All Forum Posts by: Tommy Hoang

Kudos to taking action @Sharon Tseung! There's a lot of good stuff here already so not much to add. 

I'm also living in San Francisco and invest out-of-state. I've researched market fundamentals for a few cities throughout the states (looked at population growth, rent-to-income affordability, labor force growth, construction-absorption rate, etc) and jumped right in by visiting those cities in-person. The BP community in Phoenix and Omaha were so welcoming when I showed up to check out their towns. Like you have listed Sharon, building the remote team and developing those relationships are key. 

It was through BP members and being physically present with the people out-of-state that my partner and I came across our first off-market 40-unit portfolio deal. Happy to share my experience further if you ever want to chat in the city.

@Ting Lai welcome to the forum! Interesting that you picked Tucson, AZ as my partner and I identified Phoenix and Tucson as great cities when doing our research to invest in cities outside of CA!

I'm currently doing multifamily out-of-state and am also hunting for a real estate focused CPA in the city. I have a lead but have yet to vet him. I'll let you know where my search lands me.

All great responses already. @Account Closed when my partner and I were under contract for a 40 unit in Omaha, we had the seller send us his bank statements so we could verify that the checks coming in were actually being deposited. Just of the few things we did during the financial due diligence process. 

@Travis Raila I also live in the city and would be happy to share my experience investing out-of-state and how my partner and I researched various cities, flew out to them, connected with BP members to get to know the market better, and then found some off-market deals. 

@Rohit Aggarwal Welcome to the forum! I'm a fellow Bay Area resident, living in the city and also working in education technology. 

I hear you loud and clear about not wanting to pick up a second job from real estate just so I could eventually retire. I agree with @Chris Wiser here as apartment syndications may be a good route to consider as it allows you to focus on what you enjoy doing (your tech job) while also participating in the benefits of owning real estate through a group. That's personally what my business partner and I are focused on after owning a few rentals in SoCal, and trying to do it ourselves out-of-state by putting a 40 unit complex under contract in Omaha. 

In terms of companies that do syndications out-of-state, there are a few that I know of in the Bay Area (but have never invested with). You'll find RealtyShares.com interesting being in tech as they kind of make investing in syndications accessible for accredited investors. 

@Ben Paras always love connecting with people, sending you a dm.

@David Gotsill, great question about safety levels between neighborhoods. SF is overall a very safe city IMO. All of the neighborhoods (and their streets) listed above will feel very comfortable. There's only a few seedy parts of town (the Tenderloin neighborhood and parts of SOMA neighborhood) but even then the characters there are pretty harmless during the day from my experience. I worked in SOMA and hoop in the Tenderloin.

You did your research on the SF school system! Yes the lottery system unfortunately means some students commute farther out to another school even though they may live across the street from one -it's weird I know but was intended to create more diverse schools. During morning commute hours, you'll see plenty of kids take the bus/trains to school in various parts of the city. Clarendon elementary is harder to get into than Harvard is the running joke. There's a whole prioritization criteria for getting accepted that we can discuss whenever you have questions.

@David Gotsill, welcome to city! I was just in Tokyo this past winter and can confidently say you might enjoy the break from the crowds and stimulations of Tokyo for SF. It's a sleepy and mellow city.

1. Seeing as you work in downtown, you'll find an easy and not too crowded commute if you live near a BART station. This will allow you to zip into downtown via the subway. I live next to Glen Park Bart station and can personally say it's a family friendly neighborhood. From there I can get to your office in 25 minutes door to door.  Other neighborhoods along the BART route to downtown would be Balboa Park or Mission. 

2. I've never used an agent but know that locking down a spot can be competitive here. To illustrate we got our spot by showing up to the open house with a completed tenant form and our check books. After seeing the flat, we chatted up the owners and wrote a check for first and last month rent and security deposit. That's the only way we were able to beat out other interested couples.

3. I've connected with @Houston Garcia and he seemed like a very friendly and honest agent. I also like his approach to finding off-market deals which will be a plus as you might not want to compete on the open market in SF for a house.

I hope this helps @David Gotsill. Feel free to message me with additional questions. I'm a former public school teacher so I can provide you with some insights into the system here as well. 

Alright let's set a date and location and make this happen @Derek Janssen. I can help you plan logistics if you wanna decide on a location first. Once we have that and post it on the forum's page, we'll get a better sense of interest. 

Ahh I misunderstood you, you meant a meetup for bay area residents at a different location haha. That's pretty cool!