All Forum Posts by: Sean Walton

Revit is awesome and becoming the industry standard but probably much more than you need for simple flips. It has a steep learning curve. What I see as great value is material takeoffs can be done quickly. You can produce rendering to sell your project to investors and buyers. Maybe find an architecture student or recent grad interested in REI. Sketchup is probably perfect for what you want.

Welcome to BP. I grew up in Santa Cruz. I think it is a tough place to get cash flow from right now unless you are doing short term rentals.

29% seems high for management. Pillow in San Francisco quotes 15% but maybe that is subsidized by VC money? I've been happy with homesuite but Airbnb gives me way more bookings for the same or better price. For furnishings look to thrift stores for dishes, cutlery etc. After the first person stays at your place it is all "used" anyway. Get good quality sheets that will stand up to all the washing.

Hilsen If it says for sale the listed price is the price. There will be some other expenses like home inspection and if you are getting a loan there will be an appraisal fee and loan origination fees. If it says off market or estimate that is their very rough guess at what it would sell for but those guesses are often off by 20%

RingCentral includes faxing out for free but I don't think you can receive faxes.

I would look into scratched or dented new fridges or slightly used ones. Call around to appliance stores.

New fridges are a lot more efficient than old ones which may not raise your rent but it will give your tenants a little extra money at the end of the month and make them more likely to renew with you.

As to white or stainless I would see what you can get scratched or dented but not spend a lot more for stainless if the rest of your market has white and the dishwasher is already white.

@Lorenzo Ferdinands what 9 months of the year are you looking to spend in the US? 

I think you idea of around convention centers is great. This worked well for my in SF before the regulations changed. Part of why it worked so well is relative shortage of hotels. In larger markets that may be less the case but there are people who prefer a furnished apartment over a hotel so they can cook their own meals.

There are companies like Pillow that specialize in managing airbnbs but I have never used them. there is also airdna for checking typical occupancy rates in markets but I've heard mixed reviews on how accurate they are.

With airbnb you live and die by your reviews so be sure to have great cleaners and systems in place. You may be able to do a lot remotely these days with wifi smart locks but I would still want a trusted manager or friend to check periodically on cleanliness and if linens need to be replaced.

Hi @Tyler Scott welcome to BP. 

If there are a lot of people in your market you can spend a lot of money on marketing before you find a deal. I've spent about $4000 so far with no deals. I have more money than time so I'm not doing things you can do such as door knocking, driving for dollars, cold calling. If there is no one else in your market wholsailing or marketing for off market deals then you can spend a lot of time and money educating your market that it is socially acceptable to sell at a discount to you.

Some states are cracking down on assigning of contracts if you have no intent to close on the contract if you can't find a buyer it can be considered brokering without a licence. Do some research into this. i know California only allows you to assign 8 contacts per year. You may want to get your real estate license as a way to avoid this issue but then you need to disclose to the seller that you have a non-agency agreement with them. 

You are young and have a lot of time. I would say keep educating yourself. Listen to all the podcasts on wholesailing and flipping. Learn how to determine repair costs and ARV. Gurus get a bad name and don't pay anyone more than $1000 for a course or promise slices of your first deal but there are some good programs out there. Check out the BP reviews of courses/gurus see if any sound appealing.

Try and see if there is anyone in your area doing what you want to do and offer to bird dog for them if they'll show you the ropes.

Welcome Vinay! Depending on if you are an accredited investor will determine which crowd funding platforms you have access to. I know there are some meet-ups regularly in San Jose you should try and get to.

@Account Closed the saying all real estate is local holds especially true in California. There is a big difference between the best neighborhoods in San Francisco and even the marginal neighborhoods in SF. Some places in California had a big run up in prices before the crash in 08 but I would think the more remote rural areas were similar to parts of the midwest that showed more steady sustainable grown

It may still be possible to find cash-flowing properties in Sacramento and Stockton. There are also other ways to get cashflow through airbnb and short term rentals where a traditional rental would break even before taking appreciation into account. Although laws can change quickly so I would not only count on STRs

You need to decide for yourself what makes sense. If you've got a great paying job that you aren't in a rush to leave you can stand to break even cash flow wise and hope for appreciation but personally I wouldn't do that in a market that has already recaptured it's peak value.

For looking at boom and busts you can use Trulia to go back at least one cycle. I would try to look at more specific markets not California as a whole and try and find a resource that shows a few cycles.