All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Pflueger

@Gopinath Chandra

Check out this thread - it's not all about Modesto but it gets brought up and it talks about the general area you are thinking about. I found it really helpful and insightful. 

@Matthew Noble

I am sorry to hear about your lending issues, this sort of stuff is incredibly frustrating. You can absolutely challenge/appeal your appraisal, although bottom line, the bank makes the call on whether or not they want to push your equity line through. 

Who are you going through for your line of credit? In my experience, working with the larger banks has always been hard so I usually try and work with a credit union or small/local bank who really understands our area - this is key.  

I have a similar propery to yours and the appraisal and HELOC I got for mine (in the last 6 months) was no problem, however I had an excellent, local loan officer who really went to bat for me. I will PM you his details.

This is also a great thread for @Chris Mason. 

@Marcy Moyer

I couldn't agree more. I am now looking to have my wealth accumulation needs met just like you! I love our market, it makes me a little apprehensive at times but overall I wouldn't choose to invest anywhere else at the moment. 

@Robin J.

To be honest I am still trying to figure out "the right metric" for real estate in the Bay Area myself. Our part of the world is very unique and vastly different than 95% of the rest of the country. BP is great, but a lot of the information/metrics (ie. 1% rule, 2%rule, etc..) are just not valid for where we live. In fact, most people would recommend that small time people or new investors go out of state and seek "easier" / "safer" investments. To be honest, whatever metric you decide to go with depends 100% on your situation. I will try and explain my "metric" for what I am doing below and maybe that will help you. 

Currently I am playing the owner occupant strategy. When my wife and I were looking for a house in the Bay Area we were told time and time again that we would not be able to find a cash flowing property to owner occupy, much less something we could get at a discount. This was largely true and while I still believe such deals are possible we adjusted our goal (metric) slightly. 

Before we bought we were paying $3,750 in rent every month for a 4 bedroom house (way bigger than what we needed but that was all that was available in our area at the time). I looked at our finances and realized that our single biggest expense, by far, was our house and I decided that wherever we moved I wanted our next place to pay 75-100% of our mortgage (PITI). In other words, my metric (and this is very basic) was that I wanted to eliminate 75-100% of my housing costs.

After extensive research and hard work we ended up buying a single family residence with an attached in-law unit, and an additional detached, legal, 2 bedroom guest house. We were even able to get the property at a significant discount. When all was said and done the rents from the in-law and guest house cover nearly 100% of our PITI. Since we are owner occupants we were able to take advantage of amazing financing, best of both worlds.

My point in all this is, in our area, your metric completely depends on what your strategy is. I realize that you are looking for some sort of IIR or COC but I am not as sophisticated as that yet and honestly I'm not too sure that completely applies to our situation all the time.

@Tyler Till

Welome to BP Tyler! Congratulation on your home purchase, BP is definitely the place to be for anything Real Estate related. Get active in the forums and you will learn and meet people that will only enrich your investing career. 

Best of luck.

@Jacob Allen

Welcome to BP Jacob, you made a great decision. Stay connected in the forums, they are are wealth of knowledge and networking. 

Welcome to BP Jessie, this is a great place to learn and connect with other Real Estate peeps! 

@Francois Acosta

@Mike Bargetto

@Marcy Moyer

@Robert DeForge

Francois, the meeting went very well and we are going to set up an informal meet-up very soon (in the next week or two). I am looking for a place, most likely in Scotts Valley, that will be able to accommodate everyone and provide a good environment for talking. I was thinking a local restaurant that has a "meeting room" they will let us use or something similar. 

I will update this board again this weekend with a place and time.

@Calvin Kwan

Wow, you really did an amazing job with the kitchen. The quartz look is awesome and really goes along way. 

Where did you purchase the quartz counter top, I am interested in doing something similar?

Thanks for sharing!!

@Jared W Smith

Welcome to BP Jared, this is a great move towards your desired goals. I would encourage you to become really familiar with all the forums, post, contribute, and read - you can't go wrong there. 

Best of luck