All Forum Posts by: Sharon Tzib

Hey Jerry! I'm an Oakland/Bay Area native myself. Welcome to BP. I really like a guy who can laugh at his mistakes and uses humor to help others learn some lessons. You have great writing skills - you should start a landlord blog - I bet you've got dozens of stories.

BTW, I just saw that Forbes list the other day - yep, Stockton was still on it lol! I think Oakland was right next to it :) Take care,

Sharon

This is hard to answer without more facts. Each property cash flows differently based on the purchase price, amount of down payment, average rents, average vacancy rates, whether the units are separately metered or not and you have to pick up some of the utility costs, etc. etc.

What you need to do is figure out, on average, how much cash flow per unit you can reasonably get in your investment area. Then take the total amount of cash flow you want to earn before you can quit your job and divide it by that amount - that will give you the number of doors you need to buy. For instance:

$5000/month cash flow desired / $200 average cash flow per unit = 25 doors

Now this is just a projection, of course, but it helps keep you on track.

On historic buildings, make sure there are no rules or regulations preventing you from doing certain things, like upgrades, or restricting property usage. Good luck!

@tracy royce is BP's resident short sale expert. Tagging feature doesn't seem to be working tho. Any help moderator?

You might want to head over the short sale forum and ask there too.

Hey Scott! You are definitely moving in the right direction. Good luck!

Congrats, Michael. Will you have to pay any utilities for the tenants? Some areas even in a home landlords must pay garbage and/or water. Make sure you know what is customary in your area.

You should probably factor in 5% for vacancy too. Still looks cash flow positive even so. Way to go!

Well deserved - congrats!

Welcome, Mohammed. I think most experienced MF investors would tell you that you might be biting off more than you can chew for your first deal. It also may be why you're getting the cold shoulder when you approach brokers (more on that later).

Have you ever considered starting w/ 2-4 plexes and scaling from there? The entry point is much easier; you can avoid the commercial brokers for now; you will gain valuable experience on purchasing, making improvements, tenanting and landlording, in an environment where if you do make a mistake, it is not as costly as it would be in a 15-20 unit.

If you had any previous REI experience, I wouldn't be as concerned, but you're kind of going from 0 to 100 pretty quickly here. If you're hell bent on doing this, though, then you're going to need to work on your approach w/ the commercial brokers, or find your deals other ways, such as REIA meetings, referrals (have you asked your contractor & PM if any of their clients wish to sell), driving for dollars, etc.

When you approach a broker, what are you saying? Maybe some of the brokers here can help you sharpen your presentation. For example, above you don't mention the asset Class, unit mix, price range/price per door, general area, or cap you are looking for. If you approach a broker with all that clearly defined, you may find more success.

I hope you don't think I'm being too hard on you. Just giving you some different angles to explore.

Ah, Davis - ran a half marathon there - nice school!

Even though I've been investing since 2000, I'm fairly new to BP myself, just joining earlier this year. But this website can be used for all of the above that you mentioned.

Initially you should use it to learn from, and feel free to jump into conversations and ask questions (like you are doing now), so people start getting to know you. Will make it easier down the road if others have a sense of who you are before asking to partner with anyone.

The marketplace is where you go to seek partners. If you want a great example of how that works, listen to Podcast 29 w/ Dawn Anastasi - she details finding herself a partner there and the criteria she had.

Hey Theodore. If it's the guru program I think you're referring to, then all you have to do is search their name here and you'll learn all you need to know about their programs, especially the big buck ones. General consensus is anything over $500 usd is probably not going to give you the return you were expecting when you shelled out that money.

Good luck!

Hey Edward! I'm an Oakland/Bay Area native myself. I started back in 2000 by converting my primary residence into a rental, but prices were much, much lower when I bought that house and it was able to cash flow. Many years later, I bought a couple more rentals in Indy, because it made more sense from a cash flow perspective.

However, if I was where you are now and looking to invest locally, I'd be looking at the Sacramento/Roseville area. I hear there are some great deals there now, and market conditions are doing really well. It's only a 90 minute drive for you - check it out. Also, up North Santa Rosa shows potential too. Good luck!