All Forum Posts by: Asim G.

@Franklin Romine: Thank you for the reply. It is amazing to see your business grow to be 35 units. I hope you get to 100 soon. 

Are you still able to find deals on the MLS or is it mostly driving for dollars/postcards.

Thanks

I plan to hold it. My interest in real estate is to build a long term passive income.

@Franklin Romine  

@Elizabeth Colegrove

Any thoughts on this

Hello,
I am looking for opportunities to invest in Real Estate in the Fresno area. I have an SFR and a 3'plex in the area that I bought in 2009 and 2011. SInce the market has changed and it is hard to find decent (b area) cash flowing properties, I am thinking of building small MF in the area. I just want to run some numbers in this forum and get some feedback to focus on due diligence to do.

Let us assume that I purchase this lot in Cash for $30,000

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Fresno/6979-N-Weber-Ave-...

And then build this triplex on the property

http://www.plansourceinc.com/J0605-14T.htm

Assuming cost to build of $75/sqft (including permits). The cost to build is $230,000. So the total cost to build/acquire the property is $260,000 (ignoring holding costs). I can collect money from my savings and family members to achieve this. Once complete, I plan to refi this 3'plex once the construction is complete.

Assuming each 900sqft 2/1 room will rent for $750/month. So the monthly rents will be $2250. Each property will have its own water meter, so the tenant is responsible for that.

So I end up acquiring a 260K triplex for $2250. Not a great deal by an means. But the property will be brand new with minimal maintenance costs for the first few years. 

Any thoughts on this plan. I am basing the $75/sqft building cost assumption on feedback from a realtor I have talked to. It seems a little low to me, and that is something I need to investigate. I am also not sure about the permit details, and the idea of having one water meter per dwelling.

I respect the opinion of folks on this forum, and would love to hear all feedback.

Hello everyone. It has been a year since this thread was updated. I was curious what the observations for the past year and predictions for the next year.

I randomly looked at Zillow forecast (for what it is worth) for some Bay Area cities and it predicted a 2-4% appreciation for the next 12 months, as opposed to 8-16% appreciation seen for the past 12 months. In fact, it called the evergreen and san ramon markets cold

http://www.zillow.com/evergreen-san-jose-ca/home-v...

http://www.zillow.com/san-ramon-ca/home-values/

But I am not seeing any slow-down in my local subdivision in Fremont, where town homes are being sold for 30-50K above asking without contingencies.

How are things looking in your neck of the woods.

Great post. I am a little late to the discussion. Just a caveat about looking at historic unemployment rate as an indicator of the overall job market. My understanding is that the U-6 rate is the most comprehensive way to analyse the job market. The unemployment rate is reported by the media and the politicians and gets a lot more importance than it deserves.

Here is a news article on the various metrics to analyse the job market.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/06/whats-the-real-unem...

As can be seen in this article, the U-6 rate has not gone down as much as the unemployment rate in the past couple of years.

The unemployment rate is based on the # of applicants for unemployment benefits. So if someone has not found a job and run out of 52 weeks of unemployment benefits, he/she is mistakenly counted as having found a job. Also, if someone is underemployed due to economic reasons, it shows up in the U-6 rate but is ignored in unemployment rate.

I am not sure if historical data is available for U-6 rate and how it impacts the analysis.

p.s. My information on the topic is from libertarian talk radio, and needs to be confirmed or verified by people who know more about the topic.

Thanks for the reply. The modified bitumen is on the garage with flat roof. The size of the garage is 480 sqft.

Thanks a lot for the reply. I am getting more quotes and have asked for a better explanation of the cost breakdown.

Hi,

I am working on rehabbing a property in the Phoenix area and we need to replace the roof of the property. The house is a ~1450 sqft home and about ~1200 sqft needs roof replaced. The other ~250 sqft was added later and the roof on it is in good condition. In addition to the home, there is a 2 car garage that also has a leaky roof.

The roofing contractor who was recommended to me has given a quote of $7800 for the following work.

I feel this estimate is on the higher side and am getting second opinions as well as negotiate with this contractor. After reading through the posts on this forum, it appears that typical cost of roof replacement is $300-400 per square. If this is true, then I should be looking at $4000-$5000 for the replacement. Can someone confirm if this is indeed true?

Thanks

Hello,

Based on some feedback I have received, I am adding the full layout of the house below. The area that needs the modification are the two rooms to the left in the sketch below.

Do let me know how I can modify the bathroom configuration for the two rooms to make it a good rental. Overall size of the home is 1430 sqft and each square in the sketch below is 1 sqft.

Hi,
I am considering to purchase an SFR as a buy and hold property. The property has an extra room that was added legally, and I want to change the layout of this portion to make it a better value add for myself and and tenant. I have pasted a hand drawn sketch (somewhat to scale) of two adjacent rooms as well as a panorama photo of the area between the jacuzzi and sink s2.

Here is some background on the property.

1. Originally it was a 3/2 SFR. The 2 smaller bedrooms with 1 bathroom (shower/tub + sink + toilet) are on the other side of the living/family area and not drawn below.
2. The room marked original room in the image below was a master suite with attached bathroom. In the original configuration the bathroom had a closet, sink (called s1), toilet, and a shower/tub.
3. When they add the extra room, they tore down the shower and put in sink (called s2). They also added a wall (called w1) to separate s2 from the original bathroom.
4. They also added an exposed jacuzzi in the other corner of the room added.

In the current configuration, this house is a 3 bedroom + 1 den + 2 toilet + 2 sinks + 1 shower/tub + 1 jacuzzi. My minimum requirement is to add another shower (tub or standing) to make the property more liveable. If I could add a closet and get rid of the jacuzzi, that would be a bonus.

Here are the options I have thought of.

1. Get rid of w1 and s2. Replace s2 with a shower/tub and a wall restore the bathroom to its original condition.
2. Similar concept to option 1, but install a small standing shower instead of shower/tub. Add a pocket door to the bathroom so that it is accessible from both rooms.
3. Leave w1 and s2 as is. Tear down the jacuzzi and add a standing shower there.

For any of these options, we can add a closet to the room added to make it more liveable.

What do folks here think of these options. Anything obvious that I am missing. I am looking for the most elegant way of making this property rent ready. I have not done any remodels in my life and I know there are a ton of folks here who can offer some advice.

Thanks

p.s: I would have mentioned some pros on this post, but am not able to mention even folks I am connected to.