All Forum Posts by: Peter Eberhardt

 Right you are Dan, and also thank you to you as well for the advice packed messages you sent me. I am sure we will cross paths again soon and hopefully my next deal can be within San Diego County! 

Hey BP. 

I am exhausted. But I am stoked to say between all of your help as a community I finally closed a couple weeks ago on my first deal, a 4plex in Bakersfield. I will be self managing from San Diego and once all the units are turned over and brought up to market rent within the next 18 months, I aim to cash flow $1,666/mo with 10.9% CoC and a 7.86% cap rate (calculated from the beginning purchase numbers) . End sale price was $515k with 25% down. The numbers at closing are cash flowing -$17 mo with a -.14% CoC and 3.94% cap. More then half of the down payment came from a HELOC on my condo, and the other half just working an extra 30 hours a week driving Uber.

It was a journey to say the least. I started out last summer buying into all the typical internet rookie stuff like investing out of state. 4 months of late research nights and early morning phone calls later I flew to Ohio and almost purchased a couple places there (thank you to @Ryan Deeter, @Bryan Thomas, and everyone else that put up with my relentless phone calls and emails. If you are looking for a dedicated real estate agent or attorney in Columbus hit up Ryan and Bryan first!) but it just wasn't right to me and it just didn't make sense for my situation. 

Timing was everything and just as I was starting to reconsider OOS, @Casey Murray decided to put in his .02 on a thread I started where I was trying to get some convincing to invest in my back yard of San Diego. Big shout out to him and his time spent on the phone and in person with me lending me his vision and perspective on things. Value adds and other ADU conversions was the answer I was looking for, and I spent the next 5 months networking with locals and placing offer after offer on deals. Also big shout out to @justin R for letting me come onto his development sites to help out and learn some tricks of the trade. Now though, COVID was inflating the market so fast here that my original goal of leveraging as much as possible just was not going to happen, and I would be soon outpriced long before more inventory came to market.

So, I expanded markets anywhere that I could self manage from San Diego, and after a few weeks of briefly studying all the markets within a 6 hour drive, I landed my focus on Bakersfield and finding deals in traditional multi family units that needed work and were severely below market rents. 10+ offers later on everything from FHA, conventional 4 unit, the seller financing route, 5+ unit commercial lending, I finally got an offer accepted as the 2nd offer weeks after it had expired. @Brendan Winans was relentless and matched my persistence, and I could not have connected with a better local agent that understood investors looking for the deal. 1 tenant got evicted during escrow, so in the 2 weeks following closing I was able to get a signed lease and received security deposit and rent for market rate. It has been a serious learning curve but hopefully have this HELOC paid off within the next 6 months and keep on looking for the next deal either in San Diego or Bakersfield, or anywhere in between.

I just want to say thank you to this community and all its members that met with me, picked up my phone call, answered an email, or met with me for coffee. It isn't easy to start out in REI, especially in San Diego. If anybody reading this is struggling with starting out (because I really struggled), especially in todays inflated market, you just have to be persistent. Researching is great, but analysis paralysis will hold you back more then anything. Instead of trying to find the answers you are looking for on google, call up the first lawyer that comes up on Yelp or the nearest bank to you, and get real answers that are specific to your question. Instead of combing through pages of listings, put in offers. My condo down payment was funded 100% from Uber hustle, which then provided the HELOC for this 4plex and also the rest of the down payment. Looking forward to more learning and more connections!

@Jack Orthman then it’s a good thing we are all here to have other people pay that purchase price 3 times over for us ;)

@Henry Murray

Supplemental tax bill is one thing, special assessments are another. Any property you buy (at least in CA) you will get a one time supplemental tax bill as you have already found out.

Special assessments vary county to county and street to street. In Kern county for example, I’ve seen anywhere from $6k-$10 a year so, you can severely over estimate a potential cash flow if you don’t find the real tax bill you’ll be getting

 It varies of course, sometimes 4 hours a week sometimes 50 hours a week. No food delivery, just driving (expect when Covid first hit and of course everyone was ordering breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all the snacks in between!)  Before Covid it was reasonable to hit $30/hr average, since Covid its up to about $50/hr. I expect it to go back down to $25-30 hr once more drivers get back on the road. Also every market is extremely different and I have only driven in Bakersfield, San Diego, and LA markets.  

Back in the OG days when I started, it was we kept 80% plus 100% tip across the board, with the ability to earn back that remaining 20% for all rides. Then it went down to 75% but the OGs were grandfathered in at the 80%. Then a couple years ago every driver started complaining and the fare percentage we keep is all over the place now. Sometimes we don't even get 50%. However, I have always made the profit hourly, I have always made the numbers work for me by always being flexible on my driving strategy,  and I haven't once complained about any business scheme the rideshare giants have pulled in the 8 years I have been driving. 

It is also interesting to see a entirely new industry grow and try many different ways to make the business work! But I will be forever grateful the opportunity to be a rideshare driver! My bigger pockets thank me too.   

Thanks Sergio! I can't believe I have been on here for almost a year now and didn't explore that function :facepalm:

Hey community! 

I am looking for a Real Estate Agent Investor that works within the Compton, CA area. Any recommendations? Thanks! 

hm, I read that as a matter of factual and a very helpful statement. You can't rationalize if you want to make a solid investment, and you also have to look at the big picture especially here in SoCal. I don't plan on cash flowing big on my SoCal investments on year 1. But year 5....oh you betcha. Not to mention the appreciation to help buy the next properties.  

Also it is a good idea that if you call someone out on a online forum, that you then back up your call out and follow through with what you are calling the other person out for. But by providing no counter argument to Joe or better advice, support, and encouragement to the OP then it's just a troll post that reflects the same as you thought of Joe. 

Oh, you can also just ask your friend to look at his bill, the rate should be on there. At the very least you can cross check what his tax rate area states online, vs what he actually gets billed.