All Forum Posts by: Nabil Suleiman

@Benton S. Hi Benton, For now I would say any deal with a tenant in the home that does not want to leave or is not leaving before close of escrow would be a hard pass right now. uUnless you are calculating for an unknown number of months that the governor won't allow evictions of any kind, + 90 days on top if it when those restrictions are removed, + the time it may take to get them out through the backed up court system from the possibility of pent up evictions needing to go through, + depending on the judge, and how many years the tenant has lived there the $ they would ask you to pay to the tenant to move out. 

If all of that is still cool with you and you want to move forward you can look at Jaurigue Law Group. You are reading the Ellis law correctly, and I know people who have used it, but in todays times the paragraph above will overrule it until they lift those restrictions, and you would have to file and pay for both tenants to move out, then also you would not legally be able to rent it for two years so it really should be family living there. 

Anyways, If you can, I would put the responsibility not he seller, or try to write in the costs of what it will take to do the above into the offer you are writing. Good luck. 

@James Creech Has your realtor not suggested any? Many General Inspectors will do camera sewer inspections. CIA, Morrison etc. You can check them out if you have not already hired an inspector. 

@Lawrence S.

Hi Lawrence, when it comes to investing in LA the need for creativity is greater than going out of state and having the opportunity to purchase something and almost immediately have it cash flow (maybe some slight renovation). Though in LA there are a lot of opportunities, but of course the money involved is greater. 

There a lot of strategies out there from buying a single family home that may need some updates, renovating it for yourself and then doing an ADU in order to find that cash flow. (often times, it makes more sense to live in the ADU and rent out the front home for the cash flow). This has been a favorite strategy for myself and many clients I work with, either on the investor side or retail/ investor side (those buying to live but want to lower their monthly costs as well).

I have had clients do it with their duplex as well. There was a two car garage in between the two units and they are in process of getting that permitted for an ADU, plus there is space for parking for each unit so that of course was a plus in LA...Then going from there, depending on $ and your comfort with risk there are many more options out there.

In terms of neighborhoods, I would be remised to think there was a "bad" neighborhood in LA. It really comes down to what you like in a neighborhood, and what you look for. There are neighborhoods I favor over others, and I enjoy the tenants I have in them, Then there are some neighborhoods that are transitioning from B- neighborhoods to B+/A- neighborhoods. Though by taking something like that and forcing appreciation into it like the strategy I mentioned above would provide long term benefits and great tenants. 

Always open to dive deeper into the details, Hope you and the wife are well!

@Paul Wolfson I would check out goodschools.org to see what neighborhoods in TO are jumping out at you. Don't get me wrong I love TO, but in terms of higher grade schools consistently across the board, SCV will exceed TO. SCV has a lot of different neighborhoods that some people like more than others. But Newhall and Canyon country have some of the oldest homes in the area where it would be more likely you could find homes with detached garages. Additionally bang for your buck wise you will get more out of SCV then majority of TO. 

Side note: You may also be able to find parts of Saugus that will have some older homes but Im trying to think about which ones may have detached garages and none are coming to mind, but as you get further back down bouquet you may be able to find them.

@Paul Wolfson You may enjoy the school system demand in SCV more, TO is great but not all their school through all the grades. dealing with the city for your ADU In Scv might also be interesting, I don't know anyone who has done one out there yet.

@Doug Webb Seller financing if they own it free and clear, and you can have a refinance clause within 5 years for final payout if they wanted to spread out their gains but not hold the note for 30 years. Opportunity Zones if they want to invest their capital gains. or 1031 if they have another kind of investment they would want to transfer into. 

@Keith Washington

Hi Keith, Congrats on your success with wholesaling in LA. So my opinion is my own and of course dont have to follow it and I will do my best to answer some of the other questions you asked as best I can. I also invest in LA, but I did not go the house hacking route. I do own a few cash flowing properties LA only, and I continue to rent. Purely based on the fact that may be similar to yours, but I just did not need to own, and am comfortable living in a one bedroom apartment as my the more expensive properties are being paid down though my renters. 

Right now, lending practices have become pretty strict, and depending on how to cookie crumbles over the next few months to next year, they may become even harder. So if you didnt have anyone to cosign with you that has a strong W2, it could be a hard but not impossible goal to accomplish. 

I thin before looking at HML (and yes they do lend on 4 units) as an option you should look at passive investments where you could still make a great return on your money, continue to live in LA, and stay where you are now, or rent wherever you wanted to. I can tell you right now that hard money lenders have raised their rates, their LTV's, and their points to lend right now so I would tried softly, and would not want that to be the type of loan I would want to have if I had other options.

The other side to buying in almost all of CA right now is that evictions are not possible by any means, never mind rent control on top of it, but if you are adopting tenants in a 4 unit its not likely going to cash flow, and unless you have the ability to do cash for keys, and you have tenants willing to move then its another hurdle to cross. 

I am by no means staying this to discourage, just saying that you have more options to progress to outside of house hacking, and to explore how you can grow your investment portfolio in a passive and/or active way. Just build it around the way you want to live your life. 

@Jason Malabute

Thank you for sharing. 

@Dean Fiacco

I’m free, send me an email on a day and time and we can chat further. 

@Dean Fiacco

Hi Dean, I actually work with a team that is utilizing zoning in Los Angeles to tear down single family homes and use the existing zoning on those lots to build four units. No extra hoops to jump through. So far it’s one of the most appealing projects I’ve seen because of the timeline and the ability to submit plans over the counter work through that normal process and get approved.