All Forum Posts by: Rohin Dhar

I think it sort of depends on how good the deal is. If it's a phenomenal property find a way to make it work. If it's not a great deal, maybe you're over paying and should walk away. Oversimplifying things a bit, I'd define a phenomenal deal as annual gross rents are 20% or more of the purchase price. If the gross rents are 10% or less of the purchase price, you're probably not getting any great deal.

We've had two properties not appraise. They were great deals, it didn't matter! In one case we got the seller to cover most of our closing costs, even though they wouldn't budge on the price after the appraisal.

In theory, you should be able to refinance a property and take money out so you have cash reserves. I believe they'll look primarily at your debt to income ratio. You have no debt on your new properties (yeh!) but the income isn't on your tax returns yet for new properties (boo). Since it seems like overall your properties have low debt, you should be a good candidate for a cashout refi as long as past tax returns show good income. It's harder if you don't have a w2 job.

The good news is a loan professional can probably tell you the exact answer in 30 seconds. Just pick a recommended one and shoot them an email with your rough details!

It certainly feels like that to me this week, but I try to remind myself that it feels that way every year a few times a year!

I was in 29 Palms and Joshua Tree last week on vacation, so of course I scoped out the Airbnb scene out of curiosity. It seems like there are a bunch of very successful Airbnbs that are near the park entrance in 29 Palms. I don't know whether ones in the town are as successful or not. I'm not sure if the prices in 29 Palms have exploded like they did in JT, but it looked promising to me and worth further investigating. 

For those asking, why not go right into Joshua Tree? Houses that sold for $150K in 2019 are going for $600K there now. Not necessarily a problem if the revenue supports it, but the permitting situation in the county is also really delayed (and also has the potential to change or your permit could be denied). So, you're paying STRs prices without necessarily knowing for sure you can run it as an STR anytime soon. So risky for some people (like me)!

In generally, i really liked it out in both Joshua Tree and 29 Palms, but I I have a nagging suspicion that permitting might be a problem down the line since the towns have become so overrun with STRs this year. I'm casually looking at both markets and would probably dive in if I could get good clarity about permits going forward.

@Jonathan Stone It's the southern most ski town in the rockies so that's a big part of the draw. The town is hip and artsy. It's at a high elevation so a lot of texans come in the summer to escape the heat. Historic native american structures. Lots of stuff! I think tourism is by the far the main industry in the town.

That's my earthship! @Jonathan Stone Taos is a huge tourist destination, drawing people mostly from Colorado and Texas.

@Jason Kudo thanks for the insight! I just started monitoring the market so I'm thinking about it. 

Thanks for chiming in @Bryant Brislin and @Jason Kudo! I'm curious if this is the kind of market where a well run 1-bedroom cottage can hit 90% occupancy (in non-covid times) or if that's a pipe dream given the shoulder seasons and market dynamics?

If i remember pre-covid when i ran the numbers it looked like most places in JT were 60% occupied, but this year looks more like 80%+ on average because of staycations from LA!

From afar, It's been wild seeing the price of homes in Joshua Tree absolutely skyrocket in the last few months. Homes are selling for 2-3X their prices in 2019. I started monitoring the area at the end of 2020 and it feels like the prices have doubled since then in about a quarter.

I'm curious for folks with properties there if it's a great market or if it's super competitive and hard to cashflow at today's prices? I remember pre-pandemic people mentioning it was pretty crowded already and hard to standout. That said, the prices still seem reasonable if the market has decent occupancy and pricing year round.

Also, is there any risk of the regulatory hammer coming down on the market from the county or locals? Almost every California city eventually makes running STRs pretty challenging if local residents or second home owners complain about them. La Quinta, Cathedral City, Palm Springs etc have made STRs pretty challenging to varying degrees.

Hi Becky, we live in SF and have a property in Sonoma county too. We self manage and it's not too much work (maybe a couple of hours a week).

However, the key thing is finding a really good house cleaner that can also be your local point of contact on the permit (and if you need local feet on the ground of the occasional issue).

If you want to consider self managing, you have to be willing to knock down a few doors and spend some time getting that cleaner / local point of contact. If you're not able to find someone or don't have the time to find one, they property management is the way to go for sure.