All Forum Posts by: Gabriel H.

Sounds like you've got your mind made up. Please go find a lawyer and pay him everything you can scape together to file this lawsuit. Tell us how that ends up for you.

This isn't even 2nd hand smoke. It's a stretch to claim the "smoke stains" and odor are compromising your health. It's interesting to me that a landlord with "more units than any of us" would be so litigious towards his own landlord. As others have already suggested, move out if it bothers you.

@Brandt Smith sorry I think I used the mention wrong. I wasn't posing the question to you, just tagging you since I had the same question.

@Brandt Smith I'm also curious why you don't allow vaping.  I get no-smoking - I don't allow it in my rental either.  But does regular vaping cause damage or odor?

Thanks for the response, @Kiersten Vance!  

The unit is a one bedroom, which is why its priced lower.  It's about halfway up the tower.  The $1m+ units are on the top floors and are 2 bedrooms. There are a few up there that have sold in the $2-$3m range. This unit i'm looking at does have an amazing view of the marina and ocean.  Comps support the price, so its a fair deal, but not a significant discount.  It does not need any work, comes with all appliances and is move in ready. The building is less than 15 years old.

I'd be paying close to retail.

I do like the idea of not throwing away the money on rent every month, but leaving my current complex for anything less would be difficult for me.  I've been in my current apartment for about 13 years and love it.

Hello again!

I know this question has been asked before, but I'm hoping to get specifics on how I can compare numbers between 1.) purchasing a primary residence VS 2.) saving for my next buy & hold investment.

Background: I live near the beach in Los Angeles. I rent my current apartment for $2900/mo. I'm considering purchasing a condo where I would live for $600k, 5% down, competitive interest rate. Since the building has been built, it looks like it's appreciated an average of 5% per year, including the market crash years. It's in an area of high-demand. HOA's are high ($900/mo) because it's a "resort style" living - lots of luxury amenities that drew me to the property. I do know the implications and drawbacks of HOA. If it were a pure investment property, HOA would be a deal breaker. This condo is one of the least expensive in the building. Others range upwards of $1m.

I've done some research on the complex's HOA and it seems like it's well managed from what I can tell. It's a large complex so they have a lot of public info on their HOA website. Obviously, more might come out during DD when I get the financials.

In a typical buy & hold deal, I look for 12-15% cash on cash and somewhere around 30% total annualized ROI. Pretty straight forward.

How can I determine if buying a condo to occupy makes sense compared to buying another investment property?  What would my theoretically "cashflow" number be for the condo?  Would it be $0?  Would it be my monthly equity pay down?  Or would it be my previous rent that I'm no longer paying?  How do my tax savings factor into the analysis?

I've analyzed it these ways:  

Using $0 as cashflow, it's financially obvious that I shouldn't buy the condo. Total annualized ROI starts out negative but picks up at about year 10 and goes to positive single digits. If I weren't going to live there, it'd be an obvious "No".

Using my current rent, the total annualized ROI looks really nice. Cashflow is negative, but Total ROI is 25-30%, meaning this would be an appreciation play and would provide a nice roof over my head and some gratification of owning a nice home.

My guess is that it's somewhere in between these two scenarios.

I'd still continue investing in future buy & hold deals, but this would mean I'd probably have to take a year off to rebuild my savings. It would also be one less conventional loan I could use to buy an investment and would impact my DTI. But could also provide equity I could use in the future to help with investing.

Any input is always appreciated!

Gabe

OK, that's good news then.  It's most likely a rent controlled building, so I'm guessing the current tenants are not paying market.  Hopefully they're close to it at least!

Thank you again @Albert Bui for your insights.

Thanks for the feedback Albert Bui . I wasn't aware of this FHA limitation until i made the post. This property might be able to barely pass this rule, but it would be close. Does 75% include the owner occupant's "rent", or is it 75% of what the other units only are paying? Is it based on market rents or actuals? Thats a serious barrier to entry in our market for investors... I could afford to pay the mortgage on my own income if needed, so that seems like a horribly short-sighted rule.

Thanks Conor O'Donovan! I will give her a shout and let her know you sent me her way.

Hello all,

I'm a new investor with one out of state deal under my belt, a duplex in Texas.  I didn't think I'd be in the market to buy in LA anytime soon, but a multi family nearby just came on the market that I'm interested in looking at.

I don't have a local team - so I need to find a real estate agent in the Marina del Rey, Mar Vista, Culver City area, and a local conventional lender who can do a jumbo fha style loan.

Any input is always appreciated!

Gabe