All Forum Posts by: Justin R.

First of all, thanks for being a teacher!

Regarding RE, This is my opinion. Get the Heloc, and use that as the down payment on property 2. If your W2 doesn't support the second loan, then you can go for a DSCR (debt service coverage) loan. These loans may be slightly higher interest rate, but not much. The lenders are much more friendly to interpreting an investment, which allows them to hang the repayment predictions upon the property, not just yourself.

Try to get a property that you will be able to build in equity. Obviously that sounds easier than it is, but it is needed. If you can add an easy room (study, den, patio, etc), add easy square footage, or get a property that needs sweat equity, this allows your to continue taking the new earned equity out, and redeploying it for future investments. 

Best of luck!

 There are only 4 levers that drives demand from a particular rental property. Price, Location, Marketing, and the house itself. The location you cannot change, but the other two you can adjust. You can determine what issue simply by statistics from your marketing. Have there been 30 potential tenants and nobody applied? Its the house. Is nobody calling or viewing online? Its the poor marketing. Is it receiving heavy views online (zillow, hotbeds, apartments.com, Zumper) but nobody is calling? Most likely the price. Typically in poor areas people don't even click into the link.

Either way, you need to replace your agent with a property manager 100%. Don't listen to an agent telling you how much rent your property will collect in the future. They are the same ones selling beachfront homes in Arizona. 

Hire an evocation attorney today. If you cannot afford the cost of one go to your courthouse and start the process yourself. There are no other options. Don't try to justify any reasons not to evict immediately. 

Time and Risk. 

Time = money lost while not collecting rent. 

Risk = Uncovering the unknowns (Labor/material cost, permits, inspections, contractors)

Live where you want, and invest where it works (said someone much smarter than I.) I live in the Bay Area as well (Marin County) and invest locally and out of state. Both strategies offer their advantages and challenges. The cash flow that comes in from my OOS investments may outperform my in-state investments on paper, but that doesn't necessarily translate to actual or overall ROI.

To all of those saying you cannot make money in expensive markets (SF, LA, NYC, etc) I don't understand that mindset. It may just be an excuse. There is a reason the most successful RE investors are from those cities.

I highly suggest you write out a list of the positives and challenges of both instate investing, and OOS investing, and make the determination of where you would like to purchase your asset. Live where you want though! If I can help you create this list please let me know. Best of luck!

 If you are looking for anonymity then yes. This is one extra layer of protection from people finding who owns the property.

Yes. Contact Hopkinson and Abbondanza. I have used them for a few real estate services and they have been great. 

https://hablaw.com

*Pro tip - If you can find a Rock star property manager that also holds a Realtors license, they will have more reason to find you the right rental property.

This is a competitive market, and sellers are calling the shots. In any market, a seller will prioritize an offer without contingencies as it is at a lower risk to fall out of contract. What your agent is saying, is there are so many competitive offers coming in without contingencies that you will have to do the same in order to get an offer accepted. This doesn't mean you are not allowed to have a appraisal or inspection contingency, but you must do something else to make your offer more favorable. Perhaps have a flexible closing time, offer to deal with the trash left behind, offer to not "retrade" on anything you find on the inspection contingency outside of specified items.

Markets are crazy right now. Here in the SF Bay Area the norm is no appraisal or inspection contingency (although sellers are usually supplying the inspection report.) It is a crazy market, but don't listen to the people that say to sell and not buy. Just buy smart. In a few more inflationary years we will look back and realized these prices aren't as crazy as we see on the cover. 

Best of luck!