All Forum Posts by: Osazee Edebiri

@Darius Ogloza

I appreciate your perspective about the Bay Area and that someone paying $5000 a month rent is most likely to be easier on the rental house than someone paying much less in rent. I'm going to go with California on the appreciation. I'm a Bay Area and Midwest investor. With my California investor friends here, those of us who acquired the property before 2010 are cash flowing positive with fewer properties than my Indiana investor friends. My Indiana house went up in value about 70% ($110,000) in 7 years, based on comps from realtors and the non-stop calls I got with buyers lined up in 2020 to 2021. I'm going to guess from 2013 to 2020 any Bay Area SFH went up in value much more. The Midwest is landlord friendly and I've had great tenants. I would say it's a Class A neighborhood with a great suburban school district. I bought the house for a low price already upgraded with a low interest rate so I'm keeping it for now. My property taxes went up up more than 150% because I lost the homeowner exemption (I used to live in the house until 2018) so this is why the cash flow is okay but not great anymore. It took the county about 2 years to figure out that it was being rented out. There's no Prop 13 or anything similar in Indiana.

With the Bay Area, I'm reading the landlord-tenant laws carefully. I have a renter in my SFH that I know personally so I haven't had to deal with tenant issues so far To maximize cash flow, there would need to be roommates. I would say it's a Class A neighborhood.

I was leaning towards a Midwest property for my next rental property since price points for SFH or duplexes are high in the Bay Area, especially now with the interest rates. I've heard good and bad things about going further out to Antioch, Stockton, Modesto and up to Sacramento. My thoughts were if people are leaving the Bay Area for Stockton or Sacramento those could be good potential rental markets or is this not a good plan? Someone also suggested Las Vegas to me and do an AirBnb. Would I cash flow more in those areas than in the Midwest?

Hi all, I'm getting a three-bedroom place in Brooklyn (Greenpoint) and am going to furnish the full place myself (I took the lease in my name), and sublease the other two bedrooms for more than mine on 3-6 month leases to offset rent and maintain control of the design of the place and lease. 

Any advice or ideas on how I can have a proxy person to manage questions and issues the two tenants may have? I guess this would be a property manager, but I don't want to pay someone 8-15% of the monthly total rent ($4850). I haven't decided which website to go with, in terms of screening, application, lease etc (Apartments.com, Innago, Avail, Zillow > open to advice on what is the best). 

Would Avail, or Innago, or Zillow offer such a service? A type of customer support who can be a front face to the tenants so I as a fellow roommate don't have to? 

I've lived in a place in Oakland where one roommate was the "Sublessor", and when I found out I was subsidizing her rent (she earned a profit), I was pissed (maybe unrightfully so). I'm just looking to avoid bad blood where possible. 

Going to try to include in the rent once-per-week wash a fold laundry, free coffee, granola bars, oatmeal, pasta, a bidet, and other non-basic amenities. Open to suggestions there as well. 

Thanks for any thoughts.

Hello all!

I'm just starting out and wanted some advice on the best first investment given my goals.

I learned the fundamentals (from analyzing deals to financing strategies etc) in a BRRR program but then realized that a traditional BRRR wasn't ideal for me since I really need to replace my paycheck and quit my day job ASAP. I've been considering options like STR vs multifamily etc. and would really like some perspective from others with more experience. I'm based in CA but definitely open to investing in other states.

Thanks a ton!

The question is too broad as much depends on the business strategy associated with deployment of the $2M.  If the business strategy is to flip; how much and how many properties can be purchased and flipped for profit when $2M is deployed in the Bay Area versus another part of the country.  You can apply the same logic to holding property.  Also I would not compare states, I would compare cities.  

@Grant Nelson1031 exchange it and buy all cash out of state or do an airbnb depending on where you have connections/how much risk you want to take

Hello dear forum users,

I just came across biggerpockets and would like to see your opinion on the subject.

I am California based (San Francisco Bay area) and can't buy here (more than I already have) since the prices are over the head.

In the meantime I am looking to get some dual purpose real estate on the East Coast - to rent it out for covering expenses and to live in for a couple weeks a year.

Looking for the areas near ocean/beaches with good weather, so possible FL, NC or TX.

Budget caps for $240K with conventional loan for 15years.

I am now at the very beginning of looking around and I see the prices start falling so I can wait until the exact moment.

I greatly appreciate all your expert suggestions!

Thanks in advance!

 Another state that beats CA with 15yr Len's, there is about 42 of them, take your pick. 

Look, first and foremost, look at your median home price. It's so high, how much appreciation can happen? To argue they can considerably appreciate is to argue that wages can by 3x/4x national average in CA. Why would any co. with half-a-wit have there operations in a place where production cost will be a multiplier higher? 

Silicon valley is in process of relocation, along with countless other CA based operations for this exact fact. 

CA is arguably seen it's peak. There is a long list of major issues starting to pop up, water is just 1. Not to mention there is a very real probability that CA will no longer be "CA" in 15 yrs, very good chance it will be 2 separate states. It's at the final mile for this to happen and the water issue could be the final straw that breaks the issue. 

Countless other states that have a lot of growth happening, and on the horizon to come. CA, are we to believe it has another 30% growth over next 15yrs? How? 

@Osazee Edebiri  Agreed on many points but I think that speculation should be reserved for Vegas. Finding cities that have the largest number of engineer job openings is not sufficient. If that was the case then places like Santa Monica would be off the radar when we both know that is a great place. Learn from history as history repeats itself. Austin has been a job creating machine for many decades and not necessarily with engineering. I would suggest look at places where creative types like to go.

@Osazee Edebiri
If you're not able to invest locally or are not able to get the returns, you are looking for you should invest out of state. I would recommend looking in the Midwest. Columbus OH is a great place to start looking in the Midwest. It's a nice balance of cash flow and appreciation. Also, it has lots of job opportunities and population growth. On top of all that it's landlord friendly.