All Forum Posts by: Steve Graves

Congrats on your first deal!

Learn, learn, learn and keep on learning. I lost more than I'd like to share on here with my first investment property. I always joke that I could write a book on what not to do when buying your first investment property. It taught me many lessons and  all of my properties after that have great cash flow. I'll add that I just sold the property last month and it cost me 5k out of pocket to make the deal happen. Worst investment of my life LOL. If you're cash flowing well then you're way ahead of the game with your first property.

I emptied my 401k 6 years ago and bought a foreclosure. In the first 3 years I made all the money back that I took out of my  401k and have never looked back. Like someone suggested earlier, if the market crashes and stocks are cheap to buy I'll start up my  401k again.

Have you considered sub metering for the water? There's a lot of reasonably priced sub meters and I recall seeing a few that were smart meters so you don't have to go physically check the meter every month.

Make sure you don't add the late fees to  your amount due on your 3 Day Pay or Quit Notice. In California late fees are technically not supposed to be charged and if you need to evict it could cause a delay because most judges don't want to see any late fee charges added to what is owed.

@John Warren It does sound similar to what you're being offered. They take any tax incentives in exchange for no upfront cost or maintenance costs to me. I'm still doing more research on if this is a good decision or not and I'll post back here any more info I find out. I'm hoping that another landlord that has done this recently will see this post.

Yes, it does seem to be a discounted rate for the first year then it goes up 2.9% every year on my tenants. The more I look into it the more I don't want to be locked into a 20 year contract.

@John Warren It does sound similar to what you're being offered. They take any tax incentives in exchange for no upfront cost or maintenance costs to me. I'm still doing more research on if this is a good decision or not and I'll post back here any more info I find out. I'm hoping that another landlord that has done this recently will see this post.

Yes, it does seem to be a discounted rate for the first year then it goes up 2.9% every year on my tenants. The more I look into it the more I don't want to be locked into a 20 year contract.

@Stefan Pougatchev Yes, it sounds like a lease program but the salesman stated to me it's not a lease because they still own the system. Well, to me it sure does sound like a lease. I get no tax incentive, it all goes to them since it's their system. Thanks for the info on getting 30% off for the roof placement, going to look into that. I've been learning all I can about solar in the past couple of days and I've been reading the same thing you're saying, it's a much better deal if I buy the system.

Hi Stefan, the property is in Rosamond Ca so it can snow there but not too much and not very often. My main concern is wind. The winds in the desert can become really extreme and I've had it blow roofing tiles off. 

My main concern right now is it will  need a new roof in the next 2 years and I would have to pay for the removal and reinstall to Vivint.

My insurance agent is concerned about who is responsible for the damage if something bad does happen. Vivint claims they're insured separately and they would cover any damage caused by their system as long as it is because of their installation. My agent is also a friend and they were concerned that it could be a problem when selling the property if the new owner doesn't want to use it. 

They increase the payment to my tenants every year by 2.9% and I'm not sure if that's fair to them if it's more than what Edison is increasing their regular payments to.

Talking with Vivint solar right now about installing solar for all of my 4plex units. Talked to my insurance company and they don't seem too confident with me doing this. They have concerns about who takes care of any unforeseen damage that it could cause to the property such as wind, snow and other things out of my control. The payments go up 2.9% every year and it seems that it wouldn't be fair to my tenants but power from So Cal Edison goes up every year too.

What are your experiences with adding solar to a rental property? Good or bad?

@Bill S. Thanks, checked out airdna, looks like a good resource. I went to the other sites earlier today to get some numbers on what places are renting for but I need to know just how seasonal it is and how much the rates fluctuate throughout the year. I know it will rent fine during the summer but will it be enough to get through the winter months.