All Forum Posts by: Rachel S.

Hopefully your kids are more deserving than Donald Trump. lol

We've already had this conversation and I still disagree with you. Not everyone in San Pedro is a longshoreman, LA has a lot of diversity in employment opportunities and San Pedro is commutable to a lot of places, even if your job doesn't allow you to telecommute. Plus, in recent years it has been much more difficult for casuals to get enough hours to ever get in. Going forward, younger generations are not going to see the port as the golden opportunity that they once did. If they're smart. 

The point about people/investors not coming here was past tense. They are watching the city now because of the larger planned development. I even noticed more traffic coming in just from Crafted and Brewery West. 

Toyota was a big employer in Torrance. Their packing up and leaving doesn't seem to have caused much death and destruction there.

Have you actually noticed a lot of pollution living here? I haven't. I feel like a lot of it misses us and ends up in LB. My theory about the difference in price is that most people/potential investors didn't come here. It's not on the way to anywhere, so unless you know someone here, you would never just drive through. If you do get off the freeway, you are not exactly seeing the potential of the city unless you take the time to explore a little. Plus, some of the people are a little different. Very insulated and resistant to change. Born here, work at the port and die here. :-D

I feel like that's a lot of people on BP. Yeah, borrow money from anyone who will lend it to you. You have nothing saved at all... Sure it's a great idea for you to invest right away, just get an FHA loan, borrow from family etc, etc. It's like 2006 sub-prime loans, the investor edition.

Understood. I bought a SFR in the inland empire in 2011. I got it for a rock bottom price and it cash flows nicely. For my next investment I would like a small multifamily in LA. I will be looking in more transitional areas though with a much smaller budget. I wouldn't be comfortable carrying an almost 2 million dollar mortgage on a single property. That's too much risk for me personally. Unless it were a commercial multi-family with 4-5 units, because then you would need to be pretty unlucky for all your tenants to stop paying all at once. Everyone has different comfort levels though.

I bet you could still house hack a duplex in El Monte and come out ahead though. It's not one of LA's most swanky areas and the price will reflect that. I feel ok saying that, because I also live in a neighborhood that is somewhat lacking in swank. :-D

I am going to be the odd wo(man) out on this thread...

How well positioned are you to go from a pretty well paying job to (potentially) next to nothing while you build up your real estate gig? I am guessing not particularly, as you state that you have no funds. Sorry to be a downer, but if I were you I would find another w2 gig as soon as you can and start saving. Do this on the side until it you become more established and you see the $$ coming in. Especially as I am thinking that income might be something tech related. Those career paths generally don't respond well to gaps in your resume, if you do need to go back.

I agree that we are not seeing the amount of homeowners with low levels of equity in their homes that we saw in 2008. It follows that the homeowners who have high equity, but a sudden inability to pay the mortgage each month would just sell. This all sounds logical to me and is what I would do in their position. However, not everyone thinks the way I do. It ignores the fact that many homeowners view their home from more of an emotional perspective (shame of not being able to afford their home, hanging on to the perceived security of "owning their residence" etc, etc) than a financial one. It's this perspective that causes owners to get so far into the pre-foreclosure process that they couldn't hope to turn things around even if they had a shift in mindset. Denial is a powerful thing. I am seeing this happening already when I look at the default amounts on the pre-foreclosures in my local market. Most have been in pre-foreclosure for many months. The fact that more owners will follow this path is purely speculative on my part and I may be way off base. For my own perspective there is nothing in the current market that makes me feel an urgency to invest. Quite the opposite, in fact. Fast forward to next year, I may look back and see that I was completely wrong. With that said I am pretty confident that, even if I am, the market conditions will not be such that I will feel I missed an opportunity.