All Forum Posts by: Ken Teng

@Melissa N. Can I ask where you get that stat of 2% growth? Is it the population or GDP? Wikipedia tells a different story https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati. The population grows 0.5% from 2010 to 2015.

First of all, the global estate market is in a big bubble. In hot areas, nothing cash flows. It is the same in the bay area, Los Angeles or San Diego area. You can still find cash flowing properties in underrated areas, such as Ohio or Indiana.

Second, cash flow is not the only option. You can speculate and focus on appreciation. However, you must get either cash-flow or appreciation or both. If you want immediate money, choose cash flow. However, true wealth always comes from appreciation with leverage. But this may not be a good time to bet on appreciation. I am not familiar with Quebec, but in USA we may have a correction in the real estate market soon.

It quite puzzles me that in Ohio big cities, only Columbus is gaining population, while Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo are losing people. Any insight on why?

@Kevin Fox I once took a quick dabble into the SD market. However I generally found the rent/price ratio is 1/200-1/500? Can you tell me where I can find a property with a ratio close to 1/100? I am happy to buy them, if they are not in a war zone. In Midwest, you can still find that kind of properties in B or C neighborhoods.

@Kevin Godinho Look in this Forum, how many investors from California want to invest in California? The high purchase IS the problem. The rent is unproportionally low.

@Stephani Dias Congrats on the deal. However, how can you use a FHA loan to buy an investment property? Do you live there?

@Dina Harleth So long as you can justify that these repairs are related to the satisfaction of a potential renter.

As long as you can justify the repairs as preparation for renting, it does not matter where you are during the repairs. IRS does not care.

I would think of carpet change as repairs. Home improvement is large projects that may affect the house sale price, e.g., building a new deck or pool.

Sometimes the boundary between repairs and improvement is blurry, e.g., replacing all plumbing to use copper parts. My two cents here are classifying those as repairs as much as possible. Because repairs can be deducted the very year, while improvements can only be counted during sale. Current money is always better than future money.

Lease binds the landlord too. What happens if you suddenly want to sell your property due to some reason? What happens if you want to raise the rent beyond the range specified in the contract, as the rent rises quickly? There are too much uncertainty down the road. Too long binding is a risk.

@Kevin Godinho If you want to look within CA, I would look at Fresno/Bakersfield/Visalia. Outside of CA, I will go to Midwest. Indianapolis, Memphis, Cleveland, Kansas City etc are very hot right now. You can look into the BP marketplace.

You do not need to worry about capital gain, because there is none. When you sell, there is about 10% related fees, that will wipe out your capital gain. In general, I recommend you holding onto your property, too. Frequent buy and sell eats into your profit. Also I guess you have a pretty good mortgage rate. I believe the house price in CA will go up in the long run.