All Forum Posts by: Tony Luong

So after I paid Don and he left, I realized he did a horrible job. Some examples are he dinged up the white bathtub, instead of making the drywall level he just pushed/bent in the drywall and baseboard to make it "level", didn't do the style trim we told him to, used drywall compound on the floor as self leveling, then laid flooring over it while it was still wet, that created black mold under the flooring. I knew I had to find another contractor ASAP to finish this project. Luckily my next door neighbor was building an ADU, so I thought it would be a good idea for him to get me a bid. I asked my neighbor if he was a good contractor, my neighbor said that they were friends and he was good at what he does, then continued to jokingly say I could only have him after he was done with this ADU.

I thought sweet! Wouldn't hurt to ask him to give me a bid to finish up the remaining work. I thought to myself I'm going to do it the right way this time and ask for references! Long story short, he was NOT sweet. He was a one man job and only worked on the house a few hours a day, 3 days a week. He originally projected he would finish by December 2021, he didn't finish until April of 2022. The one positive thing I have to say is that he fixed all of Don's bad work. Now that the renovations are done I could finally clean up my back unit and get it rent ready! Last week my gf and I were sweeping up and I noticed in the back bedroom there were hairline cracks in the drywall and the flooring was separated from the baseboard by 1/4 inch. FML... to be continued 

Thanks @Collin Wallace! 

Even though I'm fairly young, I'm not on social media and have always lurked, never participated so it's exciting and relieving to know someone is out there interested in what I have to say. I don't think I'm a very good writer and I'm also lazy to take the time to do this, but I do enjoy the therapeutic part of writing. 

So like I said in my original post I took a dive during the pandemic and closed on a duplex situated on a hill in Highland Park, CA. I was introduced to the realtor through one of my customers who actually inspired me to take the leap into real estate. In the most basic sense of real estate investing I knew I had to find a property that I could "add value" to. Ideally I wanted to BRRRR a property so I was introduced this fire damaged duplex. The front unit is a 1bd/1ba and the back unit is a 2bd/1ba. The back unit had no roof, drywall, and flooring. There was a fire that broke out and was contained only in the roof, but when the fire was extinguished the insurance company insisted that the drywall and flooring be removed due to mold issues. So the back unit was pretty much a shell of a house.

*As I'm writing this I'm skipping details on details on my agent, type of mortgage loan, and finding contractor bids. But if you're interested let me know and I can fill you in on those details*

The contractor I found named Don was referred to me by a previous employee of mine who works in commercial lending. Don was the cheapest and came referred. Don subcontracted out the roof, put in drywall, ran all new electrical, flooring, new windows, asked to be paid for that work and left. To be continued... 

I bought my first investment property in Highland Park in 2021. I'm originally from Westminster/HB and now live in SGV. Highland Park is a cool area. The mixture of my friendly neighbors and restaurants give me a homely feel to it. 

What a roller coaster this house has been. I am 95% complete with this project. I want to use this post as my journal/therapy to recap all the things I can remember. This project wasn't easy, I had a lot of what seemed like downs and not a lot of ups, but I learned a lot. I will be back to write more. 

@Brendan Cronshaw Sorry for the late reply. I really should be on here more often. You're right, our situations are identical. The only difference is that your property is bigger. I have a detached 1bd/1ba in the front and a 2bd/1ba in the back. I bought this duplex and the back unit had fire damage that only affected the roof. I just replaced it too. My realtor was telling me the same thing that it would be more valuable as a duplex than a single family. Nothing supported that statement, I could clearly see that single family houses + ADU's were more valuable than duplexes. Please keep me updated on how your journey on making your property conforming goes.

Hi Christian,

I'm in the same situation as you. I just closed on my first house/duplex in Highland Park 3 weeks ago. I was built in 1924 as well. It's zoned R-1 but the assessors use code is for a duplex. From what my realtor told me is that a lot of houses are used/grandfathered in this way before zoning. I asked my realtor if it burned down would I be able to build it back as a duplex and he said yes. 

My interests/questions now lies in the home refinance and appraisals. I bought this house using an FHA loan so I'm paying PMI. I'm currently renovating both units. I heard appraisers use sales comparison to value the property. I've noticed in our area there are more single family houses sold than multi unit houses. There are single families that have ADU's, is that a comp? or is the appraiser only going to look at multi unit homes for comps?

So many unknowns for me regarding that situation right now. I hope some of that helped you and someone would be able to answer my question too. 

@Jon Schwartz Sorry for the late reply, I should really turn on some notifications on my phone or email that lets me know someone replied to my post. But thanks for reaching out. The duplex is located in Highland Park, an area I knew nothing about. It was a little bit of faith on my end to trust my realtor and a bit of investigation on my end. I'm getting more and more information about that area as time goes on. 

As of 11/6/20 my offer got accepted. Was it a good deal? I have no idea lol let's hope so. The front unit is a 1bd + 1ba and the back unit is a 2bd + 1ba. The back unit has fire damage so theres no roof, flooring, missing drywall in some areas. I have a project ahead of me. I'm using a 203k loan on the house. Any info on what you think of the area would be helpful.

@Kevork Artinian Yeah hopefully we're making the right decision. Best of luck to you too!

@Michael Reisman I haven’t done out of state yet because I’m hesitant on the amount of work that needs to go into building a team. My business already takes up 90% of my time. So maybe after I get my feet wet with my first transaction I can get a better feel of what real estate investing is like.

Hellloooo Biggerpockets!

My name is Tony and this post is a huge step for me. I don't have any social media accounts because I've always been a "lurker" more than anything, so posting here is my coming out!

I'm a 35 year old business owner living in the L.A area. I make decent money from my business but I'm lost in whether to invest out of state for cash flow or around my area for appreciation. So I took a dive and made an offer on a duplex in Los Angeles because I gotta do something! I can't stand this inaction. I hopefully can connect with some of you amazing folks and see where this adventure takes me! See you around!