All Forum Posts by: Medi Sarwary

@Account Closed Looks like its coming along nicely, quite large as well

Depends on the particular City demographics but I can already tell you there is a grand exodus in the bay area. Rents are down 10% and falling.

As @Joshua Rice said, there was already a WFH culture particularly in tech. Most people worked from home Friday's anyway and others took a a day or two in the middle of the week.

Cities with a high cost of living will feel the affects a lot more. Why pay City rent without the city life?

Hi Mary, most of the successful "regular" investors in the bay that I know are following the route of @Ivan Vasquez and @Benjamin Lenz

Multi-family in the Bay pre-covid was fraught with risks and the average person working 9-5 is ill prepared for that.

With the ADU method, you can create multiple streams of income from a SFH without dealing with some of the strange laws that have been put into affect for multi-units. They are also viewed very favorable by cities as a method to quell the housing demand (since they are reluctant to build more). Additionally, when the supply exceeds the demand, the building is flexible and can be sold to a larger market as opposed to multi's, which generate demand from investors exclusively.

@Account Closed

This is what I'm thinking as well. The Palo Alto's, Mountain view's and Cupertino's won't likely see a dip in demand because of the locations attributes, particularly the public schools, which consistently ranked at the top of the nation. 

But area's that have seen demand surges led by single income individuals, without the need for the large above mentioned attributes, are likely to leave for greener pastures. There's incentive to pay high city rent in a run down part of town without the city lifestyle. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/two-thirds-tech-workers-leaving-sf-bay-area-wfh-blind-2020-5

I'm familiar with this particular location. There's a large homeless encampment right down the street. Cars are regularly broken into. 

For me its a class C area that is definitely turning but there's a risk. If the the tenants are manageable that's a great deal but the risk here is the asset class. 

@Brian Singh I noticed a similar trend with a slightly larger skew to other parts of CA. 

A group of coworkers are moving to a Truckee for the summer but most are leaving to be with family (in state or out of state) 

Almost everyone Ive spoken with (without kids) and whom live in the city are looking to break out of their lease now that WFH has been officially accepted until the end of the year.

This maybe anecdotal but of my neighbors, friends and coworkers, there isn't a single one that isn't actively trying to leave the city (if they have not already). Most are going to their families in the suburbs or to a recreational city (Tahoe,CA coast). 

For as long as the SIP is in place, I think you can expect this trend to continue. There's no point to pay city rent when you cannot have a city lifestyle. If there is a second outbreak or the SIP is extended indefinitely, there will likely be a grand exodus from the city. 

IMO the longer SIP and WFH is in practice, the greater the risk for city landlords. 

I know someone doing this currently in Pocket. The cashflow is meager, at ~150$. The cashflow is so low that I would be very weary if the property was on the older side as repairs will wreck you. Its more of an appreciation play. If you commute there and want the option of staying there, that could very well make sense. Otherwise its not an attractive investment strategy for ROI.

I wonder how many individuals like Bonner, this helps vs the detrimental effect it has on vetting for landlords. Just statistically, the chances of an individual with a prior record to be convicted a second time, is much higher than someone with no record. 

Sure there are good apples in the bunch but the risks of those bad apples are so high, it really makes me scratch my head. A better solution would be an overall increase in all housing. More available units would leave owners scrambling to avoid vacancy and forcing the market to support marginalized groups. This is a solution for everybody, not just a select few. 

@Arlen Chou Got it. Thats a nice barrier to have, I think this is the same reason my Dad opened a P.O. box. With all the privacy data issues these days I wonder how easy it is for the tenant to look up the owners personal information.