All Forum Posts by: Lee S.

I'm with JD on this one, exactly how I do it.  I've already made my decision before I have them pay for a credit check etc.  I don't pull the ad until the lease is signed and money in the bank but I do let the perspective tenant know that the property is in high demand and we need to get a lease signed immediately so I can stop showing the property.  Rentals are hard to find where I'm at and mine are nicer than most, they rent fast.

The first one is tough, you can walk through with a contractor to get a number but realize they may underestimate the costs "to get the job".  Once you get the first one done you will have an idea and feel more comfortable moving forward.  I've done a couple now and one was pretty extensive.  I helped out with some of the work and was at the house almost daily so I could get a better feel for time and cost of each part of the rehab.  This made doing the next one pretty easy, I have no concerns about it now. I can walk through and feel pretty comfortable estimating the cost myself.

I got my license a few years ago in CA because I didn't want to worry about legalities if I decided to wholesale a property and I also wanted MLS access and I was tired of all the delays with agents and brokers when trying to get access or info on a property. I went with a discount broker and it worked great. I've not had it active for the past 18 months because I was focusing on flipping some houses out of state but I'm planning to start looking locally again. I'll most likely go back to the same broker but I'm talking a local broker in a couple of weeks to see if the extra cost and hassle will be worth it, I doubt it.

love all the naysayers trying to spin this great deal in a negative light, or at least diminishing it. I've done a couple of these so far and managed to get all my cash out. Yes, I left a lot of equity in them but I don't need it to fund the next deal or life expenses. My frustration right now is having way more money/funding to buy properties than I can find, however I'm not actively looking locally right now either. I don't care how you calculate the CoC, great job. I consider mine "infinite" and I'll take these types of deals all day long. I only plan to sell flips in order to fund more BRRRR's

For those looking for Heloc's or loans on investment properties, take a look at credit unions.  After seeing the above comments I was able to find one via google that will do 80% per their website, took about 10 seconds.  I need to do this personally so I can tap these cheaper funds to do flips and a lot less paperwork once it's established plus it's a tax write off.

hope this works out for the OP but I have a bad feeling about it.

I’m not sure how the price to buy vs build works out in the long run though.  I’m in “rural” California and I couldn’t build my rentals or my primary home for anywhere near what I can still buy them for.  I bought my primary for ~50% of its pre crash value as a short sale and it’s still 150k below that.

I'll take IRR on nicer properties all day long over war zone cash flow, especially if I'm thinking of passing the assets down to children.

didn’t have time to read the entire thread so sorry if this was already said.  Its all relative.  For a homeless guy sleeping on a street corner, the guy in the next block with a nice box to sleep in might have too much.

I’m comparison to a large % of people, owning one house is extravagant.

If you were buying 1000 houses as art and not letting people live in them, well, that would be a problem.

Glad this old thread came up, I had a house I wanted to call on.  Looks like I at least have a land line number, it's a start.

 Yup, that 90 minute drive every year or two when I get on a plane is a massive burden.  Nice explanation of "fly over country" though, doubt many would agree with it.  Funny seeing a #MAGA clown a train when your boy wants to build a wall....forgot, mexico is paying for it LOL.

We can all play this lame game.

water tax appears to have been pulled, I didn't know much about it but via a quick search I found this article:  

https://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water...

 95 cents a month!  really?  if that is going to put an investor under I think they may need to look into another activity.

As far as solar, do you have solar?  I have solar, paid cash for an 8kw system 7 years ago and it has already paid for itself.  have you ever done the math on solar in California?  Do you realize a buyer of a home with solar literally gets paid to buy the solar home?  Shall I do the math for you?  ok...

My solar returned better than 15% per year on the money I paid for it.  How much is the typical home loan interest rate?  lets go with 5% currently, though I think it may be a lower than that.  Do you see where this is going?  If I can borrow money at 5% and make a 15% return on that money....I'm making money off the extra cost of the solar added to a new home from day 1, meaning the additional mortgage payment is less than the amount I'm saving on electricity.  mic drop.

We can all point out things politically about the "other team" that we don't like and cherry pick.  How about this, where are a majority of the broke a$$ teachers that are striking?  Red states.

We can all go back and forth on political differences but in the end who cares, it's a real estate site.  If enough people dislike the state politics and costs and leave then things will get cheaper and less crowded.  I don't see it happening, and I couldn't care less about the people that are leaving, hasta la bye bye.

bit cities are IMO pretty comparable as far as culture, politics etc in most places in the country.  My comment referring to "fly over country" was tongue in cheek, I was taking the opposite political bias of some of the posters in the thread to make a point.