All Forum Posts by: Jake Thompson

Hi @David Morrison, congrats on your success thus far! As far as finding deals, have you picked up @Anson Young's book, Finding and Funding Deals? He has a TON of great strategies for finding deals in there.

I am wondering though if we are going to see a market correction soon here in San Diego. I have a duplex that I am currently house hacking, which should cash flow about $400/mo when I move out, but am looking at the possibility of adding another bedroom or bath to one of the units, as well as possibly adding one or two units which could potentially increase the cash flow.

I would love to meet up sometime over coffee and talk REI. Additionally, @Parker Cox, Kevin Fox, and I are working on setting up another meetup soon, which we will post about on BiggerPockets when we have the details ironed out. 

Cheers!

Welcome @Jon Wahlmann! Looking forward to hearing how your long distance investments go!

Have you made a decision on this project yet? I'm surprised no one has replied to this. I'm considering splitting my master bedroom into 2 smaller rooms. Adding another room could bring me about an extra $400/mo in rent in my area. I would check the other rental prices in your area. See what the difference between a 2 bed and 1 bed is. If it's only $1000 to convert it I would imagine it would be well worth it.

Then again, it sounds like you are wanting to pull your cash out, in which case it all depends on how much more it would appraise for. Is there anyway you could contact a local appraiser and talk to him? 

My experience is in residential, not commercial, so take my opinion with a big grain of salt. From what I understand though, isn't the vacancy period during turnover from commercial typically pretty long? Like at least 2 months if not longer? If it's in a great location and likely to get snagged up quick maybe you can offer them to start the lease a month sooner and if not then keep looking for another tenant. If you think it will take a little while longer to fill maybe just accept them and move on. But I do think either way you can at least ask if they want to sign the lease sooner. Hope this helps! 

I would recommend waiting to give the notice until you have found your new property management company. You don't want to give notice and not be able to find a new manager in time.

I like vinyl planks as well. I would suggest looking online to see what's in your area for rent currently though so you can get an idea for the price point and quality of upgrades people expect. If you notice everyone in your area is doing hardwood floors and granite countertops you may have a hard time getting market rent if you are using lower grade materials.

 You bet! Glad to help!

@Parker Cox Do you know of a title company that can help @Solomon Rodgers out?

Hi @Liz Boer, I think @Dan H. has some great advice. In fact, it's exactly what my wife and I did! We bought a duplex in La Mesa that was really 2 detached houses using the VA loan. There was a common courtyard area in between them so we put a fence up and now it's just as Dan said, 2 separate houses, with the exception of one water meter. The smaller unit was listed as a 2/1, but the garage had been converted to a 3rd bedroom so that helped a lot with cash flow. If you can find the hidden potential in a property that may be the key. I will admit that we had luck play a role as well. Since we were new we made some mistakes, but fortunately the interest rates dropped and we were able to lower our payments and then we didn't realize how much rent we could actually get here in San Diego. We do pay about $1100/mo towards the mortgage while we live here, but after we leave and rent both units we should be able to cash flow about $400/mo, including repairs, CapEx, etc.

One more thing I'll mention is make sure, if you are going to self-manage, that you pick up a book (I'd recommend Brandon Turner's book on managing rental properties), or find some other way to educate yourself on managing rentals. Otherwise, if you plan to hire a property management company, I work for a full service management company and I'd love to help you out there as well. 

Good luck and feel free to PM me if you have any other questions!