All Forum Posts by: Hobie Day

@Walter Kaiser sorry to hear about your bad experience with your rentals. How did you screen your tenants for these rentals and do you use a property management company? Also, what part of Stockton are your rentals in?

I have 2 rentals in Stockton and haven’t had a problem. I also haven’t had to deal with the court system but when dealing with the City of Stockton for permits, they’ve been great and fast compared to some surrounding cities!

@Andrew Ruelas welcome, and congrats on buying your first primary! Whereabouts in Stockton did you buy? I have 2 rental units a couple blocks from UOP and recently bought a new primary in Lodi

I’d love to connect and learn more about your routes in Manteca

@Smitha Sandasani I personally don't have experience with rentals in Lodi, but I did grow up there and now live in Stockton. Tons of development going on, on the West and South side of Lodi. Your tenant pool will be a lot smaller in Lodi but it is a nicer place with lower crime rate. I see a lot of people moving from Stockton to Lodi but most are looking to purchase instead of rent 

@Brian Larson this was on the MLS but there's a few more off-market if you're interested. And I am just using a simple spreadsheet calculator I have

@Tracy Lau we just helped an investor from the Bay Area get under contract on a duplex in Stockton, cash flow is over $350/month on 500k property (25% down) with current tenants and rental amounts. There is room to increase rents and fix up units a little to increase cash flow, and it's in a safe/good neighborhood. 

We were initially looking at the 400k range for single family homes in Stockton, but duplex was a better deal than the SFHs we were analyzing. 

Have you thought about house hacking in the Bay Area? It's definitely possible to own in the SF Bay Area with a small down payment to where your rental income from house hacking can cover some or most of your mortgage payment and then cash flow when you and your wife move out, just depends on your comfortability level. 

I would agree with what @Dorian Young said, for the Stockton market at least. 

@Rahul Samskruthyayan I think that's a great idea, and I can share my experience of the commute. I also have a W-2 job in the East Bay and was WFH a lot pre-COVID so I ended up purchasing my primary residence in Stockton (closer to friends and family since I grew up here) and commuting on the ACE train a couple days per week. Since the pandemic started, I've been WFH full-time and definitely got lucky on the timing. When I did take the ACE train, I would leave my house around 6am and get to the office in Pleasanton by 8am via the ACE train, which the train is very clean and has tables to setup your workstation. If I wanted to drive in, then leaving anytime after 8am seemed to cut the drive in half (~ 1hr) since there wasn't as many people on the road that late in the morning. 

I did rent in Tracy for a year, prior to purchasing in Stockton, and also took the ACE train from there. It is a nice area and over half the population in Tracy commutes into the Bay Area for work, but like @Pawitar Singh mentioned, Tracy and Lathrop are pretty overpriced now due to the influx of buyers moving from the Bay Area which is partially why I bought in Stockton. When it comes to the rental market, I think Manteca might be a better option since River Islands is mostly owner-occupied homes and Manteca is a little more affordable. I also wouldn't rule out Stockton as a viable rental market just because of crime as there are pockets of good areas here where you can find positive cash flow in a safe neighborhood - the entire city is not crime-ridden. 

@Brandon Leffler just echoing what the previous 3 people have said, the best move is what fits your goals. For me, the best move would be to keep it as a rental since my main goal is cash flow but that may be completely different from your needs and wants. If you want to invest out of state for higher ROE then you can sell it or just do a cash-out refinance and take around 50k out and put it into another deal. 

Specifically in Stockton during 2020, we saw median home prices for sold units rise 15.5% YOY so you can also continue to get your high cash flow as well as partake in the appreciation of the Stockton market. Who knows if it will continue at that rate going forward, but with low interest rates, low supply, and high demand I don't see it slowing down much. 

@Saraya Thornburg around UOP, quail lakes, country club, spanos, brookside, and almost anywhere in Lincoln unified school district. But even those areas can be street by street so if you're unsure about a specific location then you can send me the address and I can let you know my opinion! 

@Saraya Thornburg the crime in Stockton is not as bad as everyone thinks. There’s definitely some high crime areas that you’ll want to avoid, but a lot of cities have pockets of high crime areas. I can point you towards the safer neighborhoods if you are interested in investing in the area though, mostly on the west side.