All Forum Posts by: Jordan Thibodeau

I am currently investing in Sacramento's Oak Park neighborhood (95817,95820). It's a transitioning area adjacent to some of the most desirable areas in Sacramento including Midtown, Land Park, Curtis Park and the UC Davis Medical Center. It is in the "path of progress" and has great architecture with a bit of a hipster vibe with restaurants, coffee shops, breweries, art studios, etc opening up. The current mayor hails from Oak Park so there has been a ton of recent investment in the area ($10-30m mixed use projects).

You can still pick up houses for $80-120k that rent for $1150-1400. Those on the lower end need a lot of work but I prefer to buy low and rehab to my standards from the start to take the capex hit up front. Like most transitional areas, it's street by street so you have to learn the area. There have been 5 sales of over $300 per sq foot in the past 120 days so the profit potential is high on the right block. I am using direct marketing and flipping the houses I can get on the more desirable streets and using the BRRR strategy for those that are a little farther down the path of progress. I suspect those $100k houses will suddenly by $200k in the next 12-24 months. With the way rents are rising dramatically in Sacramento, there is a lot of pricing pressure on the low end of the market.

In my opinion, the area is like buying in Brooklyn or Oakland 15 years ago. It can't help but improve due to the location near the major investments being made in downtown and midtown and the expense of living in East Sac, Land Park and Curtis Park. The spillover into Oak Park is unavoidable. I have been impressed with the tenant pool, mostly late 20's/early 30's state workers or UCD Med Center employees that are tired of midtown rent increases and want a house with a yard but don't want to commute from the burbs.

Nice another fellow oak park investor.

1 Vote

@Matt Smith a fellow Bay Area resident. Welcome. Finding the right market is almost like trying to forecast which stock will do the best next year. Markets ebb and flow. We all have our own biases towards markets, so I would do my own research and come up with a conclusion.

If you're planning to invest out of state, I would pick an area or two to investigate, and build relationships with local investors, but mind you, if you do invest out of state you will have little to no control over your investment so you must work with people who are reputable.

Good luck.

1 Vote

@Rhonda Green If you do refinance and invest the funds, will the return on investment justify the costs involved in the refinancing and the higher interest rate?

Also, if you do refi, what's the spread between your monthly debt payments and your rental income? You want to have the ability to lower rents if the economy takes a turn. If you don't have a margin of safety, your investments can turn into cash flow killers.

Good luck.

1 Vote

@Roy N. / tears of joy. That sounds amazing. Can you link me to the locks you are using?

Thanks sir!

0 Votes

@Mike Buckley I would read Brandon Turners Book on investing in RE with no money down.

Caveat about minimal down payments, if you go with traditional financing you will face PMI which can eat into your cash flow. IMO: Unless you can find a creative solution around that, it's better to save up for the down payment to avoid the PMI.

0 Votes

@Lynette C. Welcome to BP! I would read as many articles as possible (shameless plug), listen to the podcasts, and post.

0 Votes

I would never do it. If you offered me $20 an hour, I have every incentive in the world to do a crappy job.

If you insist on doing this, which I don't recommend. I would check out this article, and look for landscaping contracts online.

0 Votes

@Al Bigonia I use this chrome extension, it allows you to delete pictures and print only text. Give it a shot.

1 Vote

@Roy N. What type of door locks are you using? Are providing your tenants with keys too? Or just pass codes? I hate having to re-key my locks.

0 Votes

I give my tenants and my tenant's neighbors See's candy. It's also a good opportunity to meet with your neighbors, extend thanks for them being good members of the community, and share with them some Christmas cheer.

As far as the bad neighbors, I haven't ran into this issue, but if I did have bad neighbors, I would probably give them coal or a mafia style dead fish.

0 Votes

All Forum Posts by: Jordan Thibodeau

Jordan Thibodeau has started 16 posts and replied 476 times.

Post: Best "cash flow" investment market for $100K?

Post: Best "cash flow" investment market for $100K?

Post: Leveraging

Post: Successes in home automation for rental units?

Post: Lower down payments

Post: New Member from SoCal Peninsula ;)

Post: Tenant wants to take over weeding/raking/gardening duties.

Post: Printing BP Articles

Post: Successes in home automation for rental units?

Post: Christmas presents for tenants?