All Forum Posts by: Ryan Landis

@Dominique Le your lender is going to be the most important part to this. Pre-covid, you for sure needed a letter stating you could work X distance from your work if it was that far (or remote x part of the time at least, etc.).

Not sure how familiar you are with the area, but it doesn't hurt to live in a place for a bit before. That being said, even a furnished rental for a few months could make sense if you don't want to commit to a 12 month (although most landlords allow early term fees, etc.)

Excited for you!

@Kahleb Kelsey well at least you got some clarity :)

2 vacant is nice. The section 8 I imagine is paying on time which is nice. The 4th unit having the non-paying tenant obviously can be a handful, but everything is solvable. Remember there are some people that specialize in this type of complication so if you end up trying to figure it out, the better you can understand what you are getting into, the "safer" it will be. That being said, unless you are an attorney, you will start to have some legal fees start adding up as you get the advice.

@Jc M. nice - and glad (I deal with it a lot the other way working in the Bay). I actually own some stuff just west of Cleveland so feel free to PM me if you ever want to discuss.

@Sharon Hsu yep! And the higher fee might eat into the extra you could get for it furnished as well too!

@Kahleb Kelsey sounds good and keep us all posted! People forget, running a nice cost seg on a $1M+ 4 unit means these things typically lose money on paper for a bit of time even if you are cash flow positive each month. 

@Ramsin Jacob anything that has downstream potential via zoning/entitlements but can cash flow today is exciting and will do you very well. It almost allows for a "forced" appreciation play by just getting signatures at the City. That being said, just work in a longer process and I would imagine a some of the smaller stuff might run into issues depending on how you are trying to exit (i.e. know your end buyer and make sure the site(s) you are looking at are big enough for them).

@Gary Coop I actually really liked that episode as well. I think a lot of people get caught up in jumping into "bigger" deals. But the reality is we are all in this, or at least most of us, to hit a monthly cash flow number. How you get there doesn't really matter. And to some of the others talking about passive/vs. not, the reality would be you would just need to work in a property manager and maybe an asset manager (think of it as basically highering a CEO). You can do it just fine, it just means you have to know that going into it.

@Jc M. probably comes down to knowing what you really want - some of those markets you shared are a bit different of real estate plays than the Bay Area. You can cash flow in the Bay although it is tough for most people (a lot of it comes down to the price/debt/LTV you can figure out) but a lot of the markets you mentioned just operate differently, as I am sure you know. So just make sure you know that if you grew up with SF real estate as your gauge of real estate, those other ones don't really work the same.

@Trevor Levine I imagine this is something you probably want to sit down with your attorney and accountant to square away given your concern on what could happen!

@Ramsin Jacob assuming these are vacant lots? From owning vacant land in the past, it can be nice to put your money in something that pays you each month vs. a land bank.