All Forum Posts by: Monica Abeyta

I am also from the LA Area. My husband and I have recently decided to invest out of state instead of buying our first home out here. We are barely priced out of this market and have been researching out of state investing for a bit now. I got my recent agent info through a realtor friend of mine from here. Try referrals if you are weary about OOS Agents or others. If you don't personally know a Realtor here in LA talk to some of your friends or family who have recently bought a house. They might be able to recommend you to a great realtor who might have a referral in a market you are interested in. If out of state feels like the better path, research and identify the market you want to start in first and then look for a realtor out there. Another idea is to go on Zillow, Redfin, Yelp, etc. and find an Agent with great reviews. 

Another option if you want to stay close to home is to partner with someone. Attend local Real Estate Meet Ups, network with other investors and see if you can find anyone that might want to partner with you. Pool your resources together and do a fix n flip or buy and hold.

Since you are already wholesaling in your area, try to save more capital doing that. Ramp up your wholesaling business and save enough to get you in the market you wish to be in. In essence there are many avenues you can go, but research them all and see what fits your ideal path.

I would read Long Distance Real Estate Investing by David Green as well as Brandon Turner's book on No and Low money down real estate investing. 

Good Luck on your journey no matter what you decide on.

@Theresa Harris Thanks Theresa! We will definitely keep this in mind. All the best to you!

Thanks for all the insight guys. My husband and I decided to pass. We felt that 10 days might not have been enough for the unpermitted apartment. Only because we wanted to get an engineer in there to figure out costs to permit it. Since we are on a strict budget, the lack of appraisal contingency wouldn't work for us if the house appraised for less and our bank would obviously want us to cover the difference. We would also worry that the unpermitted addition might not be covered by home owners insurance. For a first house hack we will want everything on the up and up, since we can't afford extra liabilities from potential tenants that might find out and come after us for it. But at least for a standard single family these terms won't scare us away now. Really appreciate all the replies. Best to you all!

@Mike Cumbie Thanks so much for the line by line breakdown. Super grateful for it! Yeah it just jars us cause we are very new to this. Great points made though. Clears so much up for us. All the best to you!

Hi BP!

My husband and I put an offer on a house this week that we absolutely loved. The sellers came back with a multiple counter offer with some terms that didn't sit well with us. What do you guys think of these terms? My realtor expressed he felt he could get around some of the terms and they weren't red flags to him, but as first time homebuyers it seemed like they took it a little too far. Here are the details.

House 599k. We offered 608k. 5bd 3 bath house with attached apartment above the garage, pool and spa. House has paid off leased Solar. Seller Agent had told us in the open house that Attached apartment was unpermitted. They also had another addition that was permitted for the master. Also, that they already got an appraisal on the house but didn't disclose that info. I hid the names of people and companies in this offer.

Counter offer is as follows:

Buyer to submit Highest and Best Offer, Buyer to waive appraisal contingency (this concerned us, since they did an appraisal already. Our perspective is that they know our offer is more than what the appraisal came out to be.)

- Property is sold "AS IS" with no guarantee of repairs

- Escrow to be with **** Escrow – 

- Title to be *****

- Buyer to remove all inspection contingencies within 10 days of acceptance

- Buyer must cross qualify with certain person at certain mortgage company within 3 days. (We didn't like having to give our info to yet another mortgage lender.)

- If through no fault of the seller escrow is delayed more than 3 calendar days (grace period) & Seller and Buyer agree to extend the closing, a flat fee of $1000 shall be paid by the buyer to the seller for consideration of an extension not to exceed 7 calendar days.

- Item 7a2 Termite to be removed from contract

- Buyer is aware that the apartment above garage is not permitted

- Seller paid Home Warranty not to exceed $500 (Our agent originally put in $685 for an upgraded policy since we saw the pool equipment leaking. To us only offering a $185 less policy was nickel and diming. But we are new to the market so we don't know.)

Can anyone give me any insight on this counter? Do you see Red Flags or are we just being overly cautious since this is our first home?

Also what do you think about the Seller Agent? His company offers to buy your house if it doesn't sell in a certain period of time. To us it seems like this could be a conflict of interest if the seller agent decides they really want the house. Thoughts?

Thanks BP for any light you can shed in this situation.

-Monica

Hi BP Community,

Currently, I am looking to buy a property in Los Angeles that has a mother-in-law apartment above the garage. My husband and I were thinking about living in the apartment and renting out the main house. Any ideas or advice on utilities? The property doesn't have separate meters. Should I include all utilities and keep them under our name or switch the utilities to the renter and pay them our share? I am new to renting all together so any other advice for new landlords would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks BP!

-Monica

@Kyle J. Thanks for clearing up the redemption period. I thought they had 1 year after sale to redeem. So it’s only in rare instances like sale validity? Good to know! I was thinking that they would have a whole year of redemption after the sale. Eases some of my concerns. Thanks again, you’ve been a great help!

@John Underwood Thanks for your responses John! Super appreciate them!

Hi BP Forums!

I am currently researching the California LA County Tax Auction. Does anyone have experience with this? I have several questions and any info would be helpful. See below questions.

Any books or websites I should pick up or look into?

How does the auction work?

What is the competition like?

What due diligence should I do before bidding?

What happens if you win?

What about this redemption period of 1 year after winning? 

What happens if the original owner redeems a property in that 1 year? Do I get a return on my purchase at all? Do I get my money back at all?

What if someone still lives in the property?

How easy is it to evict someone from the property?

How easy is it to get title insurance after the year is up?

What if it's a multi family property? How are rents handled in that first year?

So many questions! Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks BP!

@Jay Dimacali thanks so much the information Jay! Super appreciate it! I’ll inform my parents of the land trust and  go from there.