All Forum Posts by: Joe Bertolino

 I invest in the Bay Area and Indianapolis metro are but my CA properties were acquired pre-2013. My Indy house in a nice suburb with excellent schools is appreciating and cash flowing but the CF is getting smaller with the property tax increases (17% with the recent assessment). I used to live in Indiana and moved back to the Bay Area, which I chose this Midwest market.

I know investors buying in the Bay Area but they're house hacking, adding an ADU to an existing property or doing mid-term or short term rentals. I also looked into the Sacramento market - if I do a combination of LTR and STR on each side of a duplex I might be able to cash flow.

There are OOS investing challenges. I had to call my Indiana property manager because of recent storm to check on hail damage. There are also winter issues (e.g frozen pipes possibly bursting and having to crank up the heat to prevent that) that we don't deal with in CA. I bought 2 affordable Class C homes (built in 1920 but renovated) in Indianapolis in 2023 at 6.99% and 7.625% interest rates. On paper SFH#1 was supposed to cash flow but I've been losing money - it seems to have stabilized now and no more repairs called in by tenant (so far). SFH#2 isn't rented out yet. The first year of owning the property is rough

If I were to do OOS over, I would have bought in Nevada or Arizona. Property tax rates are much lower, below 1% and appreciation is higher, also a shorter flight there than the Midwest. My Indiana property tax rates are 2.77% and 2.78%. I think this is high and they're not appreciating as much as  Texas properties. 

I don't know much about Fresno market. I briefly looked at Turlock, which was suggested by my local agent. I personally wouldn't put 75% down on a property. I know people paying cash in multiple states so theoretically it "cash flows" but I'm not a fan of paying cash

Can you do MTR or STR in Fresno to traveling medical workers or corporate professionals so you have less negative CF vs. LTR? Would you plan to self manage? I think staying local is a good strategy so you can check on the properties.

I think the demand for software engineers is pretty much infinite. The demand at Bay Area prices is not. We’ll probably see some of those 300k/yr engineers move to 150k/yr jobs but they will be fine. I would have done software going back. They are the highest margin business out there which is what supports wages which are out of this world compared to other Stem types.