All Forum Posts by: Katrina Razavi

Hey @Caleb Stevens, my experience w/ STR's has been good we have them in San Diego (bought a yr ago) and SF, both pretty touristy cities where there's a lot of demand for Airbnb's. I haven't tried to do any marketing whatsoever and have really high occupancy rates on both. I'd say so long as you're in a good location I don't foresee this trend changing all that much b/c these cities are also destinations for things like work events (i.e. traveling nurses, traveling professors), tourists and industry events (i.e. conferences and trade shows). So I think location is one variable.

One thing you should do is also run the scenario of if you had to rent it long-term. STR regulations are quickly changing and tightening, so you wanna make sure whatever investment you make can cash flow if you could no longer STR it.

Like others mentioned, you "Make money when you buy" so as long as you underwrite conservatively and the #'s make sense for either LTR or STR you should be safe. Best of luck!

Hey @Omar Saucedo Cortes, sorry to hear about your immigration issues and hope you get that cleared up. I second what @Leo R. pointed out, w/ interest rates rising HELOC rates will go w/ it. The other thing to be cautious about in this environment is what if the outstanding debt on the HELOC gets called? It's probably a low-probability scenario, but if there were ever a time that this could happen it could be in the short term given inflation, recession and economic outlook.If you're looking for $$ to source for a DP and are open to multi-family perhaps you could raise capital from family or friends to help you with that at a lower/fixed interest rate, you could "house hack" and live in one of those units and/or offer another unit to someone who will co-invest w/ you, likely a bit safer of an option instead of leveraging a HELOC right now. All the best!

Congrats @Brandon Allenczy sounds like you're off to a great start in RE! I like setting "Quarterly biz goals" they're simple, time boxed and specific. For example, "buy an 1-4 unit investment property in San Diego that cash flows by end of Q2." Underneath that I outline the following:

1. What? (what do I want the outcome to be?) i.e. generating at least $500 in month in cash flow

2. Why? (Why do I care about achieving this?) i.e. start building financial freedom to quit my job

3. How? (How will I get this done?) - For the #3 "How"-  I then "chunk" down what I need to do in order to achieve that goal so for ex the sub-bullets would be 1. find an SD agent that specializes in 1-4 units 2. Send out 100 mailers, etc. 

I usually have no more than 3-4 goals per quarter and I keep things simple and specific. I check these out weekly and ensure I'm on track and making progress on the "how's." IMHO it's more important to take action on the "how's" than spend too much time tracking 5 different metrics or spending too much time analyzing goals or creating even more that likely won't get done.

Another great tip-- put EVERYTHING on your calendar so you have specific time slots for all the "how's" you need to get done and stick to them. I also like to do the toughest things in the morning b/c that's when I'm at my best and have the most willpower...but everyone is different 

Hope that helps!

Interesting! +1 to Jacob, I'd go the seller financing route but make sure you run the #'s and understand how you're servicing the debt and ensuring that you'll be cash flowing on the property. It's a unique opportunity to be able to get seller financing, so I'd take it if I were you and save the FHA loan for a potential next investment after you gain some learnings and experience from this one. I'm not a fan of using CC debt b/c they have SUPER high interest rates and that debt will probably follow you for a long time.

Awesome progress over the past 2 yrs @Arron Paulino! Personally, I'd focus on getting #6 stabilized and under control before making more investments or putting more cash out there. Hard money is expensive money and you don't wanna be rehabbing for a long time at a high interest rate. When you're done w/ the rehab perhaps you could cash out refi? No one knows where the market is going but IMHO there will be continued softening of the market which means less competition and more inventory to choose from.

Love this thread @Ryan Thomson, and funny that your mom just got into Airbnb b/c my parents recently did too! I've been advising them to do this for years btw. I have STR's in San Francisco and San Diego, so take my insights with a grain of salt given CA as a state tends to be pretty anti-landlord. Some thoughts:

-When this many people get into STR's, the likelihood of increasing regulations gets higher -- as we've seen. My prediction is that more regulations are to come at the municipal level along with more fees and taxes to operate one if you're lucky enough to get a license. In San Diego, they'll be limiting the # of Airbnb licenses to 1% of the housing supply at the end of the year via a lottery system. It has been a contentious issue for years.

-Due to these regulations, I think many landlords who bought with the sole purpose of STR'ing their property will be in for a big surprise when they realize they didn't underwrite the scenario of having to rent to a long-term tenant. There were a lot of rookie investors who saw STR as "quick money" and likely didn't run various scenarios to ensure their investment will be safe if things change. This will likely mean these folks will be selling when they realize they need to sell b/c they can't cash flow anymore

- I don't think the demand for STR-type properties will continue to increase at the rate it has b/c of all these new limitations and regulations

-I do agree that having a ton of STR's can make it hard for residents of cities to find LTR spots, that said, STR's are also important for local economies. Folks who vacation in these locations spend money at bars, restaurants, tourist attractions, etc. Hotels are expensive and don't have amenities that people may be looking for or can afford at a hotel vs. an outfitted Airbnb so potential tourists may select a different city to vacation. Having some sort of quota may make sense but in the example of SD, 1% seems way too low I think that percentage can be increased a bit or likely better ways to solve the problem, generally

Hi BP friends, I was wondering if anyone here has experience in managing multiple locate tickets while doing development. i.e. before digging/excavating in the ground, you have to call 811 and get a locate # and then get approvals from the various utility companies. If you're working across many locations or locate tickets, it can become overwhelming. I'd love to connect w/ anyone who has experience doing this and how they manage it across multiple sites and locate tickets. Thanks!

To +1 what other folks are saying -- it just depends on your situation and your comfort in floating negative cash flow. In high growth cities (like Dallas), it can totally pay off in the long run, so just b/c the cash flow is negative doesn't mean it's a horrible deal right off the bat, especially if you're gonna move into it down the road. You can also get creative and PM it yourself, raise the rent, etc. to lower the loss. 

Another thing you may wanna consider is pulling a HELOC from the increased value of your primary home to help w/ the duplex purchase. (wasn't sure if that was implied or not based on your primary home's appreciation). Good luck!

There seems to be a big trend for air streams, A Frames or tiny homes doing well on STR. Does anyone have vacant land where they wanna team up on a project like that?

Hi @Sherri Behrendt came across this post as I'm researching 55+, how did it go?!