All Forum Posts by: Max Gradowitz

I have units in Taft. There are pros and cons to it - because that town is so small the vacancies are longer than they are in larger cities surrounding it. The tenants seem to be fairly long term but when they leave it's a bit harder to find new tenants, so vacancies can be a full month or two long. Other than that, not too bad of a town to own a rental property in - it's cheap to buy there and it's only an hour away from where I live so I can drive there if need be. I haven't done a flip out there, I don't think Taft is the best place to do a SFR flip, but rehabbing a multi-unit rental property (BRRRR) worked well for me.

BRRRRs are going to be difficult to find in the greater Lost Angeles and San Diego areas. Possible perhaps, but the property values and rehab costs are so high, and the rental market doesn't support good cash flow to make for a good BRRRR. Your best bet for BRRRRs in SoCal would be in Bakersfield or maybe the Lancaster/Palmdale area.

Hi Ben, welcome to BP!  There is a local Bakersfield real estate investment networking meetup every third Thursday each month.  I'll message you the details.

Telling a lender that you are moving somewhere to get a new job as a real estate agent may cause some problems.  Real estate agents are considered self employed and must show 2 years of income in real estate (from what I understand, bearing in mind that I'm not a lender, it's best to ask one of those).  I'd highly consider trying to land a normal paying salary job, be it property management or whatever, if your plan is to get a job elsewhere and do an owner-occupied purchase.  Search Indeed.com for salary paying in the real estate industry.

Hi @Benjamin Bond, welcome.  BiggerPockets has a wealth of information regarding smart real estate investing on their blogs, forums, and podcasts.  Add "The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down" to your reading list.  Most of all, I'd highly suggest listening to the podcasts and lurking around the California forum as well as the forums of specific areas in California.  Network with other members near where you live.  Many localities have real estate investor networking events that you can look up here on the forums. 

Pleasure meeting you and good luck with your investing!

Hi @Leo Ka, welcome to BiggerPockets.  Bakersfield is a great market for buy and holds - purchase prices are very reasonable and properties cash flow well due to fairly high market rents.  Modesto is similar.  The central valley is really the most accessible area of the state for new investors.  At least in Bakersfield, there are plenty cash flowing multi-unit properties on the market.  Flips are better found off market though, in my opinion.

@Wen Guo the central valley tends to have a couple nice affordable cities to live in which still make for good cash flow rental properties.  You can snag multi-unit in a nice area for $300k or less, and homes in nice neighborhoods for nearly half that price.  Market rents still tend to be fairly high here too, so properties cash flow well here, especially multi-units.

Welcome @Cynthia Crimmins.  If you want to keep your investments within California, I'd highly suggest the central valley cities like Bakersfield and Fresno.  Purchase prices are low enough to buy a multi-unit property in the $200k range (or even less), and cash flow is high because rents are still relatively high in these medium-sized central California suburban cities.

Great meeting last time, it was a pleasure meeting all of you.  It was a bit loud, especially during intros, but overall I had a great time.  Great turnout, great people.

@Gene Hacker are you looking into other venues?  I liked Bootleggers, but I also wouldn't mind considering other venue options. 

In my experience, neighborhood quality is a bit more important with flips than it is with buy & hold rental properties.  @Josh Justiniano mentioned MLK/Cottonwood as not being a great area for flips, and I agree.  I've seen plenty of successful rentals there, but flipping is different.  The neighborhood has to be conducive to where someone would want to buy a home.  You don't want an area with a high "days on market", you want to sell that thing as quickly as possible as to minimize holding costs.

The best areas I've seen for flips has been in neighborhoods that are both desirable and located in older neighborhoods.  You want desirability because the days on market are lowest and it's easy to resell quickly.  You want older neighborhoods because a 1940s home is much more likely to have enough time to get beat up over the years and they also oftentimes have original flooring, counters, tubs/showers, etc that can be replaced to add value to the home, as opposed to a home built in 1990.  This is generally speaking here, and there are exceptions to every rule.  I've seen good flips in newer neighborhoods, but it's extremely rare.  That being said, the best neighborhoods I've seen for flips have been the Northeast (especially La Cresta / Alta Vista), the Oleander area, some parts of Oildale, and some older SW neighborhoods like Amberton/Sage Point/Stockdale.