All Forum Posts by: Jon S.

@Bill Ward - Thank you for the insight!  We've also done a lot of upgrades including roof, HVAC, flooring, etc so the house is in good shape.  Do you self-manage from out of state?  Any issues doing that?

@Bjorn Ahlblad Yes I agree.  We aren't so much looking at it right now as an investment property but moreso as a failsafe in case we do want to come back.  I think if we rented it out we would eventually sell in a year or two to put that money to good use.  

Hey everyone!  We are looking for some words of wisdom from those more experienced than us with our situation.  We are a family of 5 looking to move out of California.  Our primary residence is in Orange County, paid $610k, currently owe about $550k, market value is (per my realtor) around 900k. Monthly mortgage, taxes, insurance is just under $3200.  A couple local PM companies have said they think we can get around 3.5-4k/mo for it rented.  We are looking at moving out of state and initially renting in our new location while we get a feel for the area and new lifestyle. There's obviously a chance we could complete hate it and want to move back to Cali, but we're leaning towards that not happening.  So we are debating on whether we should sell our primary and use that cash to purchase a property (or two) elsewhere, or rent out our primary while renting for a year and saving for our next property.  To be honest I haven't bothered using all the fancy calculators to calculate the exact dollar amount we would profit/lose every month after taking maintenance etc into account. Our thoughts on renting is obviously to still retain the property in the event we decide to move back, all the while having someone else pay most if not all of the mortgage.  Our concerns are all the usual concerns one would have with renting (i.e. bad renters, missed/late payments, California being so renter-focused, etc).  And our concern with selling is that we may not be able to afford to come back to the lifestyle we've grown accustomed to in CA if we in fact returned.  So just curious to hear from those who have been through a similar situation and how that worked for you.  Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Curious about this as well.  Have you gotten any more details or heard from anyone that has used this service?

@Paul Sandhu Sorry to hear about the difficulties you've had. I take it you are no longer doing STRs? Money is definitely nice but so is gaining the experience of the STR game.

@Michael Nelson Thanks for the response!  Great tips.  We do have a two car garage that I could easily outfit to be inaccessible to guests which could store our personal belongings.  One question for you, how much of an impact does not accepting "instant bookings" have on your listing?  Is it significantly safer to not allow these in order to vet the guests ahead of time?

@Julie McCoy Thanks, I will definitely look into our insurance and city regulations.  

@Ethan Cooke Thanks for the response!  Do you generally remove your personal belongings when renting it out?  Also, what site do you use?  Have you tried different ones?  Any tips you can provide on the whole process would be greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone. I was wondering if anyone here has any experience utilizing their primary residence for STR/AirBNB while away on vacations or long weekends? If so, how was your experience with it? We tend take weekend trips somewhat often as well as a couple 1-2 week vacations throughout the year and I am wondering if AirBNB'ing our primary residence is reasonable or not. I'm sure there are horror stories out there but does anyone have any success stories doing this?

@Arlen Chou Thank you for the input.  You aren't raining on my parade at all!  This is exactly the type of insight I came here seeking, so thank you for that.

@Anthony Dooley Thanks.  Maybe I should consider out of state, but somewhere that is a reasonable drive from me, (i.e. Las Vegas, ~4hrs)? I am also concerned about finding positive cash flow properties in my area.

@Russell Gronsky I agree with you guys, I should not refinance on my primary. Last year I looked at HELOC and my lender (Quicken/Rocket) told me they don't provide them. I called around to a couple other banks and they said they would only do HELOC's if they held the principal mortgage. To be honest I gave up at that point but perhaps it's something I can look into again.

@Michael T. PITI is right around $3400/mo. You're right, we haven't been saving all that much for several reasons. We've remodeled the house and have continued putting money into it (just put a new roof on it this last year), and also to be honest haven't been diligent about saving. We've changed our focus and will now be tightening our wallets and putting away cash. To be honest I am just starting my research in REI with a realistic goal of saving for now while looking at our options.

Hi everyone, I am looking at getting into real estate investing in some form with the goal of cash flow. I'm not in the real estate field whatsoever other than having bought a sold a couple primary residences. I was hoping for some insight and advice on my current situation and I'm wondering if I might be in a position to get started. So we are a family of 5, annual income about $200k, live in Southern California with about $550k left on the mortgage. I haven't gotten an official appraisal but sites like Zillow etc estimate it's value upwards of $725k (I know these aren't very reliable). We have about $25k liquid in savings and another 50k in retirement accounts.

Now I'm wondering what are your thoughts on pulling out cash from my primary residence to use towards REI? I haven't talked to a bank yet but what's the rule of thumb in terms of how much cash I can pull out? Is $100k feasible assuming my property appraises at >$700k? My concern with refinancing is that I've got a great deal on my current mortgage (3.5% fixed 30yr, lender paid PMI). Any thoughts on my situation? Is getting into REI a reasonable thought at this point? If so any advice as to what avenue (flips, rentals, etc)?

Forgot to mention this is for a property in California, in case that matters

Is it common to submit an offer to a motivated seller before seeing the property in person or having it inspected?  I came across a deal and I'd like to get an offer in as the seller is very motivated, however due to scheduling issues I have yet to go and see the place with my contractor.  I imagine there would be some contingency in the contract for the inspection?  Would it allow me to back out for any reason, or just for something major (i.e. foundation, fire damage, etc)?  

Does anyone have a contract for this they can share?

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