All Forum Posts by: Leona Usaty

A little background first: wife and I have good jobs as professionals; live in the Los Angeles area; I have a CA real estate broker's license; Wife is w-2; I am self-employed; had a couple condos years ago, but did not enjoy the property management part; have been successfully investing in the stock market for a few years (even this year!); looking to diversify into real estate again, but not sure where to begin; should have about $300k to $400k to invest; here are the options we have been looking into:

1) Our top option would be if our landlord sells us the 4-plex we currently live in, but it will definitely not cash-flow. Had an idea of turning the garages into ADU's for extra income. Pros: possibly a good deal, since we're friends with the elderly landlord; could do less down with FHA, but payments would be double what we currently pay in rent (including the rent of other units) and would not cash flow; would have enough leftover to build the 1-bedroom ADU; Cons: no cash-flow;

2) Buy outside LA County, but still in California. Still with the idea of looking for a place to add an ADU to add value. Pros: better appreciation than other states; possibly positive cash flow; broker commissions; Cons: property management by others (added expense);

3) Buy outside CA. Pros: possibly could buy multiple or bigger property; better cash flow; Cons: property management; no commission; not familiar with areas;

I am mainly thinking out loud and jotted down some ideas. Any input would be helpful. Specially on good up and coming areas to invest in.

Thank you!

If something similar happed to you share what you did to solve that propblem. this year i bought my first investment property out of state. i live in california and i bough it in chicago, i hired a property management to handle the house and the tenant since im not going to be in chicago. the first month the tenant was late on her rent and i had to call and remind the property management to do something about it, that was the fist month. the second month the same thing happend i had to call and text management to remind them of the rent i always have to remind them. every month the tenant pays extra which is the late fee and they keep it because supposedly they are the ones who make calls but i feel that if i dont call them they wont do anything about it and also i found out that the tenant had not yet paid the water bill. so i called the management office to tell them that they need to reemind the tenant to pay her bill and the owner answered and said that theres is nothing to worry about. they are not gonna send me to collection if the bill is not gonna be paid, he said even is under my name. so i told him that he need it to remind the tenant to pay the bill anyway. its been four months that i have that tenant in the house and she always pays late. this month of december i havent received my rent yet. i'm new in this investment world and i want to know what you guys think. am i doing something wrong here?  or i have the wrong property management? what shoul i do

Hi guys,

I've been reading Brandon Turner's book and he wrote that it's not a bad idea to obtain a real estate license in order to access the MLS. My question is, in CA is that all we need in order to access the MLS? Or is it another requirement that we need to be working at a real estate agency as well? I have a full-time regular job so was hoping we just needed the license.

Thanks!

Unfortunately this looks like more bad news for landlords in LA as this looks like this gives the mayor further authority to restrict evictions.  

Hey guys! I've been a member for a couple of months and have my first property under my belt. Though I have a few good connections around the states, I'd love to meet people here in LA that are new and/or experienced investors just to have someone to connect with around here! I have no actually close friends that do this and I can tell I'm missing having friends with similar passions as me. Let's grab a coffee!! Los Feliz/Silver Lake area

Hi all -

I currently have a SFH in Los Angeles, zoned as R2 (multi-family residential). The lot size is ~4600 sq ft. I live in the main house and have a small ADU (garage conversion) in the back that is rented out. I would like to take advantage of the zoning to build another structure on the property - whether that is a SFH or an ADU, I don't really mind.

My understanding of LA zoning is that I can only have one ADU and one junior ADU per dwelling on the property. For this reason, I contacted the city planning department regarding building another (small) SFH on the property. They responded by noting that for R2 properties, 2500 of sq feet is required for each SFH on the property, meaning my current SFH is all that can be built. As such, I don't understand what practically separates my R2 from an R1 property if I can't do anything with it. Additionally, I have seen other properties on lots less than 5000 sq feet with duplexes. Perhaps there is an easy way to get an exception, as I am only 400 feet away.

Posting here looking for creative ideas to build another small unit on my property, regardless of whether it's an ADU or SFH. Thanks all!