All Forum Posts by: Manny Vasquez

I recently sold two properties to millenial clients.  One property was bought by a single, millenial woman and another property was purchased by a millenial couple (recently married), both in California.  I would say that the challenge in both cases was "lack of knowledge" regarding their lending options. For the record, I'm a real estate agent but I keep myself informed of the different lending programs out there so that I can pass that knowledge on to my clients.  I also have a list of lenders that I have worked with in the past that I recommend.

In both cases, when I was approached by them to purchase a home, they had very little knowledge of the home buying process, they were definitely not ready. Most everything that they thought they knew about the home-buying process was incorrect.  I'm pretty sure most of that misinformation came from the media that continues to create an atmosphere of fear mongering.  We sat down and traced out a plan (i.e. paying down debt, increasing their FICO scores, saving for a down payment, type of home) and in both cases, they were ready to buy in less than a year's time.  I was impressed how quickly they got to work on each of their strategies, they were definitely determined to buy. As the saying goes, when there is a will, there is a way!

John- Welcome to the BP community! This is the best place for all things real estate related. This is what I recommend for you to get started in your real estate journey:

1. Keep saving as much as you can. Depending how much you earn you can step up those savings by getting a side-hustle. It could be any side-hustle you want just as long as you like it and your able to save some extra $$$.

2. Read as many RE books as you can get your hands on. Here are a few I recommend: "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Roberto Kiyosaki; "Set for Life" by Scott Trench; "The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate Investing" by Spencer; "The BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginners Guide" found here on BP; "The Book on Rental Property Investing" by Brandon Tuner. This will give you a good starting point.

3. Buy a property as soon as you can. The earlier you start in your RE journey, the better off you will be in the future. Almost everyone here on BP will tell you that they wish they had started earlier, myself included.

4. House-hack, house-hack, house-hack. You're doing this already so Congratulations! If possible, keep doing this into your next property that you purchase. This will give you several benefits. The most obvious is that you will be able to offset your mortgage with renting out a few rooms. You will then have a few options with that rent money....you can put it into principal or you can start saving it to purchase yet another property. House hacking will also give you some personal "property management" experience. This will come in handy as you begin to scale.

5. Decide which game you want to play. Do you want to be a house flipper? BRRRR? General Contractor? Buy and Hold? Do you want to LTR, MTR, or STR? Or maybe you want to do a combination of the above?

6. Attend meetups and meet as many people in RE as you can. You will meet people from different walks of life that will give you different perspectives on real estate investing. You might also meet someone that could be a potential business partner. Or you could buy a property from another person at the meetup. Keep an open mind and try to meet everyone at these meetings. I've developed some great relationships and also a business partner from these meetings. As they say, your network will be your net-worth.

7. Timing the market does not work. However, time in the market makes all the difference in the world!

8. Take Action! None of the above works unless you take action and put it into practice. Don't wait for the perfect deal to come up, the most important thing is to get started. Just like everything else in life, get started, keep honing those skills (i.e. keep reading, keep learning, keep attending the meetups) and watch yourself get better and better witch each property you buy.

I hope this helps and good luck on your real estate journey!

William- Welcome to the BP community! This is the best place for all things real estate related. This is what I recommend for you to get started in your real estate journey:

1. Keep saving as much as you can. Depending how much you earn you can step up those savings by getting a side-hustle. It could be any side-hustle you want just as long as you like it and your able to save some extra $$$.

2. Read as many RE books as you can get your hands on. Here are a few I recommend: "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Roberto Kiyosaki; "Set for Life" by Scott Trench; "The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate Investing" by Spencer; "The BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginners Guide" found here on BP; "The Book on Rental Property Investing" by Brandon Tuner. This will give you a good starting point.

3. Buy a property as soon as you can. The earlier you start in your RE journey, the better off you will be in the future. Almost everyone here on BP will tell you that they wish they had started earlier, myself included.

4. House-hack, house-hack, house-hack. You're doing this already so Congratulations! If possible, keep doing this into your next property that you purchase. This will give you several benefits. The most obvious is that you will be able to offset your mortgage with renting out a few rooms. You will then have a few options with that rent money....you can put it into principal or you can start saving it to purchase yet another property. House hacking will also give you some personal "property management" experience. This will come in handy as you begin to scale.

5. Decide which game you want to play. Do you want to be a house flipper? BRRRR? General Contractor? Buy and Hold? Do you want to LTR, MTR, or STR? Or maybe you want to do a combination of the above?

6. Attend meetups and meet as many people in RE as you can. You will meet people from different walks of life that will give you different perspectives on real estate investing. You might also meet someone that could be a potential business partner. Or you could buy a property from another person at the meetup. Keep an open mind and try to meet everyone at these meetings. I've developed some great relationships and also a business partner from these meetings. As they say, your network will be your net-worth.

7. Timing the market does not work. However, time in the market makes all the difference in the world!

8. Take Action! None of the above works unless you take action and put it into practice. Don't wait for the perfect deal to come up, the most important thing is to get started. Just like everything else in life, get started, keep honing those skills (i.e. keep reading, keep learning, keep attending the meetups) and watch yourself get better and better witch each property you buy.

I hope this helps and good luck on your real estate journey!

I found my mentor through a friend of mine. It turns out my friend had told me about his uncle who owned several properties across Orange County.  Since I was young I knew that I had always wanted to own properties so when my friend told me about his uncle, I asked my fried if I could meet his uncle so that I could ask him about his properties.  My friend arranged for us to meet and I was amazed how much of smart yet simple guy he was, super down to earth.  I was envisioning some dude with expensive bespoke suits, gold watches and driving around in a Rolls Royce but he was super chill and down to earth.  In short, he seemd like a "regular Joe" and he had this laid-back style about him and he explained property ownership in simple terms (I was 24 at the time) for me to understand.  His tone was upbeat and positive (it still is) and he pretty much gave me the confidence to move forward.  

I don't think I ever asked him specifically to be a "mentor", it just happened organically. He gave me his number and he said I could call him at anytime regarding any question.  He also told me that I could use his team of plumbers, electricians, flooring guys, etc if I ever needed help with any of that.....and so I did.  Right before buying my first home, I ran the deal by him and I kept him in the loop throughout the transaction.  He kinda "held my hand" through the process which gave me greater confidence. Every now and then I would call him with questions or run ideas by him to get his opinion.  As a matter of fact, I still call him every now and then and I thanked him for being so kind and motivating me into buying properties. 

What I would recommend, is to find someone that you know that owns properties and ask them if they would be willing to answer some of your questions, possibly serve as a mentor for you.  You will know from your conversations who is a right fit for you and who is not. 

I hope this helps!

Yes, I think a lot of BiggerPockets members will admit to suffering from  "Analysis, Paralysis", I know I did!  I also had fear of the "unknown" and fear of "not making it".  However, I sat down with a Real Estate mentor at the time and we looked at all of the "What-Ifs".  He discussed each one of my fears in detail and logically explained how those fears were "far away" from happening.  Pretty much he gave me the confidence to move forward with my first purchase and I haven't looked back since!

Every now and then, some "Analysis-Paralysis" flares up again and those other fears will rear their ugly heads.  But I quickly spell them away.  A couple of quotes I always like to use to give myself confidence are:

"Timing the market does not work, however, Time In the market makes all the difference in the world!"

"Knowledge is Power but Knowledge without Action is useless.  Therefore, put what you learn into Action!

Its totally normal to have some mental blocks before your first purchase. It happens to all of us. That's what the BiggerPockets community is for, to help you get over them.  Anytime you have some mental blocks, share them here and we will help you walk right through them.

I hope this helps and good luck!

Tres - For starters I would recommend you read "Short Term Rental, Long Term Wealth" by Avery Carl; You can find that book right here on BiggerPockets. This book will lay the groundwork and the basics to get you started. Once you read the book, I would reach out to a SuperHost on Airbnb and ask if they need any help n "hosting" their properties and that you would like to work for them and/or be mentored. This way you can become a Co-Host. This will give you some hands-on experience and an opportunity to put into practice what you have learned from reading the book. You will also gain valuable experience that you can leverage for other opportunities.

Speaking from personal experience, I have several STR rentals in California (I co-own STRental Pros in Orange County, Los Angeles County, and Riverside County). Before I decide to STR a property, I first pick the city in which I want to STR the property. I then check to see if there are any local laws that limit the number of STR rentals in the municipality. For example, the city of Palm Springs has a hard-limit on the number of STR rental permits it allows (and it has a huge "wait list"). Some cities don't allow STR's at all. If the city is ok with STR's, I then check to see what permits are required for STR operation. After doing this, I then run the property through Airdna.co and/or Mashvisor.com Both of these tools will give you projections of what type of rental rates, price per night, bookings, occupancy, seasonal variations, etc. I also open up Airbnb and/or VRBO so that I can cross-check the properties. The combination of these tools will give you a good idea on what you can expect. 

I also like to "borrow" ideas and look at what amenities are most popular in that area so that I can include those amenities at my property. Based on the above projections I receive, I then "run the numbers" to see where I project to end up each month. Depending on the results, I then decide to move forward with the property or look elsewhere.

I hope this helps and good luck on your STR journey!

Ruchit - Here are some ideas for that couple.  I'm assuming that all of the $3M is tied up into 1 property, otherwise they could easily rent the other properties for good cash flow.

1. Like others above me have said, a Reverse Mortgage is an option. 

2. House-hack.  I'm assuming they may have 1 or 2 rooms (or possibly more) that they can rent out.  If the property is $3M, I will assume that it is in a highly desireable location, thus the rents for each room will be high. If its the Bay area, a 1-bedroom can easily rent for $1200 - $1600 all day.

3. Land-Hack. If its a big property, as in they have a large square footage of land and that is where the money is tied up, they can rent storage space, farming space, etc.  

I hope this helps!

I'm Gen-X and I "house-hacked" before it was "cool" and much before it was called "house-hack".  I think back then I called it "let-me-get-some-roomates-so-that-I-can-offset-the-mortgage-and-other-expenses". This single trick allowed me to exponentially save into my next real estate deal and so on and so forth.

I also agree with @Steve Vaughan's sentiment above.... agree with about 99% of Remit's advice EXCEPT him saying that renting is cheaper than buying. Anytime Remit states that renting would be cheaper I always feel like saying....well, when you're renting you're paying 1000% in interest! You get NONE of that money back when you leave the property. If you have to live somewhere, might as well buy so that some day you'll get an ROI.

Rhyna - I believe California some great opportunities out there. However, these properties won't be low hanging fruit.  In other words, "great deals" are not going to automatically pop-up on Zillow at every page. You will have to do a little more research, dig a little deeper and turn a few more stones.  But I guarantee that good deals are out there.  In some cases, you may also have to get your "hands dirty" in order to make these properties look nice or up to your standards. Just last year I expanded my property portfolio by purchasing a four-plex in Los Angeles County (Inglewood area) and a Single-Family Residence in Riverside County.  Property appreciation in California is second to none and rents always go up here. You get the best of both worlds.

You don't have to look out of state. Look at Riverside, San Bernardino, Kern, Fresno, and Tulare counties. There may be some excellent opportunities there. I am ALWAYS looking at properties up and down the state, because i have investor clients that are always looking to buy. In these past 3 months, I have already sold some properties in Tulare and Kern Counties to my Los Angeles clients. These deals weren't easy-to-find "low-hanging fruit" but there are great deals are out there.

If you need any help or additional advice, feel free to reach out I have helped a lot of my investor friends purchase properties in other counties in California. I hope this helps and good luck in your journey!

Branden - First, CONGRATULATIONS on paying off your debt and saving $80K!!  Great job buddy! Keep up the good work.

Everybody wants to do the "STR thing" because currently, its the "sexier strategy". There are a bunch of Instagram and Tik Tok posts on STR's, however, none with LTR's. So understandably, its the "cool thing" to do with real estate. However, if you don't have any experience with STR's, I would first suggest that you try it out first by being a Co-Host, just like @Travis Timmons mentioned above.  This would be the cheapest way for you to learn without having to own, or rent (arbitrage), or furnish any of the properties.  You wouldn't have to come-in with any money, just your sweat and willingness to work.  You could also make a little cash on the side, around 10%-20% of booking revenue.  Try this first before you go into the STR market to see if you are truly going to like it.  I have owned a couple of STR's before the 2020-2022 STR boom (and still own them) and I will be the first to tell you that despite what all the STR Guru's say out there tell you (because they want you to buy their course), they are not easy nor are they passive to run.

Secondly, almost everyone on BiggerPockets will recommend that you BUY and OWN versus arbitrage and rent.  The only time I recommend any one to arbitrage and rent are when:

1.  You don't have any money to buy the property, so your only option is to rent/arbitrage.

2. You have no experience in STR's, so before you make a huge mistake and buy a property, arbitrage may be a good option to "Get your hands dirty" without losing your shirt. Sure, there will be some costs (i.e. monthly rent, furniture, etc) but this may be cheaper than sinking money into buying a property thinking you'll do well in STR ,only to find out that you aren't cash flowing and now you can't sell the property for a profit.

What I do recommend is the following:

1. First, use your hard earned savings to buy a property that you can house-hack.  The best thing to do would be to purchase a 4-plex, rent 3 units and house-hack the unit you live in.  

2. Before sinking any money into Airbnb, become a Co-Host. This will give you a huge gain in knowledge and experience. Armed with this, you can then decide if you still want to do STR's.

I hope this helps and I wish you the best of luck!