All Forum Posts by: Sean Chau

Good job.  You're a good landlord.  Regarding the roof...**Knock on wood**

Definitely a lot more difficult to cash flow nowadays and it seems to be getting tougher. I would recommend not to be over optimistic about appreciation. House hacking or other creative ideas may work but it will take a lot more work. I was fortunate to find a property with a guest house and that definitely was the key for me to cash flow. My guest house was a 2 bedrooms which I can rent for $1500. And the price difference between a SFH vs one with a guest house was not much. So that was my creative idea that makes it possible. But renting out individual rooms may possibly work. Or possibility of doing AirBNB on a room.

If you list it through Zillow Rental Manager, it will allow you to list on Trulia and HotPads as well.  You can also have another option to manually list the content on Craigslist.  I found Zillow, Trulia to have the most hits with the best applicants.  But you never know, depending the target renters, HotPads and Craigslist might be good.  I do agree that Craigslist is a lot more work.  It is too free form and applicants have too many questions.  Unless you provide them with a standard process, you'll end up having too many email conversations.

I'll be there!  Look forward to meeting everyone.  

Hello.

   My name is Sean.  And I am addicted to Real Estate (not kidding; I may have a problem).   In my spare time, I like to look for deals, do market research, and continue to educate myself with real estate.  I enjoy reading RE books and listening to podcasts, especially episodes from BP.  I particularly love listening to other stories and get inspired by their RE journey.  Long time listener, first time contributor!

   Been silently reading all your posts for so many years, I feel that it is time to contribute to the community and perhaps network with some of you folks in the local area (Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley).

   I mostly follow the buy and hold strategy.  Started out with investing out of state but quickly learned that I prefer managing my own properties.    Perhaps the reason is because I do not know how to find a good property manager or not willing to invest the time in working with one.

Have a great day!

Shoutout to Ken Lau.

Sean