Rental Property Investor · San Diego, CA · Member since 2018 · 8 posts · 2 votes
Hello BP Community! My husband and I are looking into rental investing in Fresno, CA. We’re doing research and trying to find out more about the market there, from average rents to rental vacancy rates to neighborhood statistics and such.
Does anyone have any good sources of information on that? Better yet, does anyone have recommendations for brokers/agents and property managers for Fresno?
Welcome to Fresno! I am not a professional but I have lived in Fresno since 2003. So this is just my opinion of Fresno. Please consult with a professional like Zimmerman. He’s a great guy with tons of knowledge.
If you're looking on the map of Fresno the HWY 180/41 intersect is considered heart of Fresno. That intersection is plagued with homelessness, crime, and prostitutes along Belmont from Fulton all the way east toward First. 180/41 divides the city into 4 quadrants. With that as a reference, SW and SE Fresno are lower end markets with high crime and active gangs. NE Fresno is higher in price as you get further out and typically have better schools. NW Fresno is growing with 3/2 SFH going for $180-250, but you'll have your pockets of crime. (Along the FWY 99 near shields Ave you'll find very high crime.)
As you enter Clovis you get more expensive but the city is nicer. Clovis is very pricey but feel safer since their police department is very involved and have faster response times than Fresno. Clovis Between Shaw and Ashlan is still somewhat affordable, anything north of Barstow or Bullard is ridiculous.
Also, you’ll come across a small Town in NE Fresno called Pinedale. It’s an anomaly. In the past it’s been infested with gangs. Homes are in the lower $150k. Invest there at your own risk.
Hey Cindy, I've had good luck in the Fresno area since I started investing in 2011. I've always found that rentometer is a really good source for current rental rates. It can lag a bit when there is less turnover, such as in the past few years, but overall it's pretty good. One thing that's important to note about Fresno is that we are a city of pockets, crossing certain streets could change the class of investing drastically so don't assume that if you get rents at a certain rate, that you will get them a few streets over. Usually, you can see this info in rentometer but driving the streets is still best.
I use my manger as the best source for vacancy rates, right now my personal vacancy rates are below 3% and I think my manager has said the same about the 400+ doors he manages.
If you'd like to discuss neighborhoods in fresno, etc... feel free to message me.
@Jeff Zimmerman Thanks for the tips! Are you finding rentometer to be on the low or high end of the averages? We’re finding that it seems low in other markets so wondering if it’s the same for Fresno.
Welcome to Fresno! I am not a professional but I have lived in Fresno since 2003. So this is just my opinion of Fresno. Please consult with a professional like Zimmerman. He’s a great guy with tons of knowledge.
If you're looking on the map of Fresno the HWY 180/41 intersect is considered heart of Fresno. That intersection is plagued with homelessness, crime, and prostitutes along Belmont from Fulton all the way east toward First. 180/41 divides the city into 4 quadrants. With that as a reference, SW and SE Fresno are lower end markets with high crime and active gangs. NE Fresno is higher in price as you get further out and typically have better schools. NW Fresno is growing with 3/2 SFH going for $180-250, but you'll have your pockets of crime. (Along the FWY 99 near shields Ave you'll find very high crime.)
As you enter Clovis you get more expensive but the city is nicer. Clovis is very pricey but feel safer since their police department is very involved and have faster response times than Fresno. Clovis Between Shaw and Ashlan is still somewhat affordable, anything north of Barstow or Bullard is ridiculous.
Also, you’ll come across a small Town in NE Fresno called Pinedale. It’s an anomaly. In the past it’s been infested with gangs. Homes are in the lower $150k. Invest there at your own risk.
I usually look at the averages as suggestions but then click on the exact properties that they are using and do my own averages. I just try and determine if the other rental is a house or apartment and use google earth or drive by to see it's overall shape. If it's pro managed you can usually find old pics on zillow or hotpads.
@richardxiong this is really great neighborhood insight only locals can really provide. Thanks!! So which part of Fresno do you live in? What brought you to Fresno and what is having you stay there?
I looked at area in Clovis - east of Clovis, south of Herndon, east of De Wolfe, and north of E. Shields.
There's been 1,588 sales in that area, of which 119 are non-owner occupied and the owner lives in another county. Those transactions are the most likely to be rental investments.
I'd look over some of those 119 recent deals and reverse engineer and see how they flow. 26 paid cash. The others financed at various levels.
Pick some of those and contact the owners and research their motivations.
And then I'd contact some of the renters - see what they are paying.
After that you should have a pretty solid understanding of the rental market there and build out some best/worst case scenarios for generating cashflow.
@Cindy Chan PropertyRadar.com. Everything I need for researching a market, contacting owners, setting alerts to monitor a market. I really couldn't imagine doing what I do without it. It's nice to always be able to find answers to questions.
Fresno for multifamily has potential through the 8 months of looking at the area and purchasing my 1st MFR. The bad neighborhoods are were some values can be had. Although there are some units that are as low as $70K per door, it's not where you want to be. Leave those to people who are looking to live there and they have 2-3 full time workers in the house hold to pay for it.
I bought in a decent low class neighborhood with small multiplexes and SFR on good street. Due to the some poor renters (could be they were placed in there by previous owner to cushion/pad the 100% rental income) we were some how hit with a few very surprising expenses all in the same month. The 2nd month demanded an extra $17K of work which we anticipated to spend $25K with in the year but the costs was unexpectedly in our face.
I enjoyed my process and find so far but if I didn't have get the 'deal' I wanted than I would be quite unhappy. Note that majority of what you are seeing on the market are investors letting go of the property. Many could be selling after sinking $10-15K annually and on their 4th year they are trying to let it go.
There are some good bones properties I liked during the bidding. Check out my other posts since they are not too old. I travel into Los Angeles & Orange County so if you like to meet up , we can talk.
For agents, I could not have been happier with buying a house with Rich Jackson at ALE. He and his team were on the ball the whole time, just excellent.
One thing to note is Fresno has a big problem with slumlords, so the City now has a law where rental properties have to be registered and undergo regular inspections to ensure compliance and safety/liveability.
I'm not sure this is the best time to invest in Fresno right now, at least not SFH. Prices are high and it's almost impossible to find any 1% rule candidates that aren't in gang areas. Duplexes or triplexes might be the best option at the moment, or waiting for the market to cool down. (I live in Fresno and have been watching the RE market for several years now as I prepare to start investing)
For agents, I could not have been happier with buying a house with Rich Jackson at ALE. He and his team were on the ball the whole time, just excellent.
One thing to note is Fresno has a big problem with slumlords, so the City now has a law where rental properties have to be registered and undergo regular inspections to ensure compliance and safety/live-ability.
I'm not sure this is the best time to invest in Fresno right now, at least not SFH. Prices are high and it's almost impossible to find any 1% rule candidates that aren't in gang areas. Duplexes or triplexes might be the best option at the moment, or waiting for the market to cool down. (I live in Fresno and have been watching the RE market for several years now as I prepare to start investing)
I have felt the heavy fist of the city on me on my 2nd month with my MFR. fines for this and that even though we addressed the issue. It wasn't good enough so a good allowance account was necessary to not lose sleep over the work that was required.
One fine was that they didn’t like that (the previous owner) small garages were converted to storage with new metal fencing about 6 feet away to secure the property. The property provided what the tenants wanted and it was very secure however the city deemed homeless will figure out no movement would be there and break in to live. Sheesh. A 8foot new chain linked fence then a solid wood door with pad lock was not good enough.
I have been invested in Fresno since 2003. I have 52 units there. It's been a good place to do business. The first few years were rough, but we got it into shape, and it's made money consistently ever since. I do have an issue with the new Fresno property inspection ordinance. To be clear, we passed our first inspection, no problem. Well, they did demand bug screens on all the windows, $ka-ching! The problem is that we are now expected to self-certify - that is, inspect all the apartments ourselves every year.
The problem is that the State of California has a very specific list of the reasons that you can demand to enter a unit. See Civil code section 1954. "Accomplish a City-mandated general inspection" is NOT one of the reasons. If we ask to enter, and the tenant says "no", we really have no recourse. You can't even evict them for that.
I remember one case where a landlord opened the tenant's entry door, people were sitting there. He said "hi" and closed the door. He not only lost that eviction, but the judge fined him $5K.
So in principle, you're damned if you do, and damned if you don't.