All Forum Posts by: Steve Wang

Q's: 

1. How much is your current rent where you live? 

2. Does the house have a pool? I know STR's that don't have pools don't perform nearly as well as one that does so factor that into your rental comps.

I would think you could get somewhat the best of scenario 1 and 2. You can rent by the room the main house to get $2,700, but get the privacy of living in the casita. Would splitting the casita be cheaper than your current rent? How much you pay for rent also determines if scenario 3 is worth doing or not.

Don't forget to live there for at least 2 years to get the tax free gains of $250k filing single or $500k married! Good luck on your investing journey!

How did you find this property? I'm looking on Redfin and the estimate is around $472k so I'm curious. Thanks!

I pulled this list from Oaklands Rent Adjustment Program page.

The following are subject  to exemptions from Rent Control.

• Subsidized Housing.
• Motels, hotels if occupancy not more than 30 days.
• Hospital, dormitory, extended care facility, etc.
• Non-profit cooperative owned and occupied by majority of residents.
• New construction (built after January 1st, 1983)
• Substantial rehabilitation.
• 3 units or less owner occupied properties.
• The unit that an owner occupies in any building.
• Non-profit facility-homeless/substance abuse treatment.
• Unit in trust for the developmentally disabled.
• Shared facilities with owner and tenants (bath/kitchen).
• Costa Hawkins-Single family home or condominium.
• Vacant units

Link: https://www.oaklandca.gov/reso...

The most notable is the houses built after Jan 1, 1983 exemption. 

I'm house hacking a duplex in Temescal and had to lower rents last year from $2,900 to $2,400 with the tenants due to COVID and I want to bring rents up with the same tenants, however Oakland's CPI for 2021 is 1.9% which brings rents up to $2,445. The appreciation is still great and overall cashflow is great! 

Happy Investing!

@Hayden H. Thanks for the response! That's really good information to know about HML since I've never worked with one. I should probably talk to my conventional lender to see if they have any offerings on these plans as well. Thanks for the recommendation to Sean Pan, I'll definitely reach out.

I don't have enough equity in the PHX properties as I bought them earlier this year. 

Definitely a lot to think about and digest, and I should probably start by figuring out financing first. Any chance you know any wholesalers? Or how are you finding your deals in the Bay? Thanks!

Hi Everyone!

I've been busy with my real estate investing :) I've purchased two properties in Phoenix, one cash flowing $400 and the other $300! Super happy with those so far (If you have any questions on them feel free to ask)!

So I currently live in a duplex that I rehabbed myself, but am now looking to purchase that forever home.

Goal: To have a forever home, and a garage (sadly my duplex in Oakland doesn't have parking) that's customized to our taste in a good school district. Bonuses for potential for an ADU add on if the lot's big enough. Airbnb's seem pretty lucrative in that area since there's a lot of companies out there.

So here's my "idea". I'm thinking about finding a wholesaler that has off market deal properties that was built in 1980+ in Dublin, Pleasanton, or San Ramon for about $900k-$1m (3 bed 2 bath, hopefully 1500 sqft with potential to add more). Hopefully the property can be found for cheap because of some intense rehabbing. Then finding a hard money lender to finance the purchase + rehab costs (I haven't worked with hard money lenders, but I hear it's about 20% down + 10% of rehab costs, so roughly $180k + $25k = $205k). 

I'd then follow my rehab using partially a GC, partially myself. Probably redoing all flooring, kitchen, bathrooms, paint, and then landscaping. To save some costs, I could do an Ikea kitchen with Semihandmade doors, and then figure out the bathroom remodel pieces as I go. 

After the remodel, I'd refinance the property through traditional financing. I'd think that area could appraise for $1.3-$1.4m based on comps that I've seen. I'm okay with leaving money in the property since this would be a primary, but the main point would be to have some forced appreciation, a custom home, and hopefully a lower monthly payment because of the forced appreciation.

I'd love to get anyone's thoughts on this idea. Poke as many holes as you can. All comments/constructive criticisms are welcome haha :) Also if anyone knows of some solid wholesalers in the Bay Area, that'd be great as well! Cheers and thanks.

Hey their BP!

I just completed my first house hack on a duplex in Oakland! I purchased earlier this year, remodeled both units, and found tenants right at the start of Shelter-In-Place (yikes that was nerve wracking) for the downstairs unit. I couldn't follow the BRRRR model since prices are so high and my down was around 11%, but I was able to remodel and refi my way to removing my PMI on my loan! That's going to help me cashflow even more in the future when I do rent my unit.

Now that I've dipped my feet into the REI world, I want to get out of the Bay Area since prices are so high it takes years of savings and doing an owner occupied loan to invest in the Bay Area for me. Also, I had to patiently wait for this deal to pop up on the MLS, but I believe that OOS has more deals. I'm now learning different markets so that I can accurately gauge a "deal" and what that looks like. So far, I'm looking in Cleveland OH, Indianapolis IN, Clarksville TN, and San Antonio TX.

I'm exploring the turn key model, but I'm not a fan of parking my cash into the property since the remodel aspect has already been taken out of the equation. I'd like to find properties in need of light remodeling in B class areas so that I can at least pull out some of the cash in the investment in a refi. Any guidance on the markets stated above would be great! I'm also self managing my current property, but would need to get in touch with property managers OOS, as well as a good general contractor! I'd gladly buy a virtual coffee to chat with others investing similarly!