All Forum Posts by: Trevor Lohman

Wow that sounded like a sweet deal! No wonder it was picked up,

There will be another one though,

Good luck to you!

Looks like a pretty nice property!

I just bought a SFR out of state because I have just about ruled out local investing (I'm in the inland Empire as well) due to the rent to value ratios, but I'm super curious if you can find something that works at some point in the future.

Multifamily is becoming more and more interesting to me. 175k a unit just seems like a lot though for 1100 monthly rent. By the way, Is it normal to pay electricity? I don't see that too often but I'm sure it varies. 

Good luck!

@Tony Xu

Sounds awesome man!

Let us know how it goes. I'm in a similar boat as you. I'm in California looking at similar markets for cash flow. 

I don't really know too many people I could tell that I bought a rental across the country in my circle of friends/family without getting called nuts, so I'm excited to hear how it goes and compare notes. 

I just bought one in Indianapolis but was looking in some of the other markets you mentioned as well

Good luck Man!

Pay it off, 

no brainer. You'll be able to buy more real estate down the road with less stress looming over your head. 

Don't play around with interest rates and refinancing. Just get that thing out of your life! I'm not like a Dave Ramsey obsessed guy. I just think 180k dollars in loans changes the way you make decisions and will  postpone your ability to build wealth.

Pay it off and start working on your next real estate deal. It'll just be so simple and you'll feel good about it. If you think about it you'll be in a really great situation! You could have no loans with some cash laying around for your next deal. That sounds like a great situation. 

I wouldn't make assumptions about legislation. No way to know or predict what will happen. Even assuming you get forgiveness, I'd still sell it and pay it off. By the time those years are up you could have 15 properties or more (assuming you have a decent income from your degree) 

All just my opinion of course. Who knows what I would really do in your situation, but I think I'd pay it off. 

Good luck to you!

Thanks @Joseph M.

Haha it actually was fairly successful all things considered, and my wife and I got to go to lot's of cool venues and drink champagne so it was definitely a good experience. Hey you're in LA maybe I was there! lol

It just got to the point where working in our careers made more money than the photo booth. I'm in healthcare administration and I'm also adjunct faculty at a medical school. I remember I ran into a student at a wedding and they were like "what the hell are you doing?" lol. 

Anyway its a shame because it was kind of fun. Let's be honest though, just because I have a renewed focus on real estate which I believe will last this time, I know I can't change my nature. I'll be up to some new business venture again soon I'm sure. 

This time though the profits are earmarked to long term SFR rentals. I'm breaking the cycle!

Hey by the way, I'd love to hear more about what a fellow LA Basin investor is up to

@Miguel Jauregui and @Gilian Gegawin,

Thank you!

Miguel, glad I'm not the only one. Although from reading your profile you sound like you are on a much clearer path than I've been. Have been able to make a purchase yet?

Thanks @Account Closed,

That sounds like a great idea. I was having trouble finding 1% deals in phoenix, but I never really took a deep dive and connected with anyone out there who could have helped me. Just passive internet search stuff. I'll start looking into the area and the different people out there. I've been to phoenix plenty of times and its a nice city, haha I spent more time thinking about moving there and leaving the people's republic of california than thinking about investment property. Maybe its time to revisit that. 

This is a new member re-intoduction,

and a long one at that. 

I'm the type of person who gets interested in anything and wants to try everything. Life direction-ADD I guess. (If this sounds familiar I hope you'll read on, If not turn back now! lol)

So naturally a few years ago after graduating from school I became real estate obsessed. I read everything I could find and felt like I could tell anyone everything about real estate... but never bought any. (Other than my own house)

I had all of standard excuses running through my head. 

California is too expensive. 

I should wait until the market corrects

I need more money.

Out of state investing is crazy!

An MLS deal will never be a good deal

Cash flow on paper doesn't equal cash flow in real life

I'm too busy to think about direct mail, etc, etc 

The kernel of truth in all of these excuses helped me to convince myself I was being prudent and being smart by waiting until I had more money or more relationships or more of this or more of that. 

Well a couple years went by and not much had changed. I had learned how to sell options, how to remodel my house, how  to day trade, how to start a self directed ira, I started a Physical Therapy clinic, mined bitcoin, made a few websites, I think I may have even learned how to raise chickens/honeybees/ and grow organic vegetables. Oh and I can make signage and home decor with a CNC router table I bought.... and don't forget the rentable wedding photo booth... 

But still no real estate and no big fat bank account. See a problem here?  

I don't remember why but for some reason I popped back on the site and looked at some of my old forum posts. Haha I was a little embarrassed to be honest. I sounded like I knew so much and was right around the corner from pulling the trigger in every post! What was crazy was how little my excuses had changed over the years. 

California is even more expensive.

The market is definitely going to correct now.

I have more money but now I have way more expenses

Out of state investing is still crazy!

There are no deals anywhere

Cash flow on paper doesn't equal cash flow in real life

I'm way more busy now than I was then.

So, I decided to try something new, and that's to not try anything new. To just take a breath and focus on something I've already started. 

So I bought an investment property. Finally. What in the world was I waiting for??

Best decision I've ever made. Have I made a bunch of money? Nope, just bought it yesterday. Have I learned an immense amount of valuable experience? Nope. Just an out of state turnkey property that 3 days ago I could have easily talked myself out of. But it has changed everything... I've committed to something. 

This isn't googling how to make money passively online for 8 hours. This is committing financially and emotionally to an actual real life decision. I'm a real estate investor now. Haha okay okay. I bought a cheap house that's being professionally managed by someone else. I haven't exactly forged an empire that will create generational wealth. 

... but I evaluated a deal, made a pro forma, and decided this was a minor risk I could afford to take, but it feels so much bigger than that. 

Should I have found a way to do business in California? Maybe. Should I have worked on finding the deal myself and developed those skills? Probably.  But guess what, I can still do those things. Are some experienced investors reading this and predicting failure due to an unexpected maintenance issue, or failure to manage my manager? Most likely. (it's coming from a good place though I'm sure).

 The point is I did something and man it feels good. 

I went from planning elaborate 10 year strategies in my head, to actually talking about real estate with real people in real life (crazy for us millennials I know I know). 

I have no business giving advice. But if you see any similarities in yourself to what I've just wrote.... seriously, just buy something. Don't second guess yourselves for years because you're worried your friends and family will think you made a bad investment or don't know what you're doing.  

Take a relatively small risk, map out some exit strategies, and whether it fails spectacularly or succeeds tremendously I think it will be the best decision you ever made. Could I lose money on this deal? Maybe. I don't think so though. Personally, whatever happens I think I'll be happy I took this first step. 

Give it a shot and tell me if I'm wrong about all of this, 

Thanks for reading..

Trevor

No nothing yet, I suppose it wouldn't be too difficult to figure out, I just haven't moved past the casual interest stage of buying in arrowhead. Although I love vacationing there, beautiful lake!

 @Account Closed

Does anyone have any insight into homeowners insurance in these areas? I was told by a friend (who just heard this second hand) that homeowners insurance was pretty outrageous because of something to do with bark beetle and fire risk. I'm sure cost would be further amplified for a vacation rental.

Is this just a rumor? Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks guys!

Trevor