Pleasant Hill, CA · Member since 2014 · 4 posts · 2 votes
Hi, I'm Zack. My day job is software engineering where I build iPhone, iPad apps and web apps.
I've always been interested in REI. I own one residential rental and am interested in acquiring more. I am fortunate to have a brother and father who are contractors.
Beyond that I am very interested to learn more about the software landscape in this space. With a couple of successful startups under my belt I'm looking for the next idea. Any help from the community on ideas for what is needed and wanted software-wise in the REI space would be much appreciated!
Investor · San Jose, CA · Member since 2012 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
12y
Hi Zack,
Welcome to Biggerpockets. I'm not sure where you want to invest, but I'm afraid you might be a little late to the REI party for our area. We have a meetup coming up in Oakland on 2/19. Come join us if you can. @J. Martin is our fearless event organizer. He can fill you in on the upcoming event.
I have a friend who lives in Lafayette and invests in Concord. You guys are basically next door neighbors. He and his wife own 10 SFHs in Concord. All were bought between 2008-2012. They own a law firm in Concord. He's a very knowledgeable guy. I can introduce you to him if you're interested in learning about real estate investment and bankruptcy laws.
Congrats on finding a real estate goldmine website. Now, it's mining time.
Check out the free BiggerPockets Podcast - A weekly podcast with interviews and a ton of great advice. And you get the benefit of having 50 past ones to catch up on.
Investor · San Jose, CA · Member since 2012 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
12y
Hi Zack,
Welcome to Biggerpockets. I'm not sure where you want to invest, but I'm afraid you might be a little late to the REI party for our area. We have a meetup coming up in Oakland on 2/19. Come join us if you can. @J. Martin is our fearless event organizer. He can fill you in on the upcoming event.
I have a friend who lives in Lafayette and invests in Concord. You guys are basically next door neighbors. He and his wife own 10 SFHs in Concord. All were bought between 2008-2012. They own a law firm in Concord. He's a very knowledgeable guy. I can introduce you to him if you're interested in learning about real estate investment and bankruptcy laws.
Congrats on finding a real estate goldmine website. Now, it's mining time.
@Account Closed - yeah I get the distinct impression that a buy and hold strategy in the SF East Bay makes no sense right now for SFH. Might be time to keep the powder dry. I'll send you a direct message on your offer to connect with your friend - thanks!
Investor · Tampa, FL · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
12y
Welcome to BP @Zack C. ! We look forward to having you as an active member of the community! Learn all you can from this tremendous resource to increase your rate of success thru the roof!
Rental Property Investor · Oakland, CA · Member since 2011 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
12y
Welcome @Zack C. ,
and as @Account Closed said, this site is a great place to get started. We are having a meetup in a couple weeks in Oakland, (although I will be modifying the location to somewhere nearby - but will be announcing this shortly. Same date though.) Minh, sorry you can't make it. Was looking forward to chatting with you again. But family first..
Zack, you may want to download the redfin app if you haven't already and take a look at what it's missing. I think pulling everything together into one website would be useful in my mind... but I don't know how feasible this might be...
One site which consolidates MLS listings (redfin.com, zillow.com), demographic data like distribution of family size, rental unit composition (city-data.com) rental comps for closed leases (rent-ometer.com, zillow.com), on-market rentals nearby (CL), walkscore/bikescore/transitscore (walkscore.com), etc...
Of course, right now, these all have their proprietary models.. maybe you can just throw them a few pennies to aggregate it, or justify that the aggregated information is your own product.. (not sure how the law works there.. I'm sure you have a much better idea!) Maybe you can make proprietary scores based on a combination of all those indicators, like "investment value", "liveability", "neighbors" etc. Was just thinking about it the other day, but I'm not going to be doing it in this decade myself, so have at it! Promise you'll buy me a pint if you make a million dollars off it...!
Anyway, welcome to the site, and hope to meet you soon, or see on the forums at a minimum..
Rental Property Investor · Memphis, TN · Member since 2011 · 111 posts · 40 votes
12y
Zack,
I have some ideas to create apps to help direct tenant's repair requests to the proper people while letting keeping them and the owner/manager informed of the process.