All Forum Posts by: Ray Johnson

@Alexander Roeschmann  I purchase Buy-and-Hold rentals for long-term. I'm hoping a crash is coming, the bigger the crash, the better. The last crash was amazing for me, I'm sure it won't be that good this time around. I do think It is definitely due. 

I see people selling properties one level above junk status, and people submitting multiple offers and bidding up the price due to lack of investment properties, and the large pool of investors, a correction to get us back to reality is needed.

@Rick Trevizo I think you may want to do the Cash-out refi ASAP. Some of the Banks have already stopped accepting applications for HELOCs, Cash-out Refi loans will be next to get halted, or the 80% LTV refi loans will go away, and we will be seeing 70% or less.

Interesting question, maybe @Chris Mason will know the answer to this one

@Erin Dorsey Robinson I own SFR's, and Condo's in Class A, and Class B neighborhoods in major metropolitan areas. Washington DC., Orange County, CA., and Los Angeles.

@Erin Dorsey Robinson I'm not set-up as a Non-Profit organization, so I will not be donating to this particular tenant based charity.  

All kidding aside; Since all but one of my properties are professionally managed, I have no idea as to how my tenants are doing financially, around the 15th of every month, I check all the bank accounts to see if the deposits are there from the PM, they were all there this month.

If any of my PM's were to email, or call asking about rent forgiveness, I would not be happy since a major component of their job is to collect the rent every month. My answer would be NO to a rent forgiveness.   

 @Rick Albert I wouldn't do it at this time, you will be in violation of the current law signed last month. There are no rent increases allowed right now in Los Angles.

You mentioned you need the increase due to business expenses, How much of an increase are we talking about? It may not be worth the headache.

A little goodwill may go a long way if these are good tenants that have been renting for a while.

@David Church What type of property is this, a SFR?

@Charlie Anne  My first property is a 1 bedroom condo I bought in Santa Monica, CA in 2003.  I bought it to live in while I finished college, instead of renting an apartment. I still own it, It's going well, it has more than tripled in value. I'll keep it forever, and make sure one of my children do as well. 

@Bob Prisco Most of the people on this site, as you can tell by many post, are not investors in any capacity so there's a very steep learning curve to get past before they are comfortable investing for the first time. 

I think they use the Guru's to try to speed up that path to investment launch, same with the books. Warren Buffet, and many other billionaire investors all say, you will have to "Do the time" to understand your investment vehicles to be successful, there is no way around it. 

Learning curves will vary, but those seeking true success will need to account for time and experience. I'm not talking about those post on here where the first time investor is posting about getting 50 doors in 90 days, almost always they will not tell you those doors are producing a net income of $30 a month, that's not an investment, that's a gamble where the "investor" is hoping for a favorable scenario when the Debt gets restructured at the end of the 7, or 10 year term, and then hoping the rent increase projections happened, hoping the vacancy turnover projections they forgot to account for don't come to fruition (you'll be amazed at how many people will have a 5% vacancy reserve, but they forget about the Unit turnover cost), Some get lucky swinging for the fences out the gate, many do not.  

I think there may be some hesitance to doing deals for new investors because they see these post on the site, then they look at the industry, and see the reality of the complexities involved in REI.

I always tell people, that person you see selling their distressed property, the investment Foreclosure, the deep discount at sale, etc.. were all deals investors did their analysis on but the deal failed. 

Lastly, I think it's the money, most new investors are spending their lifesavings on this initial investment, the fear of wiping-out is real.

@Mohima Khanom The age is irrelevant when it comes to investing, it's the knowledge, and ability that are your initial starting points.

I purchased my first investment at 24 years old. I was in my last year of Business school, class in the evenings and working at a Public Accounting firm during the day. Because the income was low, I was able to get a home loan for lower income individuals. Instead of renting an apartment, I was able to purchase the condo for close to what it cost to rent, I still own that condo today and use it as a rental.

I was looking at condos near the London Bridge metro station last year in June/July, there still may be opportunities in that neighborhood.