Arthur Garcia, Author at The BiggerPockets Blog

Archive of Arthur Garcia

Arthur Garcia (Google+) Arthur is a buy and hold investor in Southern California who is buying up dozens of homes while working a full time job. Arthur acquires properties using a combination of hard money, HELOCs, partnerships and private investors.

Arthur has written 11 articles for The BiggerPockets Blog.

Real Estate Investing

Go Where Others Won’t – My Direct Mail Journey

by Arthur Garcia April 4, 2013

It is a terrible time to buy off of the MLS!! I’ve put numerous offers on multiple listings with the same outcome – multiple offers. I’m asked to submit my highest and best offer and, in the end, the property gets bid up 10-30% over asking price. My local market is on fire. There is [...]

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Financing Real Estate

Equity Stripping: Recycling Your Cash to Maximize Capital

by Arthur Garcia February 6, 2013

A few months ago I was speaking to a co-worker about the advantages of owning rental real estate. What started off as a few causal questions turned into an hour-long discussion. He had considered investing in real estate for some time, but was hesitant to pull the trigger. So I went over the various metrics he should consider [...]

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Real Estate Tips

Liquid Reserves: The Lifeblood of a Rental Portfolio

by Arthur Garcia December 11, 2012

Over the past three years that I’ve been in the rental business, November 2012 went down as one of the most expensive months to date. Whether it’s deferred maintenance, general wear-and-tear or vacancy related costs, the reality is holding that rental property is not cheap. Curious what my last month looked like? Here are a [...]

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Starting Out

Investing with Your Partner: The Key to Your Long-Term Real Estate Success

by Arthur Garcia November 14, 2012

It was 8:00 on a Sunday night and our clothes were covered in paint, drywall dust and sweat! We spent the better part of our weekend rehabbing our latest rental. Typically, we try to outsource the “make-ready” work to our local handyman, but on this job we decided to do the work ourselves to save on [...]

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Financing Real Estate

Real Estate Investing Without Cash: Leasing Your Credit

by Arthur Garcia September 11, 2012

Rather than re-hash the same “getting started in real estate without cash” article, I thought I would take my post in a different direction. Let me explain. . . A few weeks ago, Todd, a former co-worker, and I went out to dinner. During our meal, the topic of real estate investing came up. Todd [...]

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Business Management & Productivity

Record Keeping: How to Manage and Organize Your Real Estate Investment Files

by Arthur Garcia August 29, 2012

It was about two years ago when my wife and I made an appointment to see our tax professional. In order to better prepare ourselves for the meeting, we decided to organize all the paperwork associated with our rentals the night before. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until about four hours later that we found everything we needed [...]

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Investor Psychology

Sacrifice: A Real Estate Investor’s Magic Bullet

by Arthur Garcia August 14, 2012

A few weeks ago, THIS article made its way across my desk via facebook. For those of you who haven’t had a chance to read the article, the long story short is that an investor by the name of Bill McMachen purchased 627 foreclosed homes at the Macomb’s county tax sale. The headline is what [...]

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Landlord Tenant

Owning Rental Property Without Managing Tenants: Why I Use Property Managers

by Arthur Garcia July 31, 2012

A few weeks ago, David, a co-worker of mine, got on the topic of investing in rental properties. After what seemed like 20 minutes, I found out the following about David: He owned a 4-plex ten years ago He lost a lot of money He hated dealing with tenants He will never buy an investment [...]

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Starting Out

Working ON Your Business, Not IN It: A Painful Lesson from My Last Deal

by Arthur Garcia July 17, 2012

At the end of every deal, my wife and I write up a little summary of what we did well, what we did poorly and what we can do better on the next deal (I learned this tip from a fellow BiggerPockets blogger, Michael Zuber). After looking over our last deal, one thing was painfully [...]

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Real Estate Investing

How to Avoid Mushrooms Growing in Your Rentals: The Preventative Maintenance Plan

by Arthur Garcia June 19, 2012

“Arthur, I think we may have a problem. There seems to be a patch of mushrooms growing in one of your units.” When my property manager first called me with this information, I actually thought the service request was a joke. That was until I saw this photo! The first question I asked myself was, why [...]

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Real Estate Marketing

Raising Private Capital: How I Raised $50,000 Over Dinner

by Arthur Garcia June 5, 2012

Several weeks ago at a family get-together, I ate the best homemade meal I’ve had in years (my mother-in-law cooks a mean lasagna). As I gorged on a second serving, a relative at the table asked, “So… it looks like you guys just bought another rental, huh?” Seeing as I was struggling with a mouthful [...]

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