All Forum Posts by: Bryan Christopher

@Walter Spurgiasz

Sorry, meant to tag you. 

Walter, AC aside... would you mind sharing your general cash-flow breakdown on the property? Do you think someone could buy that same property now at current prices and cash-flow? Seems like it would be a pretty thin margin....

@Bruce Olsen

I'm in Burbank. Would love to drop by one of these meetings. Can you give me a quick summary of what goes on? Are these all local investors investing locally? I'm looking out of town because it's so expensive to invest anywhere near where I am. Thanks. 

I'm still looking to find my first investment but I'll be putting 25% down and just trying to get the best deal I can. I'd be a bit leery of taking out multiple loans on my first single property. It's a personal choice, but I'd probably go more conservative before getting into a lot of leveraging this early. 

Same for the 401... not a bad idea once you have a couple properties under your belt and know things are going well. But, what if your first property has unseen issues... bad tenants early on, etc. 

Just my two cents. Good luck and let us know how it goes either way. 

I'm down south... and at least in most parts of LA county... the market is showing no signs of cooling off. It's as ridiculous as it's been since I've lived here. (Including the play-money days.) There's just no inventory in most remotely desirable areas, so like Louis pointed out... it's bidding wars on almost all properties. Called today on a fixer, underpriced by about 15% in my neighborhood and a few days into the listing they have 11 offers, many cash, the rest 20%+ and all over asking. It's a freaking circus down here. 

The drought issue could affect prices at some point, I suppose. This assumes that it simply never rains excessively again.... and that there are never ANY restrictions on farmers who use 85% of our water here... and that we NEVER learn to desalinate to any useful degree. 

It's possible.  But, people have haven't done very well betting against California historically...

@Jean G.

I've mostly looked at condos, and a few very small SFR's. When I say I'm seeing 1%... this is purely on paper, with some speculation. Very general RTV's. I'm also looking at some of these factoring in coming in under asking which may or may not be possible. We'll see how DOM (etc) looks over the first part of the summer here. The market cooled off there last summer and rates just went up a bit again. Not banking on it, but I'm speculating that we may see some chances for entry this summer. Feel free to PM me if you want to chat a bit more.... would love to get the perspective of more locals. Thanks!

Hey all, hope this finds you well...

I'm looking into my first out of town buy-and-hold properties in a couple of different cities. I have some contacts in each city, and the ability to drive to one in half a day, meaning that for larger scale things I could go myself. The other would require flight and I'd prefer to stay out of things there. (And will have a manger.) 

But I was curious if someone might walk me through the procedure they've used when a tenant moves out, as far as clean-up and prep for the next move-in? I'm actually going through a (primary residence) move myself here soon... and it's such a mountain of work, it got me thinking about handling a lot of this from out of town. 

Does anyone have a quick procedure checklist they use, even if it's just what their PM is doing for them at the time of move-out? So from the time of notice... to move-out... to walk-through... to cleaning/updating for next tenant, I'm just wounding how workflow for this procedure might go from the perspective of an out of town property owner. 

Thanks for letting me tap into the collective brain here all!

Great thread all...

@Chris Nguyen

- I'm also from Los Angeles. (Burbank.) Also looking at buy and hold opportunities elsewhere, as it's a madhouse anywhere near where I live.

I've also been looking at Las Vegas for a number of reasons, but mostly the opportunity to find something in the 1% RTV range, and without having to dish out a huge cash outlay for my first property. I'm hoping to find something under 125K to start, possibly a condo or small SFH.

Brandyn - What you say makes sense. Though, I don't know much about the Riverside area. What price range are we talking about there? I also feel like, with a 60-90 minute drive to get there anyway, I'm not gaining a ton by choosing there over Vegas, and I have a few contacts in Vegas at least. But, I like you... I want a good deal.. doesn't have to be a home run. I just wonder how someone like Chris or myself would be able to network to a place like Riverside and find off-market or pre-MLS deals... perhaps just through BP somehow. But, everyone is looking for those deals...

@Brandon Duff

if you listen to some of the earlier podcasts, Josh talks quite a bit about overcoming these kinds of potential mistakes. Plenty of successful investors got their start from a guru or hype program. I've listened to every episode and they all say the same thing... they wish they would have just used BP but they are stuck with it ans overcame their initial cash outlay mistakes. 

Bottom line is, the money is gone. Learn everything you can and as a beginner I would recommend finding mentors here and using BP from here out. 

@Adam Stanton mentioned bubbles in select markets. I live in LA and I can tell you it feels every bit as ridiculous now as it did back in 2006. I'm getting ready to sell my primary into an absolute feeding frenzy of buyers snatching up limited inventory at idiotic prices. The downside... I have to find a place to buy or rent, and it's just a total S-storm. Bidding wars on everything and now.... for the first time in my life, I'm seeing bidding wars on rentals in my area. (Burbank, CA)  We called (late apparently) on a rental that had just gone on the market yesterday and were told there were 3 bidders already in the running, two of which offered to pay 6-12 months in advance. (Which I'm not even sure is legal in CA.) It honestly feels crazier here now than the mid 2000's bubble-days... because at least then there was inventory. It's so limited now, people are fighting like animals to overpay for homes. That said... there's no easy funding anymore. These aren't stated income buyers. These are all real people with actual jobs and legit loans.  So... is it a bubble here?  The last bubble was so because it was propped up with imaginary financial stilts. This one doesn't seem to be. But... any time I see homes (like mine) increase 40+% in value in 3 years... I'm treading cautiously. 

But... I have family in St. Louis, MO where the market has done very little in years. So, I think it's highly market-specific, as Adam said.