All Forum Posts by: Orion Walker

Hi @Paul Burrowes. Are you looking at doing any Zero Net Energy projects? A friend of mine is a project lead on a ZNE project in the Santa Cruz area. As I understand it all new developments in CA will have to meet that standard by 2020. I have an interest and background in sustainable design. With Ca policy driving toward AB 32 objectives, Title 24 updates, solar continuing to boom, electric vehicles hitting mainstream, Tesla battery units, water concerns... seems like there are a lot of interesting elements to consider with new development. Are you seeing ways to do cutting edge developments where the numbers work?

Cheers

Hey @Eric Thompson, I'll be interested to hear what you decide to do an how it goes. I have an inherited tenant that is a couple hundred under market rent. I keep putting off raising the rent thinking I'll do it when I get a chunk of time to deal with things if it causes them to move out. But I should probably just raise the rent. Do check on laws. I'm pretty sure in California you can only raise the rent a certain amount at one time. 

Hey @Brie Schmidt, you sure have been busy. It was clear at the meetup in SF that you were rockin at a new level, but wow. Awesome to see how quickly you've turned the corner. My wife and I continue to be very inspired by your successes. We are on track to hit 10k gross rental income here in the next couple months. This motivates me to keep on pushing and see what we can do in the second half of the year. 

Have a great Euro trip.

Inspiring as always @J. Martin, I really like the idea of the neighborhood volunteering events that you've started organizing. Hope to make it down to one of those before too long. And I think I'll try something like that up this way at some point. 

Lately I've been so busy on deals and job and family and life and such that I haven't been on BP as much, but you keep reminding me that I should not underestimate the great things that come from being a part of this community. 

Look forward to meeting up again soon. Keep on rockin.

Hey @Carl Todd, I'm up the freeway a little under 2 hours in Ukiah. I've got a bit of flipping fever lately myself, though so far anything I've been able to get into I haven't wanted to let go of. It does seem like a bit of a risky time to go big on flipping in the bay area as there's a lot of talk about being back up near the top of the cycle. 

Best of luck. I drop in on some of the re events down there when I can. great folks. see you around.

Hi @Jacalyn Macy, welcome aboard. As J mentioned, I'm a norcal investor a couple hours west of you over in Mendocino/Lake County area. I've found this online community to be very helpful. I recommend setting up keywords so that you get email notifications when folks are talking about your area/interests. I also find this helps me continue to stay engaged over time. I also recommend reaching out to folks and meeting up in person. 

Cheers

Hi @Dominick Hayes, don't become one of the many who get all fired up and then get distracted or discouraged and then a couple months later drop off BP never to be heard from again :) 

Couple ideas for getting rolling: 

find other real estate investors in your area. Talking to a few folks in person helps bring reality to what you are reading about/listening to on BP

Go talk to some mortgage lenders. Find out what info they need to prequalify you for a loan. Get an idea of what your current options are in terms of what you could buy with 3-5% down. Learn about 203k loans and Fannie May Homestyle loans. If you feel comfortable starting with a fixer that can be a great way to get into something for a good deal.

Sign up on Zillow to receive daily updates on what is coming on the market in the area(s) you might be interested in. Get a feel for the market/prices.

Ask around among friends and family or other investors to find a good agent to work with

Check your credit and see if there is anything you can do to improve it if needed. 

Get a basic understanding of numbers that will lead to cash flow on a 2-4 unit property

Start looking at properties and running the numbers. 

Don't be afraid to jump in. You'll learn more by getting into something than by sitting on the sidelines. 

Best of luck getting rolling.

Try AAA or Farmers. I've insured a couple places through them without visual inspections. 

Nice success story J. You've definitely been setting a great example in terms of maximizing efforts on multiple fronts and not holding back. 

I've been a bit overwhelmed lately with a rehab, an escrow, the 9-5 gig, a start up project, the kids/family... But your posts are firing me up to keep pushing forward to achieve more than I think is possible. 

As for your analysis, the trend data looks pretty compelling, but then I think you also really have to look at psychology/sociology for some answers too. RE investors are always preaching not to get emotionally involved, but I think the vast majority of regular folks do (myself included). Houses and buildings are different than stocks, they have character, they exist in communities... People get attached to them, people get excited and overbid, people do all sorts of irrational things, especially when markets get crazy. So I think the data can take you so far, but then you need to factor in human nature, and that gets tricky.

Back on the motivation front, I'm pulling out my old copy of GTD, organizing my projects and next steps, and looking for opportunities to turn things up a few more notches. Keep rockin it. 

Thanks for taking the time to do/share this detailed analysis @J. Martin. Wish I could make it down to the SF Meetup this week to yack with you about it in person. I had a great time last month. As for your conclusions from the data, seems like sound thinking to me, but I'm pretty new to this game. Hopefully some long timers will jump in with some thoughts/reactions. I wonder what the implications are for up my way, 2 hours north of SF, 1 hour north of Santa Rosa. Off hand I'm thinking we tend to have a delayed reaction up here, so maybe a longer window, but on the other hand I would guess we are slower to rise, but maybe fall just as fast. 

Anyhow, thanks for sharing your analysis. Interesting stuff.