All Forum Posts by: Kevin Thomas

@Irish A. - I'll be traveling in AZ for the next month but will check back in mid-August. Thanks for letting me know. I'd love to join when I get back in town. Please send me your # or I can follow up on this thread again to make sure the event is still happening.

@Doug Spence - Thanks Doug! Can you send me the contact info of your lender referral?

Armel, any plans for future meetups soon?

Hey Irish, will this be a re-curring meeting? I'm out in Brentwood now but could make it over to Walnut Creek for a meetup.

Cheers,

Kevin

Have you looked into Elk Grove? I'm currently in a similar situation as you and trying to figure out how to make the best move. 

@Dan Portka - Can you elaborate a bit on why buying a duplex is a great strategy? Let's use these 2 scenarios for comparison. 

Option #1: We buy a turnkey duplex around $850k. The tenants in our other unit are helping to pay some of the mortgage (lets assume we're not cashflowing on this). However, we're paying more to live in our unit. For example, other unit is paying $1700, I'm paying $3800. This means that my only next play is wait and hold right? I'd be wanting to stay living there for 5-10 years and banking on appreciation? 

I'd be nervous to buy a fixer upper duplex because I've never done a rehab before or purchased property. So going into something like this where I'd have to fix up a unit with 1-2 months seems a bit...nerve racking. 

Option #2

I buy a SFH fixer upper with the intention of living in it for 2 years. It appreciates naturally a little, plus the amount from the rehabbing process. Then I sell it, and use the money as a down payment for a duplex so that the monthly payments are lower. Then stay there for 2-3 years and save up for another down payment on a SFH (where I can raise a family), move in to the SFH, and rent out both units in the duplex. Hopefully by that time, our household income will be much more than what it is now, and we can then work on buying out of state rentals whether they're duplexes or SFH's.

Is this making sense? Happy to connect and discuss too if you're up for a live chat sometime.

@Doug Spence - My girlfriend and I have been together for 8 years now and I'm planning to propose later this year. We've lived together for 3.5 years now and are going into this investment equally. Worst case scenario it doesn't work out, wouldn't we just sell the home and split the money?

I appreciate your note on being clear on criteria. This criteria is dependent on our investing strategy (which is what I'm racking my brain on). If this becomes somewhere we'll be for the next 5-10 years, we want to be ideally within 30 to an international airport (up to 45 min max). We'd love to be within 10 minutes walking to a walking trail, within 3 miles to a freeway, have large closet space, double sink in master bedroom, within 1 mile from a grocery store, in the suburbs but ideally within 20 min to a downtown/nightlife scene if we wanted to go out. THAT BEING SAID, if it was a smarter investment decision to move into a fixer upper for 1-2 years, rehab it, and then sell it as our first move so that we could accumulate more of a down payment for our next move, then I'd be happy to do that in whatever area would be best suited. How I determine what that area is though is what's confusing to me. Ultimately I'm just wondering, is one strategy better than the other?

Our take-home monthly income (after taxes) comes out to about $10k. We are currently saving $5k/month. Our current rent is $1300/month. So our expenses together are around $3700. How could we find a property with a monthly payment that comes out <$2500/month? Unless you were referring to our gross income, which is about $15k/month which would bring us up to an alloted monthly payment of $3750/month. For simple terms, let's say that would put our max purchase price at $600k for a SFH (which it currently is for us). But with a duplex, I'm assuming we could still swing a price of up to $825k if my math is right.

We're working with a lender now but happy to connect with the one you used for your house hack. I've been told it's good to work with multiple lenders to get the best deal possible. Is this true?

@Erik Browning - I hear you on using Youtube/Google etc. I am extremely burnt out and overwhelmed from doing this. It seems like there are all kinds of different ways to do anything in real estate, including how to analyze RE markets (especially in a state like CA where everything seems to have sky rocketed). I appreciate your suggestions about access to good, middle class jobs nearby. And, I was not aware of this down payment assistance program. THANK YOU for the tip.

@Erik Browning @Doug Spence @Dan Portka - thank each of you for your comments. I'm soaking this all in the best I can.

Hey BiggerPockets community!

My girlfriend and I are looking to purchase our first property together. We know that turning a profit in California is near impossible, but we want to live in California AND we want to be strategic with our first home by thinking of it as an investment strategy.

I was told that a duplex would be the best way to go. But, I’m not sure what cities to be looking in. We qualify for up to $875,000. We are currently looking in Elk Grove but I would prefer to be in SoCal if possible. Even if that means moving to somewhere further inland like Rancho Cucamonga/Fontana/Riverside.

But, I’m completely stuck. I don’t know how to determine which market would be the smartest move. And I’m struggling to see what options going with this strategy would provide us in the future.

I'd love to connect with anyone who is investing in California and focusing on MFU and even SFH. At this point, I'm wondering if buying a fixer upper SFH and treating it as a "long term" flip (1-2 years, would be the best option. Open to learning.

For more context, we'd be using an FHAloan and putting down 3.5%.

Cheers,

Kevin