All Forum Posts by: Radhika M.

@Carson Sweezy

 I am in the bay area and finding a single family home in the 400's anywhere between Mountain view and Foster is going to be almost impossible unless it is a dump and needs major work. I think their best bet may be a condo. Even a Condo is going to tight but may be possible.

Average sales price in Santa Clara county as of APilr 2015 is 960,000

http://www.car.org/marketdata/data/countysalesactivity/

@David Schach I think Karen has some great questions. Have you done this type of deal before? Have you done TIC conversion in the city before. If for what ever reason the TIC conversion does not what will the resale value be as a duplex?

If this is your first one partnering with some one who has done this before may be good.

@Amit. M may be someone who can help.

@Anthony Peric

 Thanks for the response. I asked the question since you seems to know the area. I am not looking at those area's :) and know that I will have to do research before I buy if I ever was interested.

The main thing I wanted to point out is just because he can buy a house with 100% cash say 200,000 does not necessarily make it a good buy. You need to know the factors you listed before to determine that you get a better return. Since you suggested those areas I was wondering if you knew the return was better than the ones the OP was planning to buy. 

@Anthony Peric

 In regards to your suggestion about buying the property is a good one. 

 Do you know what the property would rent for. That is it better return of investment if you did 25% down like we did with the other property mentioned by Kenneth.

@Kenneth M.

 I live in a equally or more expensive area in the bay area and it is very difficult to find a property in a good neighborhood (A or B) with positive cashflow with 25% down and paying for management. 30 to 35% down payment is pretty common here.

The thing that bothers me about the property that you listed is that there is no chance of increasing the rent from when you buy and the negative cashflow would be long term (unless rents grow). I think the best bet in these type of expensive markets is to find under performing properties (below market rent) and increase the rents to improve overall numbers.

Good luck

@Pyrrha Rivers

 Congratulations on getting the first check. It must feel great after the long journey to get there.  I think you have handled the delays and issues very patiently than many others. Good luck with your second property.

@Fred Conway

In addition to the rent roll you should also ask for tenant estopels. The security deposit should be handed over to you at closing. Good luck.

@Steven Trang

 I think like the others have said you need to look at actual numbers.  You need to understand your market.  What is the vacancy percent for the area, what is the condition of the property, what is the property management costs. I think you need to look at these numbers. Having said that 1% for California seems good deal if the area is good neighborhood.

Where I am investing if I hit 1% I would jumping but again here vacancy is 3% or lower. 

You asked Frank R how to create more than the 1%. You need to find under performing properties and get them to market rents and other value add  by doing any necessary improvements to the property .

Good luck.

@Mindy Jensen

 Congratulations and Welcome.

@Amit M.

 I really like reading your insights on investing in SF. So thanks for sharing,

In regards to what we are doing to help us prevent future downturn is: Have cash reserves. Our plan is long term buy and hold so we hope we can survive some fluctuations due to the cycles by having cash reserves. We really would like to buy one more property but are not pulling the trigger due to the prices. We are also trying to finish rehabbing the our 4 plex over the next few moths and keep increasing rents to get them to market rents (we have rent control so we have to work with in the limits of that)