All Forum Posts by: Bradley Buxton

@Carl Reza

The hardest part is taking the first step of knowing your goals and why you're investing, then doing a deal analysis with your market, assets, budgets, etc. There are lots of markets to choose from and something closer to home maybe NV or AZ will be easier to manage and view properties. Interview agents, lenders, and property managers. If possible as others have said, go to a couple of meet-ups in the area you want to invest in. There will always be a level of fear of failure and you will most likely experience some, mitigating that with diligence will keep you in a healthy state of paranoia. If there were no risk there would not be a reward of building wealth. Talking to a lender can be a good first step, less exciting than looking on Zillow but still very important. 

@Dan H.

It sounds like you have your answer if you should buy it as an investment or as a vacation home. If you like the the area and can afford the house it would be like buying a luxury or sports car. It will bring you joy and not a return on an investment. I'm in Northern Nevada and there are vast areas where you can get away in the mountains with a lower wildfire risk. Many people have homes they never rent and only keep for personal vacation. 

As for insurance I deal a lot with that here in Tahoe and western Reno. There are some insurers going back into CA because there is money to be made. There are tougher requirements to satisfy underwriters and there are actions to take to fortify your home that can lower insurance. Happy to share some resources for that. 

@Gordon Cuffe

Great story. I grew up not too far from there and that is a very typical house, maybe minus the cat. Heal fast and great job!

@Daniel Boucher

This is a tough question. No one wants to kick a senior citizen out on the street. On the other hand who ever buys the property will have to raise the rents. This is an issue in Reno, NV with many multifamily properties where an older owner has not raised the rent in years and their selling agent thinks the property is worth market value, it's not and there is usually lots of deferred maintenance. The current owners are putting the moral dilemma on the new owners and still want full market value. Depending on how much you need to raise the rents to market, the other updates in the building that are needed, how quickly you can rent to market rents will all drive your decision. If you have units to remodel and are updating you can offer the senior tenant to move to the nicer unit and raise the rent, you can incrementally raise the rent, or maybe you can rent the other two for above market to make of the cost of the senior rent. Regardless of what you do the senior will likely lose their low rent situation whether you buy the property or not. 

@Radhika S.

Chose a market that will fit your budget but also your lifestyle. There are inconveniences to investing out of state like traveling to see properties, meeting with contractors, checking work, checking the property condition. You can build a team and people do, it takes time, mistakes, and extra money. To reiterate what others have said you'll need a larger reserve fund to invest out of state when something goes wrong. If you can spend the extra time you'd spend managing your out of state team on a side hustle to save up more to buy something closer to CA that you can get to and from in a day, NV or AZ. You'll get a sense of time commitment to OOS investing and saving more for investments. 

@Sherry T.

Where are people going to be moving to in the future? Will Long Beach become the new hip beach town?  Will riverside continue to build keeping inventory steady and will people need to commute in traffic to get to work?  Where people want to live will drive rents, revenue, and appreciation.  Also it would be worthwhile to speak to a financial advisor on how to best diversify your portfolio and maybe you can even use your currents investments to get loans for real estate. 

@Kyle Luman

Keep in mind everyone's situation is different and while one investor in the short term is wanting less cash flow for tax reasons (presumably) your situation it might not make sense to break even or lose money. Talking with a good CPA can help you explore options on how to save on taxes. As others have said it's much easier to find a break even property in a a good area. The advantage to real estate is that you can compound equity using leverage. 

@Lolo Druff

There are many places to invest and each area will have it's advantages and risks. Investing close to where you live and a place where you would want to live has advantages like being able to check on your property and meet with your team. Also consider your lifestyle and if you want to be traveling 3 days just to check to see if a water heater is installed correctly and your property manager is looking after your property. There are more factors than just pure cashflow and it seems like you are in a good position to be successful.  

@Jadan Williams

CA can offer some good long term investments. Despite all the negativity people still want to live in CA. If you want to stay then you will find a deal that makes it work. If you do want to leave CA there are multiple options and chose a place where you would want to live. Usually that means others in your demographic live there or will want to live there.  

@Zhongyuan Luo

Many data models are not very localized for properties price or rental comps. You can do your own research or find a good local agent. Here in the Reno, NV area we have been scraping local rental and property data for the last 2 years. It gives a good picture of the market and trends but it’s hyper localized in this MSA market. You can use Zillow or rent cast along with others to paint a picture of the area where you want to invest.