All Forum Posts by: Phil Wells

Your last sentence - 100% accurate. 

I like this comment and it's a very good point well made. Side note SXSW is on my bucket list still.

The article isn't about COVID 19 - it's about the WFH trend. I'm not suggesting people go live in a field but that maybe people might leave high population density areas in favor of a city suburb, a nearby small town, the beach, etc.

This is very true - there are still a large percentage of jobs like retail, hospitality, manufacturing, etc that can't be done remotely. 

That's a very interesting point regarding adjusted pay. People will have to weigh quality of life and see whether it makes sense to leave the cities. 

I think you hit the nail on the head with this comment. The highest priced, most densely populated cities are the most likely victims of this trend. I don't think for a minute people are going to go live in a cabin in the woods, but are people going to trade NYC for a place that's half the price but an hour outside the city, I think so.

@Joe P. I think you have a point with the rezoning to residential - there is potential there to seize an opportunity for sure. 

However, a major draw of big cities is work. With more and more people WFH now and the trend set to continue I think cities stand a good chance of becoming exclusively young, hipster, student centers rather than real prospects for people to live and work long term. Not sure there's much owners or skyscrapers or cities can do about that if the trend occurs.

An article recently published by Redfin highlights the current working from home trend. In a survey it's revealed that up to 1 in 4 newly remote workers expect to continue working from home after COVID 19 passes.

Imagine if you were paying $4000 a month in rent for an apartment in a major city with a strict pet policy and nowhere to park. Suddenly COVID 19 hits and you realize that all you need to earn money is an internet connection.

Almost overnight you begin to think it might be nice to have a house with a garage, some land, somewhere for a couple of dogs to run around and maybe even somewhere to start a family ... and also it might be nice to do all this for half the price of your current rent.

I think this is a real possibility but what impact will it have on the nations major cities? I'd love to hear peoples arguments for cities because I haven't seen much in the press of late.

Original article - https://www.redfin.com/blog/wf...

I am on board with this notion. I think a consequence of office space becoming less utilized will be that people will start to leave big and expensive cities. Maybe they'll return to their home towns to look after their parents in old age. Maybe they'll ditch their city center apartments for a 4 bed 2 bath home in the suburbs an hour or more outside the city. After all, all they need is an internet connection to work.

https://www.redfin.com/blog/wf... 

@Dave E. Maybe try reframing the discussion. Rather than saying, "Look at this ROI! How could you not be interested?" try saying, "Imagine not having to work anymore and being able to visit multiple countries every year, if our ROI is good enough we could do just that."

Worked for me lol 

VA loans are awesome. You can buy up to 4 units and are required to use the property as a primary residence for 1 year. After that you can live wherever you want.

It's a great tool for new and experienced investors alike, you're never going to find a better COC return than with a VA loan where the only cash you need to put down is the VA funding fee (some lenders will let you role this into the loan so you pay nothing at closing, that's what we did).

Good luck