Re: Yes, you could look at that way - Posted by Mark (SDCA)
Posted by Mark (SDCA) on May 14, 2003 at 15:10:07:
Ditto. The way I look at it… If I were living next door to the property, I STILL would be calling someone to faint, plunge the toilet etc. And my phone works just as well from here as there.
I have found that houses are famously easy to manage. The problems being 2: I tend to get fat n lazy and don’t inspect the properties as often as I should.
And two, there ARE logistical issues at times which a 10 minute trip would solve (e.g. skip checks, open houses, checking on rehab progress). These all seem to revolve around the time of “tenant turnover”… So if you can manage that, you can manage anything. I have a lady in town who does the cleaning and also shows the property. People stop by, get the key. She doesn’t have to do much except answer the phone and door but it saves me a trip to town and gens a little extra money for her.
Maybe just a self-image issue? You don’t see yourself as capable of handling some larger deal?
Maybe you could start looking for more expensive properties that have the same characteristics as you have been finding in Bakersfield. Houses, larger tracts of land.
Realistically, you are just now getting the point where you have a pretty good idea of what you are doing. Earlier, you probably could not have handled a big deal.
And, while there are going to be far fewer of those types of deals in Santa Barbara, each one could have much bigger profit. Maybe $50K or more each?
I think your friend is pretty much right. However, there may be some approaches to investing where it would not be possble to do big deals. John Beck buys properties at tax sales and from the counties after tax sales when nobody else buys the properties. Then he and his wife resell them on e-bay–“miss-gold” is their sellers name. I think that the buyers on e-bay are going to snatch up properties that sell for less than $3K or so, but I’m dubious about the more expensive properties. However, I do see some very expensive properties listed on e-bay. Hmmm, I wonder how well they sell there.
I am considering selling my OK rent houses and using the proceeds to buy a multi-family rental project, perhaps there. Having a bunch of little houses scattered around the state may not be as good a way to go. I think about it, not trying actively to do so yet. I like those monthly rent checks coming in.
How do you pay the lady that handles your showings? I have thought about doing something like that too. But it seems like it might be a little expensive for what you get. I have my handyman do the showings and I just pay him by the hour. But it takes the right kind of handyman to do that sort of thing. I am trying to think ahead about what to do if I lose him. That is when I may need to do something like you are doing. Just looking for ideas that I might be able to use down the road somewhere.