All Forum Posts by: David Affonso

So really you mean decreasing NOI or increasing revenue by decreasing vacancy, maintenance, man hours etc, increasing rent, adding extra units or increasing the value of units? What are other ways to optimize NOI?

I'm in the Bay Area so defenitely low cap rates, a few people have mentioned finding fixer uppers and trying to improve value but it's still such an expensive market to get into. I suppose if I could add an extra unit to a property that would greatly increase the value and NOI.

Thanks for the explanation.

This sounds very interesting.  I presume you'd just include the reno cost into your numbers.  I wonder if it'd be possible to cashflow from day 1 after taking these costs into consideration.

@Roy Mitle I might be late to the game on this, but where are you finding 500k properties in Santa Clara County?  Even Condo's seem to be slightly above that...

 I don't see how a downtown SJ commute to Mountain View or Foster City would be 25-35 minutes. During commuting hours and in a car that's 45+ minutes and if you take the train it likely doesn't drop you near the industry you need, another 40+ minutes.

I'm also in the same boat, working a decent to good sales job but nowhere near the $50k downpayment for even the cheapest of places.

Any recommendations besides hoarding cash and potentially looking in surrounding areas I'm familiar with (Stockton/Manteca/Tracy, Santa Rosa/Sanoma, Monterey, Seaside, Salinas?) Even these locations are pretty expensive and don't offer the return.

I almost feel like just saving for a 3-4 unit in Mt. View and getting an FHA or subsidized loan doing the Brandon BB move of Househacking. The problem is it'll take at least a year if not longer for this. Or the out of state play but I'm sketch on that for my first purchase.

Can anyone help a newb learn how to delete and @username properly?

What methods would one use to find owners?  I hear a lot about absentee lists, are there free services that provide this or only fee based services?

@Paul Timmins 

Can you elaborate on this self-directed IRA strategy? Is this your own money coming out of an IRA or do you partner up for the private money. I suppose if it's the latter the work would be in identifying those partners without a lot of skin in the game or experience.

@David Beard 

Do these more established whole sale companies ever allow you to buy with a bank loan or they mainly focus in non-commercial lending because the property is so bad?

Thanks for the posts guys, never really new about self-directed IRAs or wholesale companies, always thought it was primarily individuals.

I'd be interested in this as well. 

Let's say one buys a multifamily FHA and moves in but gets laid off, transferred, or just decides to take a job in another area. Would the bank allow this scenario as a means of bringing in income to continue to pay the mortgage?

@Ross Ellington At least in California I believe if you buy a multifamily you are able to evict on of the units for your personal residence. I wonder if in places with rent control one could continue to change units in their own building to be able to raise the rent, say due to remodeling??

Thanks for all the warm welcomes!

@Arlen Chou It sounds like you pulled it off, very inspiring.

@Shane Pearlman perhaps I'll open up my area restrictions, that just seems like such a convenient place both in the short term (gf and my employment) and in the long term (University, access to cal-train, older neighborhood)

@Paul Timmins  thanks for the great resources

@Assaf Furman  Sorry I couldn't make this month's meeting, I'll look forward to next month.  Just signed up via Meetup.

Hi BP Community,

I'm a newbiew to BP and real estate although I've been interested and researching for almost a year now.  I've recently moved back to the South Bay (Palo Alto, Mountain View, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, San Jose) area working my dayjob in the IT staffing industry as a recruiter and account manager with Apex Systems.

I've done some research over the last year and I'd love to be able to set a 1-2 year goal of buying a multi family (2-4 unites) with an FHA or other subsidzed first time home owner loan.

My target area is in Santa Clara in between the University and the Cal Train station.  This is close to my work and my girlfriend could caltrain into downtown Palo Alto (where she works) and I think it would have long term value as the Bay Area gets moer congested.

I know Silicon Valley is a tough market for newbies, but I'm really curious if anyone has had any success with this recently.  I'd live in 1 unit and rent out the others, but really my goal would be to find something at least cash flow neutral if I decided to move out and rent all units. 

I haven't seen any properties yet, but when I do some napkin math based on trulia and other appraisal site it just doesn't seem possible in this market.

Either way I've been to a few local REITs and really look forward to getting more involved in Bigger Pockets.  Any advice for the above scenario would be fantastic but also just a warm welcome would be nice.

Thanks a lot Brandon and Josh for the great podcasts, really helps with the afternoon commute.

Best,

David Affonso