All Forum Posts by: Rob B.

Thanks. That's about what I got too; I just wanted to be sure. 

I should have been more clear. I am trying to determine the rent, not the value of the property. 

I need some help valuing a rental property. It's a 2/1 duplex in San Jose, CA (off of 10th & Julian). 800 sq ft, older property but in good condition. I need to list it but I don't know what it's worth. Can someone offer some insight? I've tried to run comps, but some properties are $2,000/Mo, others are $3,600/Mo and it's hard to tell where. I'm meeting with an investor in the morning and I don't want to embarrass myself by throwing out a ridiculous number. 

I know the various strategies, but if someone familiar with the area could suggest a number I would appreciate it. 

Hi Brian,

We haven't made a decision, but after speaking with some investors in the area and doing some research, we are leaning towards the purchase. We've decided to not make a decision until we close another deal that we are in which closes in about 10 days. That way it can sit in our minds for a while and we can be detached about it. After looking at the building, I think that it can be divided into two areas and leased separately as a small studio and an office area, so it increases its usefulness in leasing. The long sale time isn't a deal breaker, just a factor. As long as we can get the right price on the buy end, a long sale time won't be too big of a problem. 

 I haven't done it yet. I spoke to the city of SL and they said that it was not allowed unless I wanted to build another garage so that the property had the right amount of garage space. I haven't ruled it out completely, but we're currently looking at purchasing another property and potentially moving in, we haven't made a decision on what to do with the garage. On the one hand, we could rent it out as two separate units, on the other, it would make it riskier to sell. 

Hello All, 

My wife and I own a property management company in San Jose, CA and we're looking at buying an office building that is also set up where we could live in it. We could easily rent out our primary residence and make $700/Mo over the mortgage payment and use the SBA loan to buy the building with only 10% down. It's zoned commercial and residential. The building is in Scott's Valley, which is about 20 min south of San Jose. We currently live in San Leandro, which is 30-1:30 away depending on traffic. So the building would cut down on my commute because its closer and also because the 17 N isn't as bad as the 880-S. 

My hesitancy is this: Scott's Valley is a small town (11,500) and I'm worried that when we're ready to move on, we will have a hard time leasing or selling it. All of my rentals are in large cities and I know that I could sell them all quickly if I were willing to take a cut on the price. But in a small town, even at a good price it could sit for months. The current seller is rapidly dropping his price because he needs to sell. The advantage of the SBA loan is that there is no balloon payment, so I don't need to worry about that. 

Aside from the fact that it is in a small town, it is also a rather interested layout. It's about 2,000 sq ft with a lot of storage underneath the house. It could be divided into two separate areas, one of which could be a photo studio and the other an office. Seller is very motivated and I think that I could get a good price on it, but I don't want to be in the same position in ten years. 

If it helps, we have four rental houses, our primary residence and a 16 unit apartment complex, all generating good cash flow. We also own a profitable property management company that handles about 110 units, so we could carry it for a while if things went south for some reason. 

If you were looking to lend to money to a flipper, what criteria would you use. I have about $200K left over from a sale and I'm considering loaning it out to a house flipper. Obviously I would want to ask about their experience and their plans. I also wouldn't allow anything that was more than an hour away from me. 

I've seen a lot of posts about how to GET money from investors, I guess I'm looking to hear from people who LEND money and what criteria they use, as well as what legal protection they use and what the normal terms are. 

Thanks. 

If you come as far South as the SF Bay Area, give me a call. I got started as an investor and worked up to 22 rental units before getting my license. Now my main clientele are investors. 

Let me ask the opposite question: if you want to make your money available to someone on the short term but you want the structure and criteria of an angel investor group, how do you find an angel investment group to invest with?

Use your VA loan to buy a 4-unit owner occupied property with 0% down. Check the county loan limits for whatever county that you're in. Can't be beat. I have three clients who are using it to get duplexes or triplexes here in California.