All Forum Posts by: Rachel S.

@Jon Schwartz we purchase in Sept and sold in July so about 10/11 months! 

Hey, gotta start somewhere lol

 The first part was a joke. However, I was actually genuinely interested in your plans in terms of area and strategy. :-)

Hello I am a relatively new Investor and am uneasy about a potential tenant. Would some of the more experienced landlords please give me some input? (Be gentle) I have an A+ SFH a week away from completion in an A+ neighborhood and I'm asking top of market rent. A friend of mine (retired mailman) met a drinking buddy at the Moose Lodge. Guy just moved here as a carpenter for work and is looking for a rental home. He connected the dots. Guy is ready to move in on completion, full ask, full deposit, no pets, no smokers. The house is in an A+ neighborhood and the best schools in the area. I have had the house listed for about 2 weeks without many hard bites. I believe this is due to COVID shutting down school many families are not aggressively looking to get into this area. So this seems like a great deal until...

Guy submits his application and I see 5 arrest records. All minor traffic incidents many years ago (No insurance, failure to register vehicle, failure to wear seatbelt, driving without a license etc.) but solid income and no prior evictions we could see. Then I then look this guy up on Facebook and see all kinds of "F This, F that", angry political rants against BLM, middle finger selfies etc. 

Am I letting my beliefs and moral compass keep me from lording over this land well or are these easy red flags? I mean if he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed he wouldn't be a renter right? Am I crazy for holding out for lotto winning nuns and peace corp trust fund doctors as tenants? 

Honestly, I'd return to the beach area in Los Angeles. Looks like the opportunity may be on the horizon :)

Houseboat might be the only workable investment there right now. MDR/Venice area is the poster child for the saying "You live where you want (if you're rich) and you invest where it makes sense". ;-)

@Jeremy Pelle buy a boat

@Rachel S.

There are a lot of good deals out there right now. But it is very hard to manage tenants that someone else qualified when we would have never qualified them.

I think it’s ok to buy now as long as you have the cash to carry for some time. I’m thinking at least until tax season is over next spring.

That's the thing. I am not seeing any opportunities in my market that excite me right now. If I did, the tenant issues would be less of a consideration. All I am seeing is stale listings from sellers who are chasing the market. They don't really need to sell and can afford to wait it out for that potential FOMO buyer (the same buyer who rushed in before the 2008 crash- concerned that prices would continue to skyrocket). Your market in Indiana may be a completely differently animal though.

@Frank Wong Thank you Frank ! Not sure how to handle long distance rental but will def educate myself!

@Jon Schwartz. Great question.  Low affordability. Shutdown of the economy due to covid.  Do I need to say the rest from the events of the last 60 days...

LA is hospitality and entertainment driven economy.  Both are shutdown for those in that line of work.   CBRE is predicting a 10% decline in rents in the next year nationwide.  For LA, I think more.  Last year at this time, there were maybe 4k units available.  You can check this stuff, go to apartments dot com and type in city of Los Angeles in the search bar.  That's a massive shift in vacancy.  People were already leaving LA at a rate of 5k per annum net since 2017.  The current situation has created a shift in where people want to live.  I'm see townhomes coming up for sale in transition neighborhoods where someone could buy it for less than paying rent...  The shift is happening.