All Forum Posts by: Joe Polyak

Hi Kusum,

Wonderful responses some of these helpful folks gave above so don't want to beat a dead horse but....

I will be operating under a few assumptions:

I am operating under the assumption that you would like a neighborhood that is more or less safe for yourself or a relative to walk around the area with the young ones. For this reason I will rule out HP, Bayview, etc. I was born and raised in SF and although I do see these areas changing quickly, I don't believe it will be quick enough for you to feel safe.

It sounds to me like you are not scared of getting your hands a little dirty and doing cosmetic remodels. Although contractors are definitely extremely spoiled right now and have tons of work and are charging an arm and a leg, you can still find reasonable work by being proactive in 1. Going with contractors to buy the materials so you pay directly and 2. Negotiating on labor costs by interviewing multiple contractors. Of course, remember that you do get what you pay for but you can at least avoid a lot of the price gouging that's going on. 

As an SF native, here are the areas I recommend (considering I don't know where you work) that would meet your criteria of 1. Nice safe family neighborhood 2. potential for appreciation through cosmetic remodel and price appreciation.

1. The Richmond District. It gets a bad rap because it's a bit cloudy, but come on are you kidding me?? Beautiful, large, Edwardian homes, some built over 100 years ago and still as absolutely solid as ever. Many of these need ONLY cosmetic remodels (paint, floors, kitchen, bath, etc.). You have a wonderful family friendly community. You are right next to the beach, golden gate park, golden gate bridge, the presidio, land's end, and much, much more. OK, OK, this is where I grew up so I'm a little biased lol. But also the best public schools in the city. 

2. Forest Hill Extension / Miraloma Park / Sunnyside. Right smack dab in the middle of SF. Most beautiful views of the city. It gets windy here sometimes though. Just a short drive to 280 and 101, very close to Glen Park Bart station. It seems like nobody knows these neighborhoods exist for some weird reason. The homes are built well (much nicer than Glen Park in my opinion), the neighbors are wonderful (still one of those places where people know each other) and room for appreciation (Prices are well below Glen Park for reasons that are beyond my comprehension).

Honorable Mention: Outer sunset. The only reason I wouldn't rank this higher is because those small doelger homes are not built as nice as the Richmond district Edwardians yet are going for almost as much. I think it's just because it's getting that hipster trendiness. 

Those are just my 2 cents ;)

@Rick H. Thanks for the feedback Rick.

I have no problem with digging and sifting through info, the purpose of my thread however is to see if anyone recommends any of these services for data, eliminating the need for me to go to the courthouse and spend several hours doing it myself, when I could better utilize that time generating leads through other channels or spend that time actually calling, writing to, doorknocking, and converting these leads. There will always be competition (the foreclosures in my area receive an average of 50 pieces of mail within the first month of NOD), I differentiate myself through persistent follow up and a professional approach and building relationships with probate and trust attorneys for them to refer business to me in the future.

Hello Everyone!

I'm a full-time realtor in the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm growing my business to start working with probate cases that involve real estate. I know I can go to the local court houses (some of them the information is online) and look at the records and sort which ones have real estate and do all of that myself. Obviously that takes a lot of time away from me being able to prospect and generate business through other channels. My options are to either go myself, pay someone to do it, or use a probate lead data provider of some sort. Does anyone have recommendations with data providers that are good, specifically in the San Francisco Bay Area? Here are a few that I've found in my searches: successorsdata.com, probatedata.com, and mtieducation.com. 

Additionally, any investors in my area who are currently working probates or would like to work probates and would potentially like to collaborate in anyway I would be very open to discussing potential opportunities for starting a mutually beneficial relationship.

Thanks,
Joe

 That was essentially what we were thinking to do but I think I can go through the corporate housing route and bypass the ordinance. The good news is the inspector himself voiced his opinion to me that he thinks this ordinance is BS and he is pissed that he has to enforce it but it's his job, so we had a mutual understanding and built some rapport and I got a one month extension, netting us another $4000 for the month. Also, if we can hold off long enough, the state of Arizona may vote on eliminating these types of ordinances in the near future anyway. 

 Thank you very much Al. The ordinance states that rental must be a minimum of 30 days so I think corporate housing should take care of that as the estimates say 3 months minimum. I will look deeper into the ordinance to see if there are any other loopholes. Thank you very much!

 Thank you very much Bonnie! Corporate housing looks like it may be a winner. The ordinance says 30 days minimum rental, the estimates for corporate housing are 3 months minimum.

Hey Everyone,

I recently bought a house in Oldtown Scottsdale Arizona on E 6th Street. It's myself and 2 partners, one of them lives in Scottsdale while myself and the other live in San Francisco. We originally planned to use it as a vacation rental property. Everything was going well and our cash flow was quite high. Then we got a notice in the mail stating that we have been cited for non compliance with the local ordinance that short term rentals are not allowed in a residential zone. When we purchased the house, we saw plenty of others doing airbnb and vrbo, and the realtors told us it was totally fine. Obviously I didn't do enough due diligence. The city only enforces the ordinance if someone complains, and it turns out that our particular neighbors are very vocal about their dislike for vacation rentals. 

At this point, if we rent it out to long term tenants, we'll be stuck with no cash flow at all - break even. Due to the proximity of this location, I was wondering if anyone has an ideas for something else we can do. I was thinking we can potentially use a website like: http://www.arizonasnowbird.com/user/registration to rent it out for several months at a time.

If anyone has an ideas please let me know. Highly appreciate any and all feedback!

Hello Everyone,

My apologies if this topic has already been covered.

What are your favorite, and most valuable Bigger Pockets podcast episodes. I'm relatively new to BiggerPockets, and unfortunately I only have limited time to go through all of the old episodes, so I'd like to get an idea from all of you who've been listening for a long time or maybe even since the very beginning? What are the 'best' shows? The most powerful, most informative, most mind blowing, etc.? This way I can prioritize listening to those first, although my goal is to get through all of them one day.

Thanks in advance my friends!

Joe

Yes Please let me know how you do that? Do you mean you just ask the agent for a referral fee or is there something else? Thanks in Advance!!!

Do you see a big slowdown in the summer months? Meaning more and better opportunities to buy in the area?