All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

 @Bob Regent it would be great to have a quick call and exchange notes. I am in a similar situation with multiple investments that have gone south.

I am in a similar situation to Frank, just with another investment with the GP, it would be great to have a quick chat and get your perspectives. 

Hi folks,

I have a rental property (SFH, 3bdr/2ba) in Phoenix in a pretty good location that I'm looking to sell. I bought it six years back from a flipper who either no had clue what he was doing or was a plain old crook - over the years I spent an arm and a leg on repairs and so I decided to sell it and move to a more stable property. Last year I put it on the market in a bad timing (November) and after spending almost 10K on various upgrades (paint, appliances, doors, landscape, etc) I had zero bids despite plenty of shows. A few of the reasons - the property doesn't have a great flow, the kitchen is small, there are low ceilings in the dining room, and though updated six years ago the finishing level is mediocre. So I decided to wait another year and at least cover some of my expenses while hoping the market doesn't tank. Long story short I'd like to put it now on the market again in the next couple of weeks and curious if you would just try go with 'slap lipstick on a pig' or should I try to spend some serious dollars on upgrading the place (or something in between). A similar updated house a block away was sold for $223/sqft just six weeks ago, whereas I listed my house last year for $163/sqft and still wasn't able to sell. The thing is comps could be misleading/confusing in that area because every block is different and $/sqft is also a gross method. For 1928 sqft I could make $115K extra on my asking last year so presumably if I get a contractor to do that for at least 20K less it might be worth my time.

I'm wondering if you experts recommend getting into this adventure or just would sell it as quickly as possible with minimal effort? I should say that I have no time to spend on this - I started a new gig in Jan so am super busy, therefore if I do want to go into this 'fixer-upper' play I'll have to find a super reliable general contractor that can do this. I'm not a local and live in California so as much as I think there's money to be made here, I'm leaning to just trying to sell quickly.

Also, if I do want to sell quickly - what if anything do you recommend doing about the more structural problems? Should I just invest in landscape and curb appeal up front and hope for the best? And how would you choose a broker that actually knows how to sell a tougher cookie w/o dunking the price significantly.

Appreciate your wisdom!

@Dave Foster Thanks for your comment. Just as clarification - I don't have any intent on exchanging to investment property in SF (nor do I have the funds for that). I think I just need to start doing my research and outreach to find the market and deals I want to go after.

Hi all,

First I'm a newbie to Bigger Pockets so this is also a quick introduction. I'm based in San Francisco and have been investing in real estate part time over the past five years, having purchased in total three out of state rental properties (Vegas & Phoenix, one condo and two SF) and holding them for past five years. The purchase timing was good and though I made a lot of mistakes and had my fair share (and then some) of unfortunate incidents (replacing roof, flooding, water heaters, bad tenants, etc) during the past years in terms of managing the properties, I have learned a lot and made a nice cash flow and all properties appreciated significantly. I sold the smallest property last year and now looking to sell one of the single family homes I own in Phoenix and hopefully get into multi-family units and do a 1031 exchange. I've also participated in a few syndications. 

A few questions that I was hoping the community could help me with:

1) Strategy - I'd like to increase my passive income over the next year from ~2K/month to at least ~5K/month which should cover most of my living expenses. The question is what is strategy is best to move forward? Over the years with all the troubles I had I thought it's best to move towards passive investments with syndications. I've had luck with those so far. That said, lately I realized that I'm actually not bad in handling my properties and if I changed my mindset slightly I can actually continue active management but double down and move into multi-family. It's been very clear early on that having a handful of SF is not diversified enough to absorb shocks to cash flow from big ticket items such as the ones I've dealt with (flooding, etc). So a few questions:

- What strategy to move forward to increase cash flows quickly given I have a lump sum in my hands and experience with active management at least of SF homes - should I move to syndications or build my own managed portfolio? Is multi-family the best direction or other asset type?

- How much time do you think it'll take today to build such a portfolio - I am currently in between gigs so  should I focus 100% of my time now on finding the best deals and get the portfolio stabilized for the next few years, or should I find a job and continue doing the real estate on the side. Said differently, for a new comer to MF, is it reasonable expectation to be able to get in multi-family while working full time and how long in today's market (and I know this is a very generic term but I'm open to any geography) would it take to secure one, two (or more) multi-family properties. I assume most of the leg work on the ground would be to find the right realtor, property management, contractors and properties but once team is in place hopefully most can be done remotely. 

2)  Education - I've started to educate myself on the many options and reading books, listening to podcasts, etc but am a bit overwhelmed right now. Any pointers to good reads that can get me up to speed fast  would be most appreciated. Also, any specific podcasts, forum threads on top.

3) Financing - Given I don't have employment income at the moment I heard that I'll have to rely on cash only to make first purchases so if I managed to do the 1031 exchange I should have ~$300K of all goes well, and I can also add from my stock portfolio and sell other SF so I can potentially double that if not more.

4) 1031 exchange - I've never done these before.  I've read about it a bit and seems like I need to find around three properties asap in order to actually get it done if I plan to the SF on the market in the immediate future. Given the current market, is that a reasonable expectation?  It seems like finding a good deal and building a team from scratch would take months so either I delay my sell plans (and perhaps rent month-to-month in meantime) or forego 1031 exchange. Thoughts?

Sorry for the long post. I welcome any advice, tips or leads per above.

Thanks!

Ron