All Forum Posts by: Steven Henao

and, if there were ways to make average home videos look incredible, would that be worth it to you? 

Hey Everyone,

I’m the co-owner of a small production company focused on Esports and Gaming content, but I’m diving into real estate investing and fascinated by the intersection of video marketing and property sales.

After doing some research, I’ve noticed the pricing and usage for real estate video services can vary wildly—from $100 to $5,000 for anything from basic photo packages to full video suites with drone footage and social media clips.

I’m really curious—how does this align with your experience?

• Do you use video to market your listings, and if so, what type works best for your audience?
• Have you noticed that your social media videos actually drive conversions, or are they just generating views?
• What do you typically pay for photo and video packages? Do you feel you're getting your money's worth?
• Do you prefer working with individual freelancers or established teams, and why?
• In your experience, do higher-quality videos result in faster sales or better offers, or are they more about building long-term brand recognition?
• What type of video content performs best for your listings? (e.g., home tours, neighborhood highlights, agent intros, testimonials)
• What are the biggest barriers you face when it comes to investing more in video marketing?

@Erik R Aho, Similar situation here, living in Los Angeles with outrageous prices. Last year, my wife and I had a 10% increase on the 2bd/2ba apartment we rented, pushing it to $4,080 monthly. That felt extreme to us, especially since our money was literally going into the ether each month.

We searched EXTENSIVELY for about 7 months, starting with Zillow and open houses. Eventually, we found an agent who helped us out. We put in multiple offers and were consistently outbid. Finally stumbled upon a house we absolutely DID NOT think we would buy. Listed for over 100 days with terrible photos. We submitted a low offer, expecting less competition...

...and, they accepted!

We bought it for $675k, negotiated down from $725k, with the seller covering closing costs. We caught a slight dip and locked in a 5.75% rate. In total, we paid around $35k with a 5% conventional loan, split evenly between us. Though not cash-flow positive yet, we're building equity.

Now, we're considering out-of-state investments, but only after establishing a home base first. Might be worth some more local digging for your first investment?

• Can you share costs with someone? A partner, potential roommates, family member?
• Can you jointly qualify with someone to increase your loan amount?
• Are you renting now? If so, I agree with others here to definitely look into House-hacking first. 

@Rick Albert I'm totally on the same page regarding the cash flow perspective. If our estimates hold up, it just seems like the obvious choice.

I get what you're saying about the storage and parking challenges too. Our current setup is pretty tight. The driveway's narrow and only has about 4 feet of space next to our neighbors, which can be a bit of a squeeze when there are cars parked. I don't think it'd be practical for both the main house and the ADU to share the driveway. Which only would leave street parking for the ADU.

I wonder how much of an issue this would be for potential renters in LA? It seems like parking is always a big deal around here. What do you think?

Currently reading about second home qualifications. Never knew this existed, thank you both! 

Honestly surprised my loan officer never mentioned this as an option. 

@Andrew Steffens 
That would help ease our fear of putting all our money in one place forsure

Are 10% down investment loans a thing??? Our loan officer has only given us quotes for a minimum of 25% down.

@Dan H. Thanks for the detailed reply! Your points are really interesting, especially about Rent Control – that's new to us!

Could you explain more about the benefits and downsides of classifying our property as a duplex versus a single-family home with an ADU?

Also, I want to mention that we don't plan on selling unless it's smarter to use our current equity to invest in other properties. Our long term goal is accumulating rental properties and holding. Right now, our mortgage costs us about $4800 a month. In our area, renting out 3bd/2ba usually go for $4-5k. If we moved out and rented the main house as-is, we'd barely break even or even potentially enter negative cashflow.

That's why the idea of renting out the ADU for extra income sounds appealing. Any thoughts on that?

We have 80k to invest but feel paralyzed by the many directions to take! Please help!

Some background:

We bought our first property last year (2023) for $675k. A SFR 3/2 in Long Beach, CA that needed some work. It appraised for 725k at the time of purchase and has been holding steady since. Our plan was to do an ADU garage conversion (I know, super original), rent it out Short term / Med term, and then spruce up the main house after a couple of years of the ADU income.

So, we started the ADU permitting process right away…

The main house was livable but very old. It needed some TLC, and over the months of living there, we slowly started feeling claustrophobic. We couldn't hold it and decided to start on the renovations early while we waited for the ADU permit. Some of the work we did ourselves, but most of it we contracted out.

Fast forward to today, 

We spent about 70k on all new bathrooms, flooring, minor upgrades, and a badass kitchen. Our plan basically reversed, and we now have a beautiful main house but no ADU and no cashflow yet. We haven't received a new appraisal with the updated renovations, but we're estimating a solid chunk of equity has been added.

We'd like to invest the 80k in the ADU since that's a guaranteed >2k rent per month, but are feeling a bit doubtful in this moment. Do we really want to have all our eggs in one basket? It feels like a huge chunk has already been put into this property. Would it be better to invest it elsewhere? Should we consider different financing options? Did we chose the right location to have an ADU?

So BP, what do we do? 

Any tips, advice, thoughts appreciated!