All Forum Posts by: Rhonda Wilson

Your $10,000 repair estimate sounds low to me unless you are doing all of the labor yourselves. I suggest having a contractor or someone with significant rehab experience walk through with you even if it means paying for their time. It would be money well spent. 

 Steve, The point is that California does not build enough homes and has not for years creating homelessness and problems with affordability. There are many reasons for this but government interference is the primary problem. See the article below for a good summary

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/what-is-contr...

My point continues to be that another significant addition to the cost of housing is yet another step in the wrong direction for the low income residents of California. It's not the upper middle class and wealthy that will suffer. They have plenty of equity in their million dollar homes. As I said before, California has the highest rate of homelessness. Furthermore, when you include the cost of housing, it has the highest rate of poverty. This mandate will make that worse. This mandate will increase the misery of the poor citizens of California. As well intentioned as it is, it causes more harm than it does good. 

I can't accept your point about the poor living near coal plants. It's an extremely broad generalization and there is only one coal power plant left in operation in California.

California should be looking for ways to reduce the requirements for building new homes allowing builders to create micro-apartments, tiny homes and minimalist homes for those who want them. The creativity of entrepreneurs will solve the problem faster than politicians ever will given an environment in which they can innovate. Furthermore they should stream-line the approval process for building new housing. 

Hi Russell, 

We bought our first multi-family, a six-plex, in 2004. We are now financially independent. In 2004, our average rent was about $425. It is now $850. We still own that property. It is worth perhaps 2 1/2 times what we bought it for. For us, rental real estate has been a slow and steady path to wealth. The first couple of years we did a little better than break even. As the years went by, the mortgage got smaller, rents crept slowly higher and cash flow improved. 

I know that a lot of people here found ways to get wealthy in just a few years. That wasn't us.  I just wasn't a big risk-taker and I was busy with a full-time job and kids. For years we just made a small amount of positive cash flow but we did steadily build equity. 

I guess what I'm saying is that you can do it, but in this business, time is on your side, so the best thing you can do is get started. 

 Tangent here, but when the Affordable Care Act passed, every health insurance plan that did not provide all of the benefits mandated by government became illegal. For example, you could no longer purchase a health insurance plan that did not include newborn and maternity care. Suppose, as a self-employed person you wanted to purchase only critical-illness or hospitalization insurance - those became illegal. Furthermore, a penalty became law if a person did not purchase a policy providing the mandated benefits. The mandate was enforced through the tax system. If you don't think we were forced, try not paying your taxes and see what happens. Thankfully, the mandate has been repealed. 

This is similar to housing requirements. Government thinks something is such a good idea that they mandate that everyone buy it. They never seem to consider the fact that this raises the cost for everyone and hurts people who are struggling most of all. According to the Fed, 40% of Americans can't cover a $400 emergency. So, when the government mandates some new thing they want us all to buy, like solar panels, back-up cameras in our cars, maternity care in our health insurance, etc., etc. do they really stop to think about what they are adding to the cost of living? 

My feeling is, please government, just stop with the good intentions.

So... in the state with the highest level of homelessness - in which homelessness is growing at about 14% per year, they decide to increase the cost of building new housing. 

Our broker and a few of the title companies we have dealt with use Docusign. It seems to be the standard these days.

Hi Debbie, I suggest that you reach out to our very own David Greene. In addition to his contributions on BiggerPockets he is also a Keller Williams realtor in the Bay Area. If he can't help you personally, he could almost certainly refer you to someone who could help you. I found his webpage here David Greene website . Scroll down to the bottom of the page for his phone number. 

Hi Chris, I can relate to what you are going through. It is very easy to relate to tenants - especially families with children. None of us wants to be the evil landlord. However, from my experience, the description of the tenants you have given is exactly like those of the most problematic tenants with whom I have had experience. In general, tenants lie on a spectrum of respecting their landlord and the property or not. It seems quite clear that these tenants do not and never will respect either. 

I like the suggestion of shifting the blame on circumstances and an indifferent 3rd party such as a bank. Another tact is to focus on specific habitability issues - "Habitability" is a good word to use because as a landlord you are required to provide a habitable dwelling - that require renovation that cannot be performed while the unit is occupied. We have asked tenants to leave a unit in which the bathroom floor needed to be torn out to the subfloor. With only one bathroom in the unit, it was impossible to gut the bathroom with tenants in place. 

Hi Trey,

I'm not the first to say this, but keep thinking about things that you can delegate or outsource. I don't know how many properties you have, but picture people with 100 doors or 1000 doors. Then think about some of the day to day tasks that you do. Ask yourself, does Grant Cardone spend his evening paying the property tax bill or whatever it is that is taking up your time? The more you grow your business, the more you will need to automate or outsource. Perhaps as you do all of the tasks you do, ask yourself "Is there a way I can outsource or automate this so that I don't have to spend my valuable time doing it anymore?"

-Rhonda

Hi Debbie,

I suggest that you get at least one second opinion. My thinking is that your best bet may be to sell the house "as is." The reason is that there are many potential buyers who simply want a good location and would be happy to tear a house down and build a home to their exact specifications. From that point-of-view, it's better that you sell as-is because you are selling a "blank slate" to the buyer rather than building something that may or may not be what buyers are looking for. 

I'm also thinking that if the location is good, that the value should be there. It is, after all, a matter of supply and demand. 

Good luck!

-Rhonda