All Forum Posts by: James M.

They are hide to find and if they were easy to come by, everyone would be rich. I bought a duplex in a good area of Long Beach with a negative cash flow. I knew there was a potential great upside, but I just wanted to get my feet wet and get experience. The property needed a lot of love and upgrades, and slowly over the last 2 years I’ve done multiple remodeled and a ton of work, BUT My net monthly income is now 1100 and I’ve increased the value of the property by 200k. Keep in my mind cash flow is higher than others due to the fact that I do all the maintenance myself and I manage the property myself. What I’m getting at is that like my books say, the deals aren’t going to jump out at you. You have to make a deal, especially in Southern California.

So awesome! I live in southern ca as well so this is very inspiring!

I’m going to be completely honest with you... 250k isn’t going to get you a duplex anywhere in Southern California, let alone a condo. The bottom end for any decent duplex in the la, oc area is really about 650k. I own a duplex in Long Beach and there are still some deals I see pop up every now and then. For now, I’d save your money focus on getting done with school and securing a job which will get you a decent salary. You can have a job without a duplex but can’t have a duplex without a decent job. Put your head done and focus on finishing school. One step at a time

Ben, that looks amazing. You did a great job. How did you find a contractor to do finish work of that caliber for 41k? That is a lot of god damn finish work!

Thank you all for the great advice and feedback. I greatly appreciate all of you for taking the time to give me your .02. I’m still waiting for the bid to come back on the countertop and then I’ll sit down with the tenant and give them the options or no option at all. Once again I can’t thank you guys for sharing your experience and knowledge

Thank you for the great advice and quick replies! William Nelson, I had thought about doing the same thing with the lease extension. The question I have is would you increase rent on year 2. I don’t want to come across greedy, but I am already about 100$ under market rent, so I am not sure I want to extend 2 years at the same price when I have a large pool of qualified tenants to choose from. And yes, you mention the “snow ball” effect. Haha I already changed the faucet pre-move in for them. Typically I wouldn’t be willing to bend over so much for a tenant but when they are taking pride in the unit, that does mean something. Max Tanenbaum, that was one of my concerns as well. I did contemplate doing a remodel on the kitchen after they moved out, but quite honestly I don’t foresee the kitchen added a ton of value based on where the market is on this unit and the fact that the kitchen is already is good shape. I did consider getting new doors down the road.

How’s it going Joe. I actually work up in LA are a FF as well. There is a good group of guys on here who meet up in downtown Long Beach. You can probably search it and it will pop up.

Hey all, I’ve been faced with an offer from my tenant which I’m going back and forth on and wanting to seek advice from all you experienced landlords. I’ve got a 2 on 1 duplex and one of the units I just recently remodeled, taking the rent from 1900-2450. Post rehab I immediately had a huge amount of interest and immediately signed a year lease. We are about 2 months into the lease and the tenant has asked if I’d be interested in putting in new counter if they would pay half of it. I wanted to see if you guys would ever entertain this and here are some pros and cons I’ve thought of. Pros: -Tenant is more vested, so longer stay -Someone is paying 1/2 the price of the counter top -the unit will bring about 50-75$ more with new countertops -upgrade is happening while rented = no loss of rent due to vacancy during remodel. Cons: -the biggest thing I worry about is uncovering extra work, new back splash, or heaven forbid their is mold or something... -I do all my own maintenance and remodels and know that with every project always come additional work and I really would hate to uncover Pandora’s box while tenants are in there. The current countertop is laminate and in decent condition. At the end of the day, it comes down to me getting some sort of return on my money, and weighing the risk vs gain.

There are deals in the LA area but they are going to come with work. I bought a duplex in Long Beach where the rents were 1900, rehabbed the whole property myself, got the rents up to 2500, and now I’m clearing about 1000k a month after all my maintenance vacancy, etc factored in. The LA area isn’t like the mid west where you can buy something and cash flow right off the bat. You will have to get a little more creative around here. Im still a big advocate of buy and hold in California. I am personally an weary of investing in areas where I don’t have a network, especially since I’m not a seasoned investor like many of these guys.

Yup it’s just that easy!!! Just like throwing a dart at a dart board. Just pick a unit and bam you are rich!