All Forum Posts by: Aaron Lawson

@Fyzl Atmar, Great points on East County. I'm a La Mesa native and currently only invest out of state. I want to change that, and I'm looking at exactly the areas that you mention. Thanks for sharing that.!

@Eugene 

@Eugene Lee, I am using a gentleman named Rodney Watkins in Coronado. This is our first year using him, so I'm not ready to give a positive recommendation, but I'll report back after tax season. Good luck@

@Matthew Ware

From your post:

"But as an asset it still seems clear that it is under performing compared to the deals people consistently seem to be putting together on BiggerPockets..."

One thing that should have been said to you from the beginning; you are in an awesome position right now! Remember that (unless you blunder wildly), this is all a win. 

Many people here will debate on your behalf whats the best way to optimize the performance, but bottom line, you have an 'income generating asset' that you didn't have before.

Don't let the pursuit of 'best' rob you from appreciating what is 'good'! From here you are the like the rest of us. Try things, analyze the results, correct course, repeat. Keep learning and moving forward.

Best of luck to you,

Aaron 

There is an inherent value in the property's tax advantage status under Prop 13; Make sure you calculate that yearly savings vs its annual tax burden at current value, and then factor that in to your decision.

That being said, I would sell the house. But I would immediately invest the capital into higher yielding properties in a stable but lower cost market, closer to home. I would not spend any money on the house, other than what it takes to get it ready to show. The market is strong right now. I would take the money and put it to work. I'm a relative novice and I'd love to hear from market experts here in San Diego, but after living here for decades, I do not understand how our prices can stay as high as they are. When you look at the low percentage of people in SD who can afford a home, and what % of people's average income goes to housing, people here are stretched too thin. I don't trust this market at today's prices, because the fundamentals just don't add up.

I didn't see anything in your post that mentioned any communication from your father on his wishes for the property. Did you father communicate anything about his wishes for the property?  

@Mark Hardin I haven't looked at any numbers in the last few months as I've been preoccupied with out of state. One of my goals for 2017 is to spread the net here in town and see what I can find. I can't remember which BP podcast episode  it was, but I remember Brandon interviewing an investor who said that 2-3 hours drive would be a good practical maximum range from your home to include in searches. It's close enough that you could drive out to the property on a weekend to get hands on without having to schedule an overnight trip. With that kind of range, it opens up Riverside and San Bernardino counties, which may have opportunities less priced up than the coastal markets...

Hi Mark, welcome to SD!. Like Eugene above, I'm also a San Diego resident pursuing buy and hold out of state while I try to find a logical inroad into this very expensive local market. Drop me a line if you want to compare notes, and good luck!

Good Evening All,

I'm looking for references on either reading material or online references about how to structure a real estate partnership. In this, I am not as concerned right now with the legal framework as I am with the organizational view. In my case, I am a buy and hold investor buying from a distance, looking to form a working partnership with and train a local house-hacker or BRRR partner, who I can train to be my local boots on the ground.

In this, I am looking for more of a top level "master list" of the key areas of responsibility and knowledge/expertise that are needed for a full service enterprise, to evaluate my own areas of weakness, and also evaluate potential partners for what they will need to know and learn.

Thanks in Advance,

Aaron

I think a worthwhile followup question is, "What is the difference between Turnkey buying, and shopping for retail property off of the MLS?"

Just be careful that you aren't skewing your numbers to the negative and making the return look worse artificially. In my opinion, it seems that "monthly expenses" should be a future forecast, not an average of the past items. You're are going to have Capital Expenses like water heaters in the future, but you're not going to have closing costs again are you?

You've listed $300 a month in "average monthly expenses" on one house, and $328 on the other?

Can you elaborate on what these expenses are?