All Forum Posts by: David Affonso

Since Provo came up earlier on this post.  Here is my take:

Honestly I don't care. I don't see many of my tenants because they are sight unseen coming from out of state. If they can qualify financially, have great background and credit score, etc all good in my book :)

In all fairness, my rents are $1200-$1800 a month so to qualify at 3X rents, my tenants make a significant income. I also require W2 income or if self employed tax records, so I haven't had to worry about looking for signs of illicit activitiies.

we actually target the areas where we believe the jobs are moving, then cross reference that with where there is a lack of housing that professionals would want to live (such as a lack of b level properties so they are all forced to c level properties). We then target those areas looking for deals (networking with brokers, direct mailing, property managers, etc). It's a little backwards from the typical "find the deal then evaluate the area" model, but I think it saves a lot it time in the long wrong and allows the investors to get paid back at a higher return than they expected. 

Annelyse,

I have had a great experience with Mountain View Property Management, managing my three Bend rentals.  Chad and Julie purchased All Options Property Management a couple of years ago, changed the name, and immediately,  the quality of service.  I was contemplating leaving All Options, and one day received a phone call from the new owner Chad, explaining he purchased the business.  He sounded very enthusiastic, so my wife and I went into the office and met with he and his wife, Julie.  What a huge improvement they have made.  The thing I like most is, they are very pro-active in letting me know anytime anything comes up.  They have surrounded themselves with good people in the office, all of which are eager to help with anything.  MVPM is not as big as some of the other firms mentioned previously, and I am totally fine with that.

@Nicholas Varner   I think a decision to invest in the SF bay area is dictated by time horizons.  IE how old is the investor....

If I was in my 20's or 30's  there is no question I would do every thing I could to get into a real property there.... especially if I lived and worked there .. I would see this as a absolute no brainer...

And then I would not sell my property until I was ready to retire.  If I had kept the 4 homes I owned in the SF bay area.. I would not be on BP I can tell you.... first one was a new shappel home I paid 79k for in Milpitas.. worth probably 750k today.

2nd one was home in Palo Alto I paid 180k for .. worth probably 1.7k today.

3rd was another home in Palo Alto I built I was into this one more about 750k that was 89 I ended up flipping it.. 750k in 89 was a lot of money.. but any ways worth probably 2.5 today.

4th home in the Napa valley I lived in for 10 years paid 360k for worth 1.2 today...

If I would have bought homes in the mid west in those years they would have probably cost more than they do today.. and cash flow would no way equate to what my equity was. and when I sold these homes each of them garnered me almost 500k in tax free money as my personal resi's.. set up my entire life actually... So I can't subscribe to the bay area is not the place to invest.. If you live here. Now I have owned 2 homes in Portland and one appreciated 300k and the one I am in now has gone up 400k... So tell me anywhere in the mid west in SFR space that has come close to those numbers.. but its a long time horizon this all over 40 years.. would be interesting to actually run the numbers out.. but the fact that the majority of my gains were tax free blows any other type of investing out of the water

And I worked off of 20th in San Mateo for years.. commuted from Palo Alto.. one day up the 101 and other days up 280  and that's not a bad drive really.