All Forum Posts by: Amber Smith

@Brandon Carlson Send me a message and I can send you some of the contractors I work with. My dad and I do all the work ourselves on properties we flip, but I have a plumber, electrician/AC, roofer & granite contractor for those jobs. Id be happy to share their info with you.

Hi @Jose Solis! Congrats on getting started with RE investing, Bakersfield is a great choice. I started investing 5 years ago, and although the market has changed and become more competitive in recent years, there are still plenty of opportunities here. I'm happy to connect with you if you want to chat further!

This is excellent info, thank you!!

@Vivian Brady Taft is still going well, but last year was probably my worst year with it, surprisingly NOT due to covid lol. I've always had trouble keeping 1 of my 4 units occupied w/ paying tenants. I think it's due to the fact that there are not a lot of jobs in Taft & my rents are lower so I get riskier tenants who don't have strong income & credit. I also got pretty unlucky last year with a tenant who turned into a squatter & I missed out on about 10 months of rent trying to get the squatter out (he's gone now thank god lol). 

But that is the nature of the game with rentals, you could have a year of no issues and then a few bad months or a year where everything goes wrong. Tenants move out, they stop paying or get behind, they leave the place trashed, or things just start breaking at the property. But as long as you save your profits for reserves and plan for these things, you can still make it work and make money in the long run. 

My advice as a landlord in Taft for the last 5 years, if I could do it all over again, I would make all of my units section 8. If you are going to be renting to riskier, lower income tenants already, you might as well do section 8 and have some or all of your rent backed by the government. Overall, Taft is still a good rental market in my opinion. Vacancy and inventory is low, and I have never had an issue finding renters. It's just a matter of keeping good tenants and making sure they pay on time. Let me know if you have any other questions, I'd be happy to talk more!

@Tato Corcoran sorry to reply so late, I missed this notification! But thank you for the kind words! You seem like you're already in the same mindset I was before I started buying, so you've already taken the first step which is research and learning. I agree with you that a license isnt necessary if youre just wanting to invest because there are a lot of great agents who are also investors who can really help guide you.

As for my very first home, I just saved as much money as possible for closing costs and down payment and had roommates which helped pay the mortgage :) For my first rental, I actually leveraged the equity in my primary home and got a HELOC to use as the down payment on my 4plex. Using a HELOC on a long term rental is NOT for everyone and I only did it after a lot of planning and research. I had a strict 2 year plan to pay off the HELOC w/ the profits on my rental, and I stuck to that plan and ended up paying off the HELOC in a little over a year. If you have any other questions, dont hesitate to reach out!

@Arthur Garcia What type of investment properties do you currently have? And what are you looking for?

@James Grasty I didn’t recognize you in that profile pic! Haha 

That’s awesome you’re doing a new build! I might have to bug you later on to see how it’s going. I think new builds, not necessarily new single fam  construction, is the way to go. It’s so hard to find good deals & cash flow in bako for flips or buy & hold rentals, so if you can get that permitting & contractor process dialed in, you’re golden. 
Glad I saw you on here buddy & keep up the good work! 

@Edgardo Lecona I’m a realtor & investor here in Bakersfield, not a lender, but I’ve had a lot of out of town clients asking about doing this & relocating to Bakersfield to house hack a multi unit. 
My first concern is if you’re getting pre-qualified based on the job & income you have now in LA & then you move here, unless you can work from home a good lender is going to catch that and either want proof of employment & income in Bakersfield or proof you can work from home.
Just something to keep in mind as it could come up later in escrow near closing when the loan is in underwriting or when the job verification is being done. 

@Odie Ayaga Ill message you his info!

@Odie Ayaga I got this loan in January of 2020.