All Forum Posts by: J. Martin

@Arlen Chou and @Julie L.,

@Ben Rice,

How's it going? I understand it can be frustrating.. but there are a lot of people crushing it in the Bay Area, despite (and sometimes because of) the high cost.

 I got started buying property in the East Bay from 2012 through 2014, and used lower-end rentals in Oakland and Richmond to get started with more cash flow, did a house-hack 4plex deal to start, networked to get a great wholesale probate deal for the least one, and a foreclosure and another one in between.

As prices got to be more than I liked, I started a highly successful furnished rental business in the last year and a half, and quit my W2 job at 31yo.

is a link to a post I wrote with links to other posts with more specifics.

There are also lots of folks buying good deals regularly and making good cash flow. You should read through posts from guys like @Account Closed 's podcast. @Jason Buzi isn't active on BP, but he's crushing it in the Bay ($1MM+/yr) still today... He'll be out at the Summit too..

@Jose Alvarado,

Welcome to BP! Funny... I own property in Oakland, but just got a rental in San Francisco! lol So we've switched!

 I house-hacked a 4plex in the East Bay for my first property, and own some buildings in East Oakland and West Oakland. I think the triplex owner-occ exemption is a great opportunity, if it doesn't get taken away.. You have a pretty good rent price in SF, but if you can find a property that works for you, it might be a good opportunity. Personally, I'm waiting until unemployment is high before I buy something else (unless I really love it!)

Regarding financing, I used FHA on the first house-hack, but I don't think banks were as loose on offering the 5 or 10% down then. Either way, I just barely scraped together the cash for the downpayment at 3.5%. To me, cash was very precious at the time, so I probably still would have paid the low downpayment and saved any extra cash I had.

I believe one of the big differences b/t FHA and low-down conventional is that FHA Mortgage Insurance doesn't go away any more (unless they re-changed it) - whereas conventional normally goes away after you get to 74.9 or 79.9% LTV.. whatever their requirement is..

@Chris Mason could give you a better comparison. He's a lender. I don't know all the technical details and tradeoff here..

What areas to avoid in Oakland?

- depends on what you're looking for. My best cash flow property that I wish I had more of is my property on 82nd Ave in deep East Oakland. I also own in West Oakland, which is more up and coming. But still spotty. If you're going to be living there, you'll have to think about for how long and what you're willing to sacrifice. A lot of people like stuff near BART, Fruitvale is up and coming, Eastlake is going to explode IMHO (I have some rentals near 2nd & International and lived over there), North Oakland / NOBE is already there (have some rentals near 55th & Genoa), as is downtown - uptown is getting "hipper" and a lot more restaurants and bars moving in (check out the hive). It's all a tradeoff..

- When to apply for pre-approval? Before or after I find a property?

Before!!!! Market is too competitive to screw around with that after..

@Eric Clayton,

"Unless your job is in the East Bay and you need to be in or around Oakland, I would avoid that all together."

Where's the love for Oakland Eric!?! lol It's blowing up!! Seemed like no one paid too much attention until Uber decided to move downtown Oakland, but anyway.. Send some of those Oakland wholesale deals you don't want over this way!! Contact info in my signature.

@Chris May pointed out more of the established "nice" places. Harder to make the numbers work there sometimes, but probably less variability in where they are going.. a little more "tried and true."

@Brent Tarnow,

Preach it!! lol I own there and have lived there. A lot of people that don't like Oakland have spent little or no time there.

@Amit M. has points too. Easy come, easy go for some of Oakland.... West Oakland is getting overheated and probably the best representation of what Amit is talking about IMHO. 100yr old duplexes split into 2 condos and sold for $500/sq ft apiece, with a project or people getting shot around the corner.. It's close to SF - and I think it will have a higher "floor" than the last crisis (probably won't go back to $100/sq ft) - but I think it will take a dip. We'll see when unemployment gets to 6, 7, 8%+..

@Jen Anderson,

Welcome to Bigger Pockets! SF Bay Area investors are very active on the site, and lots of meetup groups in the area also. I own in the East Bay, and have some other real estate interests in Silicon Valley. I house-hacked my first 4plex in Richmond, and there are lots of other folks doing it in the Bay Area. @Mel Selvidge helps investors find small rental properties to house hack.

I'm with @Starla Ballantine about networking. That's the way I blew up my business! Come out and meet some other investors! We're having a free meetup in downtown San Francisco next to the Embarcadero BART station on 8/11 and a huge Summit on 8/27 & 8/28 with a lot of the greats from the BP website here.. Meet the experts from the podcast in person!

@Engelo Rumora, still finding deals in Ohio..?

Check out the bigger pockets events page for our area..

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521-events-an...

Hope to meet you both in person soon!
Feel free to tag me on the forums if you have any questions :)

@Ryder Meehan

I'm just a small fry ;)
But looking forward to it!

@Alice K.,

Be nice!! lol

@Ryder Meehan,

Just got back to the Bay Area last night from a multi-month road trip across the country :)
I'll be out there to say hello to everyone. Happy to give my 2 cents, or just hang out ;) I don't invest in CRE, but have seen hundreds of these types of deals in my former line of work. Always interested in learning more also.

@Alice K.,

Just got back! When are you going to take me to lunch at your company?! ;p

I'm excited to be adding @Anson Young to the lineup to come and share at the Summit, along with 30 other awesome speakers!

We have everything covered from Flipping to Tiny Homes, Crowdfunding & Syndications to Out of State Investing, Private Lending, Mobile Homes, Self-Storage, Retail & Triple-Net Commercial Real Estate, Wholesaling and Marketing, and a whole lot more!

The last round of pre-sale tickets are available for the next couple weeks, and will be more at the door, so get 'em now! :)

www.sfbaysummit.com

@Nate Williams,

I live in the SF Bay (all over now!) and own property in West Oakland, East Oakland, Richmond, and have some interests sprawled down through Silicon Valley. Just quit my W2 job this year at 32, and have been traveling around the country the last few months. With the help and partnerships of people on this website! So that shows you can gain some more freedom by connecting with others and busting your ***! ;)

First of all, you came to the right place! Bigger Pockets is an awesome resource, as are so many of its members, especially here in the Bay. @Arlen Chou is another successful tech guy who launched a very successful real estate investing career when he set his mind to it the last couple years. He's been doing it in our backyard here. But lots of folks looking at Sacramento also.

@Al Williamson, @David Oldenburg, and @Tapan Trivedi all have meetup groups in Sacramento and are informed on the market, next time you can make it up there. We'll be meeting on for a free meetup with lots of BP and Meetup members (usually about 50 investors) - so that will be a bit closer if you can make it. Great place to get better connected and network with other investors deploying locally, Sacramento, and elsewhere..

Feel free to tag me on the forums if you have a question :) And welcome to BP!

@Tyler Holmes,

I BOUGHT a sweet wholesale deal from a wholesaler in Oakland. It's been a little bit, but it was a sweet one!!

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3039-Chestnut-St...

The Z-estimate is not right, but it's worth at least double what we paid for it I think! ;)

If you can come join @Sergey Tkachev and the rest of us at the Summit, that would be awesome! But either way, be sure to network with folks around you..!

 Hi Patrick. And welcome to Bigger Pockets! :)

The forums, podcasts, and people on this site are awesome. And a lot of great local investors around, investing both in and out of state. As Tim said, a few hundred of us will be meeting up in Oakland in August for a huge event. But we'll also be meeting up in SF on 8/11 with a smaller group if you can make it out.

@Beau Eckstein also has the REI BAR camp coming up in August, which will be an awesome time.

I definitely think it's all about meeting up in person!
But feel free to tag me on the forums too. I only own in the East Bay, but there are other out of state investors to chat with too...

Hope to meet you in person soon!

www.sfbaysummit.com

@Sarah Chung, it's on 8/27 & 8/28 in Oakland. Check out the website above.

@Shelly F., are you going to be able to make it?

Btw, the main BP posting for the Summit is here:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/30...

Hope to see you all there! :)
Awesome lineup of 30 speakers and a few hundred investors to network with and learn from :)