All Forum Posts by: Trevor Lohman

If you're looking to make your own website in addition to airbnb I really like wordpress. Squarespace is good too but I like wordpress more. There are lots of plugins you could use for booking clients I imagine. Or use a third party service like square in addition to wordpress.

Trevor L.

I like Arrowhead a lot more myself so I'm leaning that direction as well. I'll look at numbers in both places just to be sure though.

Thanks for the advice, and yea that sound awesome! Mind if I ask who your realtor was?

Wow!

I was not expecting this much awesome advice. I think I have jotted some notes down from each or your replies so thank you very much. Glad to see so many fellow southern california people in similar positions.

@Ali Boone Originally I was looking at Lake Arrowhead, after talking to some realtors who are also investors up there I'm now looking at both Big Bear Lake and Lake arrowhead. I've been told big bear is less seasonal because it has the lake in the summer and ski resorts in the winter, where as lake arrowhead is 20 minutes away from the closest ski resort. I personally enjoy lake arrowhead more, and don't mind driving 20 minutes to ski, but I imagine as a vacation renter you're going to pick the place thats ski slope adjacent when looking on airbnb. 

I have a lot to consider, and I plan on doing my due diligence, but it is really great to hear that what matters is the deal, and not whether I'm renting or not. 

@Bill Larsen will do. I factored cleaning into my "college" math but I need to put some better numbers together and meet with some other investors before I'd feel comfortable with anything.

@Susan Gillespie I'm going to go check out your blog right now, sounds awesome!

@George Fitz Exactly! It's crazy out here. I'm in Newport Beach now, but am looking at places in Tustin and orange. Just having trouble since I have a dog. But yes that is the goal. Glad to hear you pulled it off, hopefully I'll be there soon.

Thank you again for all of your insight everyone. I'll be back with more questions once I have some numbers and ideas together.

Thanks guys!

Trevor

@Elizabeth Colegrove 

Thank you for the affirmation, excited to see your site in a couple of weeks! 

Trevor

Hi Everyone,

Here's the deal. I really want to buy an investment property.

In my area, what really makes sense (at least to me) is a vacation rental. What's great is that one of the nearby areas that is great for VR's actually has some of the most reasonably priced homes. Not because the homes are lower quality, they are just less expensive. (its a lake resort area in southern california). I've spoken to property managers and lenders, and with conservative estimates I believe I would cash flow 300 per month using the lower end of their occupancy range. 

I see this as not just an investment but as an education that may pay me to learn. I will make sure I have reserves and can comfortably pay the mortgage.

Okay so that's all great. Here's the (maybe) problem. I'm a renter.

I pay 2200 a month for a little micro one bedroom apartment. Everyone thinks I'm crazy for buying a rental before my own house. Granted the people giving me this "advice" are more or less broke and are not investors. Still though, their point is well taken. I feel crazy buying a rental first. The problem is that I can't afford a home in my area, or even 30 minutes away from my area. I do however have a 25% down payment for a house in the 150k range which would comfortably buy me a nice vacation rental about 1 hour from my current apartment and leave me with an emergency fund and mortgage reserves.

If I want to keep my current income (which I do) I need to stay put. The geography in my area is such that in order to work in this region you pretty much need to live here or within 20 miles of here to work here. At one point I rented a home only 40 miles away and it was a 2 and a half hour commute each way.

So given all of this info, is it reasonable to purchase an investment property as a renter? If a deal makes sense should it matter if I am a home owner or a renter? Will it hurt my ability to obtain financing significantly? Where I live it would be miraculous to satisfy a .3% rent to value ratio, so investing here really doesn't make sense. Plus if I could afford to do that I would likely buy a owner occupant property first anyway.

Now before anyone tells me I can find a home in my area I can afford... well I believe you. But trust me when I say I have tried. I've found some condos in the 500k range with 400/month HOA dues. I just can't do it! Yes there are affordable areas within 50 miles or so... but like I said, the commute is almost too bad to consider.

I'm sure I left some info out, so please ask any questions that would be helpful, and feel free to tell me I'm crazy, my family already has! lol. I appreciate any advice anyone has offer. What would you do?

Thanks for the help BP.

Trevor

I had a question for the brokers out there... 

I'm currently taking the real estate salespersons courses. I enrolled in these not because I wanted to become a full time agent, but just because I wanted the knowledge. I'm learning a lot, and although I hadn't intended originally on actually working as an agent, I'm now questioning this a bit.

I'm wondering if there are positions out there at a real estate brokerage for some one who is already working a full time (non-RE) job somewhere else. I wouldn't expect to get any listings from the broker, I would just want to help out others. I could do things that require a licensed salesperson that most licensees don't want to do, or could use assistance with. Obviously I wouldn't be super concerned with the pay. I'm looking at it as a way to retain the knowledge I gain from becoming licensed, and a way to get some real hands on experience.

Is there a need for such a thing? It seems like someone might have some use for a person like this... I've seen positions for "associate/assistant agents" on redfin, I imagine this would be a similar concept to what I'm talking about. @Ed Wood , I noticed your company is right down the street from me, have you heard of anything like this?

Thanks for any insight! Really appreciate any advice or feedback, thanks guys.

Trevor

@Tim G. I'm looking for a buy and hold property. Always interested in hearing about deals.

Take care guys,

Trevor

Hi All!

Just curious if any one had any experience investing in the Palm Desert area or surrounding regions. It seems to me that it is better suited for purchasing vacation rentals, but am curious if anyone had access with a more traditional income property set up there. 

I'm out in orange county and am trying to find somewhere where the prices are more "reasonable" That's pretty much the inland empire, High desert, Palm springs/indio area, or moreno valley and south. All these areas are pretty far from me... but I have the hunger!

Has anyone had success achieving the 1% rule with MLS properties in these areas?

Thanks for any feedback!

Trevor

I use Mac because I like the OS,

If think you'll like whatever you're most familiar with, but I do think it is worth giving the Mac OS a shot if you haven't tried it.

As for the whole PC's are cheaper thing, although technically true this is a bit of misnomer i think.

Mac does not make a lower end model. If you compare specs of most mac machines with similarly equipped PC's you'll find them to be pretty close in price. I just purchased a Macbook air with 8GB ram, independent intel 5000 graphics card, intel I5 processor, and 256 gb Flash drive for under 1000 dollars (with an education discount). The mac also comes with good video, audio, and photo editing software, all of the office software, and it looks pretty cool imo. 

Sure you can say a chromebook is cheaper than a macbook, but they're not really the same thing.

I imagine a small PC laptop with those specs would be in the same ballpark price-wise.

My 2 cents!

Trevor

@Account Closed 

Hey Jarred, I think the way to go would be to install wordpress from wordpress.org onto your hosting database. Then you can just find a landing page or squeeze page plugin that will easily install right onto your site. That way your not working with different logins, interfaces, etc. 

A lot of people complain about godaddy and theyre probably right, but so far theyve been alright for me. I just buy domains through them and hosting. I know there are probably better options out there but I couldn't tell you what they are.

I think Beau makes a good point that doing self hosting is more time consuming, but it really isn't that much more difficult, is usually cheaper, and gives you a lot more control. Just depends on what you prefer I guess.

I would look into the differences between the wordpress.org software and the wordpress.com all in one version and see what works best for you. Personally I think installing the .org version on your hosting account is the way to go, but that's whats best for me, and maybe not everyone.

Trevor