All Forum Posts by: Sarah D.

@Russell Brazil Who shows a MF without an accepted offer?  Everything I've seen in San Diego stipulates no showings until the offer is accepted.  Sure you can drive by, get a feel for the area, etc but presumably you've already done that if you're analyzing that property.  

@Mike F. Will the selling realtor show it before your offer is accepted?

@Omar Cantu It's not about the truck, it's about your mindset.  You're right in that if you said you had $560 of student loan payments people wouldn't debate it.  Let me ask you this- how much do you save every month for your first downpayment?  How much do you already have saved up?

If you don't plan to owner occupy (which is a good idea given you can live rent free right now) you'll most likely need at least 20% down plus reserves to get a loan.  I know you can have the seller carry, etc but is that feasible in your market? (I honestly don't know)

@Lauren C.  You don't have a dog yet, why not wait to get one?  How long to you plan to live there?  Then you can keep the whole property pet free with no concern over tenant's perception's of fairness.

@Omar Cantu You're spending 21.5% of your monthly income on your truck payment alone.  Assuming $100/mo for insurance that brings it up to 25.4%.  You spend one week every month of your life working just to pay for the privilege of filling your truck with gas, paying for maintenance, and having it lose value every day.

Are you also saving 25% of your income every month for investing?  If not, realize that you want that truck more than you want to invest in real estate.

It is much easier to start out if you have some money to put in; anyone (lender, partner, mentor, etc) will want to see that you have something to lose.  I also recommend buying a 2-4 unit to start out.  Best of luck to you!

Our plumber is Chris Gille at City Plumbing; he is amazing!  We've used him for big jobs, small job and emergency jobs.  Can't say enough good things about him.

Our electrician is James at Moriset Electric.  He does good work at reasonable prices, but doesn't have the best bookeeping/receipt giving skills.  I've just told him that if we get audited he needs to come testify that the work was done ;)

No references for HVAC.

If you can't find their contact info through a google search please shoot me a PM and I'll send it over (don't think I can post it).

@Steve Vaughan  So great of you on so many levels!

@Linda S. Your friend's comment is hilarious!  What would you do?  You'd fix them of course!  You've planned for that, etc.  Not to mention the unlikely scenario of all 5 breaking at once.  

@Jessie Nunley Most people have no idea how to analyze risk, and they think fear is the same as risk.  So to them, something they fear must be very risky indeed.  Being afraid of 5 HVAC replacements isn't the same as the risk of all 5 breaking at once.  Additionally, if you've identified a risk, then next step is to identify the likelihood of that situation occurring as well as mitigations for that risk so you can handle the issue should it arise.  It's unfortunate that there are so many of the fear based naysayers in your life; perhaps you guys could stick to safer conversation topics like politics or religion ;) 

I think the biggest risk is doing nothing and working until you're 65+, or worse yet getting laid of in your late 50's and not being able to find another job.  How is it that those risks don't keep everyone up at night?  

@Chris Kane  Was this in SD?  Why are the taxes so high?

For San Diego, that's not the worst rent to price ratio...

@Cody L. Thanks for the kind words!  We're looking forward to the next purchase.

@Hersh M. Thanks, I'll be going through that info tonight.  This property was built in the 50s and has 3 spots only.  It appears that there may have been a 4th spot out front at some point, but there is now curb.

@Justin R. Thanks for your thoughts.  I'll head down to find out some more information.  

@Cody L.  Here are the rough numbers.  Purchased a 4 unit (all 2/1) in PB near Mission Bay HS.  Purchase price was $1.175M.  We sold our house, put 20% down, and are living in one unit.  We put $60K into renovations (lots of sweat equity as well) and rent each unit for $1950.  The three units cover all of the costs of the property, so we now live for free.  Once we move out our expected cashflow is $1K/month.

Our very conservative new value is $1.35M (supporting comps may put it higher).  We are now working on pulling out some equity to help fund the next purchase.

The benefits of this purchase are numerous- our increased net worth, we now live for free while still enjoying the benefits of mortgage paydown, and we have gained a tremendous amount of experience in real estate.  This was our first purchase and we made mistakes but also learned a lot, and we're looking forward to continued growth.   However, I suspect you could generate far superior returns for the same purchase price.  I'm looking forward to the day we can confidently make those moves.  

@Cody L.  Yes, based on your posts you would be horrified at our purchase.  But it makes sense for us starting out for a variety of reason, though i could see us investing outside of CA in 5-7 years when we have more capital and experience (and more time because I've hopefully quit my job by then!)