All Forum Posts by: Sean Walton

I could see a situation where he is saying comps are worth x and at x it does not cash flow. Maybe you should sell for x to someone on the retail market and use that cash to fund future ventures. I wouldn't want my name on a mortgage that isn't going to cash flow in the near future.

I'm not an expert on this but if you are looking at modular homes I would compare their cost to that of traditional stick built. In a more rural area it may be a lot cheaper to have a local contractor build it on the site. The advantages modular has are being built in a factory so there are no weather delays. Also you can order it and get it under construction while you have your property under contract so that by the time your foundation, septic, etc are ready your house could be showing up on site. So that lowers your holding costs. 

There are also much nicer modular homes available these days from Bluhomes.com ,  http://www.hivemodular.com/ and some others if you want to avoid looking like a typical trailer home

Thanks for your service. Good luck and keep us updated

You could check out Urban Ore in Emeryville as well. 

There's always IKEA cabinets as well

Welcome Steve,

    I like the idea of holding on to properties for cash flow. Also if you are doing the GC work it makes sense to hold on to it at least 10 years to get past the latent defect warranty period.

-Sean

Hi @Ben Rice I am doing similar to what you are thinking but it only makes sense in certain situation how much would your rent be? Most areas in the Bay Area rents are higher or equal to the mortgage you would be paying on your potential rental.  

I live with my fiance who has a rent controlled studio in San Francisco she has lived in for 5 years so we are paying way below market rate. I bought my condo in the end of 2011 as a short sale. I rent it out furnished for 1 to 3 months at a time. I'm cash flowing about $1000/mo.

Right now I'm looking into cities that allow the construction of in-law units. This is a good potential to get a duplex of sorts that you can house hack. Most cities I've found have a requirement that the owner occupy the building so you couldn't rent out both.

Forgot to post the link to Sacramento planning

http://www.per.saccounty.net/applicants/Pages/Desi...

Send me a message if you'd like to chat about your project. I'd love to hear more details.

Hi @Chinua Rhodes and Damani,

     I may be a little late to this post for your needs but if this is for planning department approval they will probably want a reasonable accurate site plan but you will also need the material listed on either the discretionary or non-discretionary planning process which is more involved. You should probably speak to an architect or designer about that.

@Juan Carlos Quiroz Zolezzi@Manolo D. @Nick Coonis

Bluhomes https://www.bluhomes.com/ makes some beautiful prefab housing depending on your target market. I looked into it a few months ago and these are not HUD approved mobile homes so can't be put in trailer parks.

Hi @Sherwin Gonzales I'm an architect in San Francisco. I discovered BP through the podcast after getting inspired to get into real estate investment and development from Jonathan Segal's lecture at the AIA SF. You should check out some of the stuff he's done in San Diego. Seems like best of both worlds. You get to have the creative part of architecture with the pay of a developer. Let me know if you're interested in grabbing a coffee or beer and chatting.

-Sean

Podcast 57 also talks about vacation rentals. 

One potential issue is you may be competing with people who use their second home as vacation rental income part of the year and for personal vacation the rest of the year so they may be willing to price their space less than you would need to for cash flow. Combine that with  Airbnb, Homeaway, etc. which have expanded the market for potential tenants but also lowered the barriers to entry for your competition. Make sure it is still profitable as a standard rental and make sure you plan for vacancy and lower rates in the off season.

It's actually 3.9 billion which is still a lot for a company with few tangible assets but I agree as home sharing rises in popularity other companies are taking notice like the OTAs. While prop F was defeated 55% to 45%, a district supervisor who is very anti airbnb was just voted in shifting the balance of city hall. There is already a law limiting renting your entire place to 90 days out of the year. One criticism is that it doesn't have a lot of enforcement mechanisms. I think this should be a warning to people looking to up their return on investment by doing air bnb instead of traditional tenants if you are in a area where renters have a lot of voting power and rents are skyrocketing there could be backlash. Always have another exit strategy.