All Forum Posts by: Manny Vasquez

Adam- 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!

Ivan - I have used my LLC Business credit cards to fund my rehabs and remodels. Once I was ready to start my projects, I would sign up for a Business credit card(s) that offered the best miles/points and then I would purchase materials using said business credit card(s). I would then payoff the Business Credit Cards and when possible, request an increase in credit. Typically, this is how I've done things and I've been able to get a few vacations for the family paid through the points and miles that I have accumulated.

For your sanity and to end any disputes between your neighbor and your tenant, just get it surveyed.  Like @Bruce Woodruff mentioned above, get a plat map (not a typo, its a property line map) from the local assessor's office, planning office or county clerk and give it to the surveyor. Taking the details from the legal description and plat map, a surveyor carefully measures the legal boundaries of your property. The surveyor will bury survey pins if they're not already there and often mark the spots with stakes or flags for easy use.  This should end any bickering about a strip of land.

Elaina - Welcome to the BP community! This is the best place for all things real estate related.  Since you are a seasoned stock investor, then I'm sure you will agree with the following phrase: "Timing the market does not work, but, Time In the market makes all the difference in the world! <-- This is the same for both stocks and real estate. The sooner you buy, the better off you'll be.   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 and watch yourself get better and better witch each property you buy.  Welcome and good luck on your RE journey!

What did you and all of the tenants agree to?  Is it written in the lease?  If yes, then it is the responsibility of ALL tenants (not just the tenant that hurt their knee) to mow the grass.  

If it is not in the lease then it may be your responsibility to mow the grass.  However, you could try to somehow convince the "healthy" tenants to mow the grass or in the very least, hire a landscaper to mow the grass.  But don't be surprised if they push back and state that it is not their responsibility since it wasn't in the lease.

Next time, make sure you include landscaping maintenance in the lease....OR....what I like to do is include landscaping fees into the rent amount.  This way, I have direct access and communication with the landscaper and I make sure my lawn, trees, shrubbery, plants, and irrigation system are being well maintained. 

I would simply Google "legal restrictions for short term rentals in city X" or "short term rental permits in city X".  This usually does the trick for me.

Great analysis @Scott Trench!  To add a 4th point if you will, more like point "3a" (it's kinda closely tied to your 3rd point), if the Buyer ever wanted to sell, the Buyer would be "locked in" to that deal for at least a decade or until the house was "above water".   Due to the negative equity in the deal, if the Buyer ever wanted to sell, for whatever reason, the Buyer would have to either "short sell" or wait until the house appraised for more than the proposed sales price of $446,018.40.  I don't believe anyone would want to purchase a home with negative equity nor would it make sense to be "locked in" into any deal under those terms. 

Vincent- 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!

Yanely- 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. 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!

Yes!  Of course it is absolutely worth it to house-hack in San Diego.  This is exactly how I got started in real estate just up the street (the I-5) in Orange County.   Much like @Rick Albert mentioned above, I would not have scaled into purchasing additional properties had it not been for house-hacking.  Although, I must say that back in the 2003-era when I first bought my townhome, it wasn't coined "house-hacking".  It was called something more like "getting roommates to help offset my mortgage" and other expenses.   The cool thing is that you decide what to do with that "house-hack money" you get from renting out the spare bedrooms....you can put it into the principal, save it, or invest it somewhere else.

To every young person and/or newbie  purchasing property, I ALWAYS recommend to house-hack because this will greatly increase your chances of scaling and buying additional properties. 

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