Am I making a horrible decision or passing on a great opportunity

Am I making a horrible decision or passing on a great opportunity

Member since 2018 · 10 posts · 1 vote

Setting the stage:

My wife and I have been looking for quite sometime for a good opportunity in our area, southern California, beach community. A realtor I've been in communication with called me up and said I have something you might be interested in. It was a pocket listing from her office that was going to go on the MLS in a day or two. The home is a 1920's home within a 4 min bike ride to the beach but needs a total remodel. The roof needs to be replaced with rafter repairs, need new electrical panel and rewire, a wall needs to be removed, needs a new kitchen and bathroom. We made an offer to try and avoid letting it go on the MLS and getting into a bidding war and they accepted. After some negotiation they have agreed to replace the roof (only a 25 year) and declined to credit us a 9k for the electrical work.

The numbers:

Purchase price - 639,000

Repairs - 120,000

ARV - 850,000

The Problem:

We are going to be using most our savings for the 20% down payment and will have to borrow about 75,000 from family for the repairs. After paying the mortgage and the repair loan, we will cash flow from our income 4k. We plan on having a baby next year and if my wife stops working we will loose that 4k for a few months making things very tight. Flash forward 5 years, she will be back at work, loan paid we will be living very comfortably 7k cash positive a month.

Is this deal not worth being tight for a year or so?  Am I about to spread ourselves too thin? Is there a better financial strategy I'm not thinking of? Is this just bad all around?  

My wife and I have talked endlessly about this and have flip flopping on what we should do. I was hoping to get an outsiders honest opinion.  Thank you so much in advance. 

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Real Estate Broker · Bay Area · Member since 2018 · 1k+ posts · 3k+ votes
7y

You said you have been looking for a while and looking for a beach community. In this scenario, you will be getting the house for $759k after renovation. Once done it will be exactly what you have been looking for and with the exact finishes, you want. This will also be your owner-occupied home. 

You need to ask yourself will you be able to find this house in this market for $759k? You also know its a competitive market bidding against you. In this case, you got lucky and got your offer accepted. Will you have this opportunity again? I think what you have is very scarce and hard to duplicate. You also have upside on your ARV so all the hard work will be worth something.

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  • Rental Property Investor · Gulfport, MS · Member since 2018 · 113 posts · 133 votes
    7y

    @Alejandro Arciniega my wife and I bought a house in the Bay Area that cost 4x more than our house we had just sold in the south. It took all of our savings to put 20% down, which was scary. We managed through it and got back above water on the savings by managing our finances closely.

    Fast forward 8 years... we got raises and our income has gone up considerably which allows the mortgage payment to be met much easier than it was originally. And the best part is that the house has appreciated ~ $350K. Hands down best decision we’ve made was to buy the house.

    I say buy it if you are confident in the arv, if the area is quality, and if you are confident in your rehab estimate.

  • Investor · Los Altos, CA · Member since 2014 · 942 posts · 1k+ votes
    7y

    @Alejandro Arciniega there are many examples of this in the real world of working and not working. The details of your ability to pull this off can only be grasped by you and your wife. All the nuanced details of jobs, spending, personal cost, rehab costs can only be wildly assumed by all of the faceless contributors in the internet world. 

    This is a primary property for you and your wife, the calculations are COMPLETELY different. As the saying goes, this is a liability purchase not an investment. Appreciation capture at a later date is a bonus not a guarentee.  With that being said, @Eric Carr is definitely on the right track. The probability of the value of the home increasing over time is extremely high. The bungalow in the back will help in offsetting costs and if you set it up correctly and monthly income should increase with steady rent appreciation. 

    Additionally, if there is steady appreciation you will be able to pull a HELOC at a later date to pull equity out and use as a deposit for future rental property acquistions. I have personally done this with great success. My wife and I did something very similar in Northern California 15 years ago. I purchased a home that stretched our single income family thin. We did a full remodel and moved in nearly 12 months after purchase. Things were exteremly tight for a few years, but I KNEW the area was great and appreciation would be my friend. The property is worth over 3x what I purchased it for and I have tapped the appreciation to buy multiple rentals. I was only successful because I knew my market, I was confident in my future earning potential and I controlled our spending. IF you can get these 3 things sorted out, then you a property 4 minutes from the beach in Southern California sounds pretty good!

    Good luck and let us know what you decide.

  • Real Estate Agent · Belmar, NJ · Member since 2017 · 370 posts · 200 votes
    7y
    Originally posted by @Allen C Herring:

    @Cody Z. I see Cody. I see how that can be an issue. That is something else to think about as you stated. Do you think it would have been better to just raise the funds from limited partners?

     I think the product is good to tool to have on your tool belt.

    The one thing that I think that was really helpful was that I hired a good 203k consultant to help with the Spec of Repairs which helped me to weed out ridiculous quotes from General Contractors... think 1.5-2.25X higher than the original SOR...

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