All Forum Posts by: Mike Bolen

Sonoma County is much easier to obtain than Napa. In the city of Napa you would need to purchase a home with one of the grandfathered permits and there are only about 50 such homes. In Sonoma county you can get a permit much easier but so can everyone else and they are everywhere. The rates and occupancy are much lower than Napa but purchase prices are similar and those I have looked at offer dismal returns. 

I'm a wholesaler in Napa and Solano county. I have about 10 properties currently in various stages. Feel free to reach out to discuss. Thank you

@Charlie Gomez have you thought of selling the rental you have now and redeploy thoat money into a less expensive investment? If you take a look at the rental calculator here on BP you are probably subsidizing someone’s living expenses with your current rental. As an example if your current place is worth $500,000 and you’re getting less than $5,000 monthly then you’re subsidizing your tenants living expenses. Redeploying the money in a less expensive market should greatly increase your monthly cash flow.

The article states:

 "For the first time in 11 years, the statewide median home price surpassed its previous peak price of $594,530, which was recorded more than 10 years ago during the last housing boom. The May statewide median price was $600,860..." 

The $594,530 figure was reached in May, 2007. The problem with the analysis is comparing 2007 dollars to 2018 dollars. If you adjust for inflation which is required for an apple to apples comparison the median home value in May 2007 in 2018 dollars is $721,942. With this simple math you can see we are actually 17% BELOW the previous price peak.  

Just to get back to even the market would need to increase at least 17% from current values. 

I highly recommend

Steffanie Stelnick, Esq.

Law Offices of Steffanie Stelnick

www.Stelnicklaw.com

As a very active wholesaler in the area I personally list all my properties with Coldwell Banker Kappel Gateway. We have an agent there we really like and their offices are huge so we get excellent in house exposure. Plus they cover a very wide area not just one city or town. I would go with CB

The only logical choice I see would be be to sell the property and liquidate or lose the capital gain tax exemption. Additionally the return on a single family rental in Napa on a value to rent ratio would be dismal.

I own a legal licensed vacation rental (VR). I cannot recommend a VR though for investors. The idea of investing in real estate is to have passive income. A VR is anything but passive, actually it's a job. The yield is higher than long term rentals simply because it is far more hands on. The guests, your tenants, are only there for a few nights and always need something. Coffee maker broken, door doesn't lock, dinner recommendations its constant. The properties also get used hard and normal residential systems from microwaves to hot water heaters, flooring etc wear out much faster in a vacation rental. You're no longer in the real estate investing business you're in the hospitality business. If you have other properties, like say a apartment complex and/or commercial buildings in the same town and you have service staff on your payroll (handyman, carpenter, plumber..etc) then managing the VR is much easier without this type of staff in place your returns will get stuffed in a wood chipper! On top of all this if you don't manage them in house your reviews will not be good and your bookings will quickly decline. 

I ended up going with Cozy.co the process is seamless from the start. The issues I see so far with their online platform is. Serious lag in payments to your account 7-10 days from when they collect the funds from the tenant for rent and security deposit. Getting existing tenants onboard using the system takes a lot of prodding. 

As for the tenant screening this is their strong suit, the prospective tenants pay a $39.95 fee directly to Cozy.co for their background/credit. The processing is super quick, everything is saved online for you to review.

@Rachel Bier Thanks for the info I will check them out!