All Forum Posts by: Lee Ripma

@Devin Wilson

Welcome! I'll PM you what I'm looking for! 

@Philip Lanza

Hi Phil,

If you're looking for 3k a month passive I wouldn't waste time buying TK SFH. Just buy a few turnkey smaller apartments in cash-flowing markets. These are not actually sold by TK companies but they are available from commercial brokers. You can easily buy renovated apartments and then hire a PM company, or (better yet) your own in house manager, to run them for you. You could probably find cash flow in Modesto or Fresno. It might not be quite as high as in some of the mid-west markets but you'll be close to them and may even get some appreciation. That is what I would do anyway!

Lee

What's your goal and how much capital do you have?

If you PM me the address I'll send you the agent pro247 property report for it! 

You want cash flow, so I guess your "problem" is that you don't want to put 20% down (really it's 25% unless it's SFH) on lots of properties to get that cash flow. Let's say that you want to have 10k a month in cash flow in 10 years and you're buying SFH. Each one you buy gets you 200/mo in cash flow BUT it also takes 20k to close so 20k per 200/mo per door. In that scenario you're going to need to 1M to put down to get your cash flow. Is that the sort of problem you're talking about?

@Christian Konn

So I don't want to shoot down your dreams but building in the City of San Diego is really quite a challenge. Those shipping containers won't be up to the municipal code and you can't use them to develop. Not sure if you're talking about raw land or tear-downs but either way take a look at redfin and see the kind of prices that lots are going for. Before a project even gets off the ground you're going to have a ton of "soft" costs including environmental consultants like me. I think building with shipping containers is cool but the City of SD isn't the place for it. 

Since you're a skilled plumber you might be able to offer your services to someone flipping houses for the cost of your materials so you could learn-that seems like the best place to start your SD RE education IMHO!

Alexander Parada What's YOUR goal?

@Anita Ahuja

I was in the same boat about 6 months ago, knowing I wanted cash-flowing RE but not knowing which location to choose. I didn't have friends/family in areas that were good for cash flow investing so I just went through the best markets that you always hear about on BP. KC, MO, Indianapolis, Cleveland, etc. Without any ties I chose KC because my partner likes the football team. It's a silly reason but I needed a way to narrow it down. Once we chose KC I dove in to learning about all the different areas, read all the BP posts on zip codes to focus on, did lots of internet research. Then I found a deal, looked for partners for PM and renovations, flew out and met the partners. I ended up losing that first deal but landed another one while visiting. I closed on 6 units (duplex and fourplex) in March. Working through renovations now with my local partner and then will refi. All the problems that people talk about with distance investing are real, however, I don't find them insurmountable. 

If I were to do it again I would just buy commercial residential to start. I don't want to deal with smaller multi's and certainly not SFH. If I were you with 200k liquid I would look for a small apartment building that needs some cosmetic work. I'd try to pay in the 400k range and have no more than 60k in renovations. For that price you could get something small in a decent B-/C+ area. So instead of trying to scrape by with 150/mo in cash flow from a SFH you could buy a 6 unit with 900/mo cash flow. You'd also be able to get at least some of your capital back if you did value-add. What I just described is exactly what I'll do for my next deal.

There are also ways to get cash-flow in CA but not with long term rentals. So you could do airbnb. Or you could do something within driving distance of the bay that cash flows: Sacramento, Yuba City, Reno, etc. My parents run a profitable vacation rental outside of Yosemite in Mariposa. So while traditional buy and hold won't work for cash flow you can get creative. CA is an appreciation market-so if you can get in and wait for a long time you'll get a ton of appreciation. Appreciation beats cash flow any day, just do the math. If you have one SFH that cash flows 150/mo for 30 years that is 54,000. You could get that in a year in CA. So that is why appreciating markets have a higher ROI than cash-flowing markets.

For out of area investing I think you can find a lot of markets that will work. It's all about getting local folks you know and trust and building relationships with them. 

Good luck! 

I've had terrible experience with this company in KC as well. They also canceled my policy. I just got a new one with REI guard. Feel free to PM me for my agents contact-so far nice and responsive and less expensive than shelter!

@Eli Altman,

I don't know about the additional soft and hard cost of the build-so I'll let someone else answer that one. Seems possible to do it within that budget because it sounds like you've already got most of the infrastructure to the pad. You could get a quote from Kithaus for the delivery and install and see if the pad you've got would work for them. 

The shipping container would not be up to code so it wouldn't add any value to your property and would technically be illegal. However, that doesn't preclude it from generating cash flow!