All Forum Posts by: Vanessa Ganaden

@Byron Villela Jr.

On another hand, I don't think anyone knows what they are doing! Ha. Like @Keith Hackett put it, the best way to get started is action. It will teach you the good, the bad and the ugly. But most importantly, you start. It's the momentum that will counteract any uncertainty that you have. It's how I definitely fight mine. There are plenty of times when I feel overwhelmed and don't know what the heck I'm doing, and that's when the self-doubt and all the negative self-talk starts creeping in. But once I notice that, I just whoop my *** back to work and I forget all about that. 

So take action, my friend. That's all we can do :) 

This is great stuff! Congrats on what sounds like a very successful deal (100%+ return on equity - don't hear that very often!). Apart from Senior Housing, I've also been interested in Student Housing. I think it's always a strong market, especially if you find a property close to a university. You mentioned to be beware of local market dynamics - care to expound? 

Sounds like a great idea! How is it going so far? Saw this thread was started 8 months ago, and curious about your progress :) 

@Lien Vuong Got it right. Build relationships right away. Talk about what you do, not only to your Sphere of Influence, but to total strangers. Something I do is talk to drivers when I'm in an Uber/Lyft and then I leave my business cards at the end of the trip. But this shouldn't come out of a place where you are trying to sell them, it's about adding value to people, talking about your passion in real estate, the market etc etc. 

The second thing I would add to that - start studying your market right away. As a new agent, you are competing against agents who have been in the business longer than you. Pick a market, meaning city, county, or a place that you want to focus on. Study the hell out of it - market trends, housing prices and trends. Know it like the back of your hand. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you are young or old, only that you can show that you know what you're talking about and that your clients can trust you to get the job done. 

Best of luck to your RE journey!

@Jack I. You're absolutely on point. I'm looking at some properties right now that is under the rent control area in East Los Angeles, and the seller is asking way too much for the amount of rents that he is getting. Even if I can raise the rents to the hard 10% cap, it's still way below market rate. Have you found a good number to offer these sellers?

@Emily Di Thanks for the PDF! Very easy read, indeed. 

Good point. I'll do that and report what excuses I hear from the seller :)) 

Thanks @Account Closed

@Tyler R.

Would love to join but unfortunately I live all the way in DTLA. Do you have a meetup on the weekends?

@Account Closed Really good points. Thank you for pointing them out. I didn't even think about the rent controls. The more I dug about it, the more horrifying the rent control caps are here in LA. I mean, good for tenants, terrible for us. This deal will be pass for me. 

Thanks for the input @Jon Schwartz!

Yes, I'm planning to manage the property myself. And the $1600 is what the current tenant is paying for. The pro-forma rents are a lot higher than that. I've re-ran my numbers based on @Tim Herman suggestions, basically being very liberal with my capex, vacancy rates (although LA sits the lowest in the country for 3.3% vacancy rates), maintenance, and utilities. After modifying it with really high expenses, I will still be cash flowing at $250/month. But any cashflowing property in LA, like you said, is a good deal. But also hard to come by. So I'm becoming suspect if I actually found a good deal, or just missed something here. The latter might be more likely though as I'm a brand newbie at this :p 

Haven't seen any activity here in a while. Are the meetup groups are still up and running around here in DTLA. Would love to meet fellow like minded people :)