All Forum Posts by: Benjamin Aaker

So Cal is known as a tough market for investors, but investing out of state is tough as well. I generally recommend to invest where you live. Deals can be found anywhere but in your market you'll have to underwrite more to find a good one. Looking for value-adds as you are doing is a great idea. Since it is in your area, driving for dollars is a good strategy. Start sending those letters.

Great question. It depends on your long term plans and how many years you have before leaving active real estate investing. I'm a huge proponent of building equity. If you are earlier on in your career, you should take as much out as you can (which decreases your equity in your current properties) and start building equity on new properties. As you get farther along, you will want to start structuring it for cash flow. 

The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller
The ABCs of Real Estate Investing by Ken McElroy
Landlording on Autopilot by Mike Butler

It's a bigger problem than you might think. No lawmaker wants to fix this problem because it means many of the things the federal government pays for will stop and that's not popular. Having real estate is a good way to protect yourself for the inevitable recession or worse.

Another consideration in Denver is that with minisplits you have multiple 'zones' of temperature control. Some areas will be warm and some cool. This can happen with central air, but not as much. That issue might be more of a problem for renting and overlooked by a buyer. On the other hand, running ducts in an old construction will be a huge project and I question 30k for the whole system in a 2800 sqft house. 

A rent abatement should be issued if the leased premises are unlivable and the tenant needs to find another place to stay temporarily. It sounds like this didn't happen because for the 2 days it was unlivable you found and paid for a place for them. I would decline.

I use Auto Owner's.

I agree with the above. This is a new tenant on a new lease contingent on a vacant unit (keeps you from having one signed and the other gets cold feet). Have the current tenant and you sign an amendment which voids the current lease. 

Congratulations on your investment. Sounds like a win!

Congratulations! It sounds like you made a great investment.