All Forum Posts by: Matt K.

Quote from @Matt A.:

Any recommendations toward (or advice on how to find) a cost efficient general contractor to remodel/rehab/fix-up a 1 bedroom investment condo in Oakland, California (zip 94612)?

Since this condo is an investment, every $1 I invest into its remodel/rehab/fix-up must make it worth (way) more than a $1. I reached out to a handful of general contractors on Yelp and I did not get the sense they knew how to do work with this concept in mind; they seemed to specialize in remodels/rehabs/fix-ups where the owner will live in it indefinitely, in which case it would not really matter if each $1 spent made it worth over a $1 more.

The general contractor I'm looking for should also know cost efficient ways to make the condo look beautiful/luxurious, but hard for renters to damage. For instance, a marble countertop may look great, but it seems like marble is a somewhat delicate material a renter may easily damage without meaning to. I figure it is best to use a material for the countertop that looks like some sort of marble/natural-stone, yet is as damage proof as possible.

Thanks everyone!

 Message me I can likely help out

Quote from @Skylar Scott:

Hello,

I am brand new here. I am currently in the life insurance business, which has been treating me well. But  I really want to get into wholesaling. Any tips for beginners?

To much competition, you're going to spend an insane amount of time to find stuff off market.

There's tons of agents that are mailing non stop as well, not to mention all the media attention about how crazy it is to buy.

You'd be better off being a actual licensed agent and joing a team that's a good fit. Independent probably not the best idea because you're going to need the networking/mentor part...but depending on the product you've sold previous job if it was to high worth clients you could bring value to an existing team.

Quote from @Brandon Cristiano:

@matt 

@Matt K. appreciate your perspective and I'm finding myself thinking like you in regards to the lack of protection / risk of being a landlord in CA. Unfortunately for right now, my partner is receiving a gift from her parents and they are strong advocates against rent control areas. They have multiple buildings in the bay area, some in rent control but most in not and they are really driving us to invest in non-rent control areas. We are limiting our search to these areas for now. But my gf and I plan on investing out of state like you said to give us the cash flow we'd like to have in our portfolio. 

So invest in the bay for equity / appreciation and in the future invest out of state for the cashflow. 

 Do both like me ? Primary is in CA, this gives me the equity/appreciation but luckily I'm my own tenant in a sense...But, with the way prices are right now... There's some serious consideration to renting vs buying in lots of the Bay Area....but also the gift thing could likely offset that scenario.

Out of state gets me the cash flow to offset my mortgage/reduce my living expenses. Plus primary residence gets more favorable interest rates vs investment properties.

HELOC against primary gets you funds to be competitive out of state and you can recycle the funds over and over by paying it down faster. You can also get HELOC against the investment properties as well...getting you more purchasing power.

Realisticly most people don't stay in a home as long as they think they would on paper... Plus you then have tax free exemption and back up property to potentially move into if you sold the primary. You also have 1031 for the investment properties if you exit them

Went through extremely similar situation as you... Feel free to message if you want more details or talk shop.

Had a pretty unpleasant experience with CJ Real Estate. Was a minor issue, but easily avoidable and they were totally unwilling to make right on their mistake.

The short version is they had ample notification of a lease ending and scheduled the move out inspection about a week or so after the lease end. The problem being, I found this out on the last day of the lease from the Tenants....

I tried to resolve with an addendum, they were unwilling. Also asked for holdover per the lease agreement, again totally unwilling.

Reason this was big deal to me is I had e everything back in my name but didn't have possession of the property as the tenants still had the keys and needed to complete the move out.

CJ Real Estate basically blamed a holiday weekend for postponing the inspection even though they had ample notice before the Holiday weekend. They're also the ones that picked the date, not the tenants. I totally get the holidays can delay a report, but to me a professional company should not schedule a move out after the lease ends with out clearing it with the owner.

Complete waste of time dealing with them for something so simple and easy to fix. I can't imagine having to deal with them for a bigger less easy problem...

Quote from @Brian O.:

Quote from @Matt K.:

Feel like the people that want a flip don't want to wait or spend deal with a big project like this. They're paying a premium for the finished product, move in ready.

The people that want to do the flips themselves probably have their own vision for the project and likely don't value the plans too much.

Doubt it'd hurt anything, but highly doubtful you'd see much return on the money spent to get them

Yes I feel it that’s what I was thinking but given the housing shortage in the Bay Area people are doing things out of the ordinary. I was just trying to see if anyone has creatively been able to do a deal like this. Thank you for your input I take everyone’s input and criticism seriously no matter if it’s from an experience investor or beginning investor shoot even a 12-year-old kid I can take advice from I’m always learning! 

The out of ordinary is making things move faster/easier due to lack of inventory. To me at least plans are to personal and customized to be of value to really anyone other then who they were made for.

The average person gets overwhelmed by this stuff ....I've seen people walk houses because they were intimidated and lacked the vision to see how easy paint and flooring was and would of totally changed the house. They skipped it and ended up getting a home that was closer to being done how they wanted it.  Their reasoning was simple: we don't have time to do this, we just want to move in to a house.

Plus there's a good chance if they use their own contractor your plans going to get the blame for every change order or delay...

 All said, plans seem little value add and expose you to more risk with little upside.

Find a way to make the property easier to obtain (construction loans aren't easy to get) and faster/more streamlined delivery. Pitch that as your value add.

If you had the capability, maybe plans, permits, scope/bid from contractor, and project time line...all that bundled together might get some action... I'm seeing that a lot in market out of state. Big remodel/new build being marketed and sold before it's even done.

Feel like the people that want a flip don't want to wait or spend deal with a big project like this. They're paying a premium for the finished product, move in ready.

The people that want to do the flips themselves probably have their own vision for the project and likely don't value the plans too much.

Doubt it'd hurt anything, but highly doubtful you'd see much return on the money spent to get them.

Quote from @Justin Pierce:

@Jon Huber I just sent you message.

@Matt K. That's interesting. I've actually targeted the area around the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg VA. My daughter goes there and I'm paying $1,000 per month for her to share a tiny little dorm room. It's a real small school but it's near downtown Fredericksburg which I think is primed to grow and it currently has a lot of Traveling nurses and tourism so I can pay the higher prices because I have several options for increased rent: Home sharing, short term leases and vacation rentals.

You'd for sure get students and some these schools are seeing the need for nicer housing as they're coming from bigger metros and want something nice.

Vacation rentals I'm not sure of the success there. I'm actually exploring that option in a more rural town, but just judging by what available there doesn't seem to be that big of a demand. Football season you'd get people for home games and you'd likely be able to attract families visiting students but again I don't think it's that often.

If you want vacation rentals look at Branson, Lake of the Ozarks, and Eureka Springs.

Quote from @Justin Pierce:

@Mike D'Arrigo My reasons: 1- I own a big motorhome (Mobile office for tax purposes.) We drive I-70 to i-29 to pick up i-80.  I'd prefer to not have to go too deep into KC to check on properties.  2- Having properties that area helps solidify my tax write offs. 3- I general I like towns that are currently on the fringes of the big cities.  I think population is going to trend that way as people get more telework capabilities and as cities become more expensive and high in crime. 4- I specifically like Sedalia/Warrensburg because of the Air Force base.  I've visited it numerous times. 5- I appears I can hit a basic 1% rule in those areas so I don't bleed to death waiting for the sprawl to reach.

I do also very much like Lee's Summit and Blue Knob.  I'd jump on a good deal in those area.

 If you going the smaller route, look up Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association.  These are smaller schools DII, but still have good size student population in these towns. It'll give you more options similar to St Joe or Warrensburg.

My biggest challenge with these areas is that they're big enough to be tempting but not big enough it'd be worth building a team in each one and they're a bit to far to be included in the relationships I have in KC (on a consistent basis).

Also things are different in these small towns, take all the stuff from big cities and condense it down. Things like "bad areas" by reputation can make things harder then it needs to be based on limited residents. Or certain areas/streets will be ultra competitive because it's one of the few most people would buy...

message me if you'd like been in KC while and familiar with the smaller rural areas somewhat.

Quote from @Brian O.:

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

something not right there ..  never ever heard a lender say they would not lend if permits were required usually the opposite.. is this Marin as in Marin north of San Francisco ?

if so there are many HML s available to you in the bay area.

Yes this is Marin county and yes I have explained to my partner that bringing the house up to speed with some light cosmetics can still command high purchase price given its location even if it was a duplex. I acquired the property way under value with problematic tenants inside the tenants been putting up a fight for the past year or so I just so happen to come in right as they were leaving. I feel I would even get more if I resold it with no cosmetics and no Tenants. 

 Wouldn't you still be able to do that now since it's vacant but keep it a duplex?

In other parts of the country selling half duplex is a thing, wonder if it can be done in Marin? I'd imagine you probably have a good chunk of people not wanting a condo/townhouse but would settle for a duplex just to be in Marin. You could likely see a good volume of competition due to being lower price point (at asking) and have up to 2 units to sell.

Sell her the property she's renting and 1031 out of state