All Forum Posts by: Ben Lee

Hi! I listed my Airbnb on July 19th, marking it as ready to rent. However, I blocked the dates until September 20th to complete some necessary repairs. I plan to release the dates earlier if the repair projects are finished sooner. The listing is currently visible as ready to be in service, and I've already received three bookings.My question is, will I still qualify for the short-term rental tax benefits or loopholes if I have blocked off dates until September 19th due to these repairs? Any insights or experiences you can share would be greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone! I'm from the Bay Area and, armed with some great insights from Bigger Pockets, I'm excited to secure my first rental property. I'm on the lookout for a property in Contra Costa County and would love any recommendations for a reliable real estate agent. If you have any tips or can connect me with someone knowledgeable within the BP community, that would be amazing. Thanks a ton in advance for your help!

Hi BP Team! I've learned so much through this forum and really want to get my real estate journey started. I am considering a property listed at $800,000, which includes a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom main house (1100 sq/ft) and a separate ADU of the same size. The ADU has separate meters and a separate address but is being listed as one property. The property requires significant rehab and I am considering to put in a lower bid than the asking price. The comps in the area, which are 3-bedroom 2-bathroom or 2-bedroom 2-bathroom homes (1100-1500 sq/ft) with no ADU, are valued around $800,000. I am curious about the ARV once the renovations are completed. Could you provide insight into whether the presence of the ADU will help boost the ARV beyond the comps that I am seeing? Thank you in advance!

Hi BP community!

I live in a condo located in Walnut Creek that I plan to rent out in the future. I purchased it for approximately $500k, and it is now valued at $635k. My mortgage interest rate is 3%. However, the HOA fees are significantly affecting my cash flow by $600 per month should I rent it out. It's also located in a very good area where I think the property value will continue to increase in the next 7 years.

I'm interested in purchasing a single-family home (SFH) with an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) in concord, CA of approximately $800K-$900k. Concord doesn't have good school districts as compared to Walnut Creek though. My plan is to live in the main house while renting out the ADU and the condo. However, I'm concerned about the financial viability since I would be responsible for two mortgages. The net cash flow would be $600 for the condo and $3000 for the SFH approximately.

Given this situation, I'm contemplating whether it would be wiser to sell my condo and purchase an SFH with an ADU, especially considering that SFHs generally appreciate faster than condos. My current mortgage interest rate is 3%, but the new interest rate would be 7%. Equally, I'm thinking it's a smarter choice to stay in the condo due to lower interest instead.

Given these factors, do you have any recommendations or suggestions on what I should do or anyone in this dilemma? I’m curious to hear your thoughts. Thank you in advance!

Hi everyone! I'm from the Bay Area and, armed with some great insights from Bigger Pockets, I'm excited to secure my first rental property. I'm on the lookout for a property in Sacramento County and would love any recommendations for a reliable real estate agent. If you have any tips or can connect me with someone knowledgeable, that would be amazing. Thanks a ton in advance for your help!

Thanks! That confirms what I suspected. You're both right, I need to be more specific with my wording when posting.  

From my research, I understood that my rental property paper losses could offset my W2 income/capital gains if: (1) my AGI is under $150k, (2) the property is a short-term rental, or (3) I have a Real Estate Professional designation. I've recently learned that these conditions might not apply if the properties are held in an LLC, and there might be no limit on the amount of rental income paper losses used to offset W2 income/capital gains. Is this accurate?

All great questions and points everyone has made on this thread. I too am interested in hearing about potential roadblocks of management on out of state investments