All Forum Posts by: J. Martin

@Johnny Hoang,

I do exactly what you're doing. 
@Carlos Carbajal is correct. Summer is WAY more busy. Dec/Jan/Feb are way slower.

Save some of that sweet summer cash for a colder winter! ;)

Easily a 25-40% difference in revenue, depending on how you're doing it.. 
I think I've been doing it for about a year and a half in San Jose. From Redwood City to MV to SJ, pretty similar dynamic. The swing isn't quite as wide up in the East Bay - but partially because summer isn't quite as explosive either.. 

Squirrel away some of those nuts! ;)

I'm hiring an event planner to keep everything together the last 2.5 months before the big SF Bay Summit on Oct 7 & 8, 2017. The major responsibilities are to make sure everything gets done!! But we have a lot of procedures, most of the speakers finalized, sold lots of tickets already, most food and drink stuff at least inventoried. There is also potential to do this work more permanently. 

The position is paid (compensation dependent on experience). 
You'll also make amazing real estate connections with lots of investor attendees, and have a chance to get in the mix with some of the biggest BP hitters. 

If you have 25+ hours/wk available and experience or interest in event planning - or know someone who may be interested - please shoot me an email!
[email protected]

Looking forward to the event! :)

The job is remote. So you can do it from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. However, if you're around the Bay Area in Marin, Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, or Sacramento, you'll be even closer to get out to the event!

Looking forward to hearing from you!

 Hi Scott, 
And welcome to the game! I have a couple single family homes in Richmond, and some 4plexes and duplex in Oakland and Richmond. The 4plexes definitely make more cash flow. The SFH has appreciated more.. I don't think that's unusual. So consider your cash flow goals when comparing SFH to small multi-unit. Out of state, you'll also get a different tenant base between the two. You mentioned maybe house hacking or going out of state if you can't find something. If you like living in Oakland, you should utilize the most advantageous loophole in Oakland's rent control rules - the owner-occupant exemption for triplexes and duplexes. This is a way to transition a property and unlock higher rents and value over time. I highly recommend considering it.

Regarding your rent question..  I wouldn't be surprised to see higher-end rents fall by 10-20%. My thought is that with any multi-year double-digit year over year increases (with rents up ~50-100% in the Bay Area over 7 years), it's not that unreasonable to give back the last couple years of increases, at the end of a cycle. I think it's highly unlikely it would drop back to where it was. But I wouldn't be surprised to see it give a little back. 

I haven't invested out of state yet. But I think we've already experienced most of the run-up we're going to get in this real estate cycle, so I'm not bullish on RE prices in the Bay Area. Could keep going, but most of the gains have already been had IMHO. This is different than unlocking value by transitioning a building, as referenced earlier... You'll see lots of debates on here about Bay Area appreciation vs cash flow out of state. 

@Katie P. just announced a meetup in Oakland if you can make it. I'm in Seattle for the summer, but will be back in Sept. Hope to meet you then! Good luck Scott! :)

@Katie P.,

I will be in Seattle for most of the summer, but happy to put it up on my meetup ground and send it out if you want some more folks to come :)

I'll miss you all!
I recommend attending to anyone who can make it!

 You're too kind. 
Tiffany, how's it going? Tiffany, Jan, and Kevin,
join me on the way up with the top down if you want!
The summer evenings are so nice here :)

@Jen L.,

Glad you can make it! This 3rd Summit will be the best yet! :)

@Adam London and @Senika Levias,
The super-pre-sale price expires after tomorrow (Sat, 7/22), so jump on it if you want the cheapest ticket prices! Senika, jump in with Adam! Or Adam, share the event with your Facebook friends to get some more on board ;)

Senika,
I'm excited too! It's such a great group of people. Please reach out to anyone who's been :)
You'll hear the same ;)

Excited to be coming back to this awesome venue, with lots of space for networking, 2 speaking stages, and happy hour drinks!! ;)

@Johnson H.,

I'll be in Seattle for the summer, or would definitely come! 
I highly recommend this as probably the best group of folks in the Bay Area. (including my own meetup! lol)

Good luck with the SF deal Johnson. I'm sure there's no shortage of money out there looking for a home! ;)

@Troy Fisher, 

An hour from my Airbnb in West Seattle..!? 

@Elizabeth Colegrove, you want to go out there earlier in the day and hang out? 
@Stan K., I'm in Seattle. Whatcha up to? 

@Jocelyn Ahuja,

WEST OAKLAND - depends where you are, but definitely not Lake Merritt. 
Did you live on the Grand Ave side? Or Eastlake/International? 
If you lived on Grand side, you're up for some surprises! Eastlake, some spots aren't totally different. I used to live at 2nd Ave & International in Eastlake. Comparable to some areas of West Oakland. I don't like West St and some other stuff up there. West Oakland takes two steps forward on gentrification each boom, then 1-2 steps back again during each recession, talking with folks in the neighborhood. 

I have a LEGAL duplex in West Oakland near 32nd & Chestnut (bought w/ partner for 300K a few years back ;-). Not bad neighborhood. Still people shuttling recycling around in shopping carts, last I checked, but heard they were going to close down the recycling center. Not super dangerous, although occasional shootings - mostly crime on crime kinda stuff. Some debris dumping on streets. 

UTILITIES - Just call and ask the city what the current fees are for new meter (which can be a lot) - then can be even harder to "split" between the two units, if they're already wired jointly. 

I would not pay the normal market price for an illegal unit, because it is not as valuable as a legal unit. In a hot market, people ignore it. In a down market, it will be less liquid if you need to sell without a discount. 

I second @Calvin Kwan on having the tenant in an illegal unit. They can raise hell if they want to. 
If there is technically entry between the two (even if the entry stays locked), it's more or less back to a SFH.

Good call @Chris Mason on the financing piece. Not sure if/what lenders are ignoring the legal # of units..

RENT LEVELS
Also, remember that West Oakland gets the spill-over from San Francisco, so is a more volatile version of that.. Rents have gone through the roof in SF & West Oakland. SF is now softening on rents, especially on the high end. And $3,200 is definitely on the high end for West Oakland. With 50-100% increases in rents since the financial crisis, I wouldn't be surprised if some higher-price point rents give back the last year or two of 7 years of increases.. maybe give youself a little cushion on the cash flow.. 

I definitely don't love the deal paying that much for an illegal unit, but if you decide to do it, good luck!

@Michaela G.,

So sorry to hear this. I know you've been working for a while on this project, and bummer it didn't play out as you had expected. If you're still interested in giving it a shot, I believe you can do it. Feel free to give me a call (same number as when you lived here in the Bay - and on my profile) or contact @Al Williamson who would also have some good advice. I wish you would have posted earlier. I have several Airbnbs in the ghetto, and it's very different managing expectations, descriptions, etc.

For anyone that's experienced something similar and wants to hear some tips....

1) EXPECTATIONS, EXPECTATIONS, EXPECTATIONS - I have 3 Airbnb apartments in the ghetto. I used to live there. I know what's up. And I have a shared driveway there! So can't even keep the riff-raff from next door out. Top of description should include accurate description of neighborhood. There is graffiti (not murals - gang graffiti). Trash gets dumped on the street. When we receive a request, we repeat what's in the listing, and have them confirm they understand.  This is in Richmond, CA, just south of the BART station. 

@John Underwood,
I never would have tried this property on Airbnb if a former property manager of mine didn't insist. And she was right. I was shocked. It totally opened up my eyes to what is possible. 

- PICTURES - With professional photography, it can make your home look amazing with the right light, and create unrealistic expectations for a place that has rough edges. Consider posting non-professional pictures. Or have professional photographer tone down the "heaven lighting", and also take pictures of unfinished areas, damage, etc, so people don't just see the glowing, zoomed-out glamour shots. Like selling a used car. If you took photos of your used car newly waxed, in a photo studio, with no up-close pictures of all the nicks and dings.. do the pictures really match the expectations? 

2) REVIEWS - if you're nervous about your guests, check the reviews. The more nervous you are, the higher the bar should be for # of reviews, overall rating, and quality of individual reviews. A glowing review with details might hold more weight than several brief reviews that some host just pasted, or a boilerplate good review because they didn't want to leave a bad one. 

- ENCOURAGE GOOD REVIEWERS - Let guests up front know how important it is for you to earn their 5-star review. If they are likely to leave a good review, follow up with them to thank them for the brief time to leave a review to reflect their stay. Leave them a great review, then you can even copy and paste it and message it to them and let them know how much you appreciated them staying. Do not leave reviews for people that you dont think will leave a good review. They might think you are "pre-retaliating" and you don't want to remind them to leave one. 

3) PLATFORM - Try Homeaway/VRBO if Airbnb doesn't work. Look at one of the other 100 or so platforms. Different geographic areas, rural/urban, demographics, etc all play in to what works best.