All Forum Posts by: Peter Sanchez

Yeah, we only accepted an in town booking once (their apt was being repaired) because we want to avoid people trying to rent our house for partying.  

We try to avoid new people (no reviews) because they have never used AirBNB so they may come with expectations that it's like a hotel and give us less than 5 star review.  The only 3 or 4 stars we have gotten have been from new users. 

People coming for a conference are the best.  They usually just come back to the room to sleep, don't make noise, and give great reviews. 

I don't know how he can work on a student visa.  W/r/t to renting to international students, it would depend on the circumstances.  When I was in law school there was a 1 year program (LLM) that a lot of international students came to the US to do.  It's $64,000 and international students can't get student loans, so if they have enough cash sitting around to pay $64k for that, I wouldn't worry about the rent being affordable. 

You don't have to reinvent the wheel. A lot of people started by flipping houses or the BRRR strategy. Then they get into buy and hold for single families, and then small multifamily and finally large multifamily.

The longer your track record, the more confident that lenders will be to lend you money.  Making money in real estate isn't as easy as people tell you, so they feel more confident lending to someone if they've seen them pull off the magic trick before. 

The Romans had an empire that lasted about 2000 years, that's a very long time when you compare it to the 200 years of the U.S.  In Roman law the judges didn't ask "does this make sense?" they only asked "does this work"?  

In Rome, they would make the architect stand under the arch he built so that if it was faulty, it would kill him.  It doesn't make sense because it could be that he did everything right, but the builder made a mistake. It also prevents you from learning from mistakes because one mistake and your dead, so you are extra cautious and use far more stone than is necessary to build a bridge.  So it doesn't make sense, but it still works.  The aqueducts at Segovia are 2000 years old and still standing and were still in use until recently. 

 Cash for keys doesn't make sense because you are rewarding someone for bad behavior and passing the problem along to society.  But it does work.  I don't know any big investor in a tenant friendly jurisdiction like California that doesn't use it.  It doesn't make sense, but it works.  Do you want to make money, or do you want to pick this hill to fight and die on?  

@Erin Auman most important thing is to not get discouraged and see things objectively.  How many of the improvements are "must haves" to get it rented vs "nice to have".  Can you repair some things vs replace them? Can you partner with someone with more experience and sell them half and that would relieve 1/2 the pressure on you?  And yes, get more quotes...and negotiate! 

@Alex Kamunyo congrats on the house and great work on locking in that rate under 4%.  Looks like rates might go higher, but you've got that set for the next 30 years and should benefit from that for a long time.  And the setbacks are a good thing, if it were easy then everyone would do it and you wouldn't make any money on it! (P.S.  YouTube is a rehabber's best friend!). 

If you want to go down this path and not end up in jail, then why don't you sell your property to your uncle for $275k, then...when he asks for his money back, tell him to go to hell.  That's a much simpler way to get your hands on the money and not commit fraud and end up in prison.  Your Thanksgiving dinners might be awkward for the first few years, but you've got a bunch of money and you're not a felon.  Win/Win (for you, not your uncle, obviously). 

@Adam Webb if you think it's a little under market (say $100), why don't you run a craigslist ad for $300 more than you're asking now and see if you get any bites.  Then do $200 and $100.  Maybe it's not under market, maybe it's under by a little, but if it's only slightly under market and you have tenants that pay on time and don't hassle you for small things, it may be worth it to just sit pat and keep things where they are. 

Sounds like a perfect Airbnb situation.  You get money on the weekends that you won't be there, don't have the hassle of roommates and, god forbid, late payments/evictions.  Plus, with Airbnb you wouldn't run afoul of the 1 year requirement, which you might if you left and rented the whole house.  You make more per day from AirBNB than renting so even though it's not rented all the time, it still might be close in terms of what you get vs what you give up. 

I saw this once when I lived in NYC.  A small time landlord that my dad knew had 2 gas meters, one that was the one from the gas company and one that he lifted from a work site where the building had been demolished. During the winter, he would switch out the official meter for his meter for 2 weeks out of every month and put back the official one before the meter reader came.  (I think they are electronic now, so it wouldn't work anymore).  He used to say that he was 50/50 partners with the gas company!