions together, meet after for dinner, or just meet up for some coffee..

Here's my tentative agenda and sessions, including some proposed "brain dates" with various "experts.."

Anyone from Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Orange County, or other places nearby going..? Any other Airb&b, VRBO, Expedia, Homesuite, Flipkey, or other host coming out..?

Tag me on this forum or send me a text at the number in my profile!