All Forum Posts by: Mercedes Cantero

If you have already multi-units it is a good idea to have some cash flow coming into your pockets. If you want to flip there are creative ways to do it and sometimes you don't need a huge amount of money for that. @Joshua Swanger is right, most of the information I have comes from BP and its guides to invest.

Best luck!

Congratulations!! It is a success to be a member of BP.

Thank you for sharing your experience here and I wish the best luck with the new management company.

You can estimate the rent from other rentals in the same area. I would look up in Zillow and check the last houses rented. I would focus in houses with the same number of bedroon, bathroom, sqft... of the last months. Another idea is to call owners or RE agents who want to rent now. You could get some information about the deposit and  rent they're asking for. You should be able to establish a competitive price.

If you don't have the time to do your own research, the best option is to contact with a RE Agent.

Real Estate Investing is my passion. It makes me stay late at night and wake me up early. It is the way to reach my financial freedom and long term wealth while I can add value in others life. 

I am a foreign investor in San Diego and I know that the buyer must withhold 10% of the price when I sale the house. Both foreign and non-resident of California must to comply with this tax obligation.

I agree with @Ron Drake. It is not an extra tax. It is a withholding of the future income tax, it works as prepayment and when we fill up the taxes we will include this amount to calculate the tax due. 

I went last week to the County in San Diego. I have a list of homeowners who could be interested in selling their houses, I was trying to figure out how to contact with them and get a call back (the hardest part). I believe to send yellow letters can get results and a UPS letter could distinguish from the rest because it is more personalized. The owner wants to deal with investors who are able to listen to him/her. I agree with @Ratho R. on that.

Thank you Will B. for your information, it is very useful. 

Hello everyone,

I am a new RE investor in San Diego. I have read some post and I am excited about sharing my experience with all of you. I moved to California November last year and I heard about flipping houses so I started my own research about my new passion. I have been educating myself since February in Real Estate. I have read a few books about flipping houses, wholesales, multi-family homes and rentals. I get more and more excited about the idea of building my own wealth and be free financially.

After reading for 3 months at home I decided to look for a Real Estate Agent to help me out. I found an excellent Real Estate agent who has shown me a couple of good opportunities. Although I didn't get any of the houses for different reasons. 

The first house was a REO. The house was in a very bad shape. I called a contractor to give his estimates and I put an offer higher than the asking price the same day. I was confident I would get it but someone else did it. It was frustrating! I realized how hard the competition is in this market.

The second opportunity was a house off the market. The RE Agent called me and I went next day to see the house. The asking price was $310,000 and the comps in the area were $375,000- $425,000. I could sell it for a reasonable price of $405,000. I was so excited!. My budget to make all the repairs was $35,000. The first difficulty I found it was the house was from 1.942 and I had to pay over my budget to repair it, $51,000!. Also I was to pay part in cash 100,000 and ask for a hard money loan for the rest. I really wanted to get that deal but the numbers didn't make sense... I could't buy the property under 30% market value so I didn't do it. I called a seasoned investor who I respect to ask him for his advise because after being "in a research mode for a while" I really wanted to make my first deal. The first thing he said it was the purchase price wasn't right but he didn't discourage me. 

A few days later the RE Agent called me saying if I would offer $285,000 and I thought the house may not be sold for $405,000 because it might have any issue that I didn't know. I offered $275,000 and the agent told me there were offers coming higher than that. I agreed to offer $10,000 to get it . The problem was I had to put the offer very fast and the inspection period was 5 days and I didn't know if I would get the hard money loan. I didn't want to lose the deposit. The Agent told me I can use the inspection contingency to finish the contract and the seller would refund me the earnest money. The offer didn't have a loan contingency. The sell was "AS-IS" and I questioned if this could be a problem if I didn't get the loan and there weren't serious problems in the inspection.

Next day I went to the county to research for NOD and now I am figuring out how to contact with the owners.

Thank you for reading this post, any advice or comment is more than welcome!! 

Hello everyone,

I am reading a book about multifamily rentals and I want to ask you what the expression "flat roofs" means?

Thank you!!

Hello Bruce,

I am seeing  properties in Chula Vista, Encanto, Escondido, Spring Valley. Thank you!!