[quote=FlyerInHi]bearish, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
If you own a condo in the UTC/Sorrento/MM area, and you bought at the bottom, you’re doing well. There are no vacancies and you can rent it out with very little effort. Literally, over the weekend, your phone rings off the hook.
I happen to know the area I suggested. Pardee built some new housing right next door and those prices have increased very nicely. The people who bought the first phase are sitting pretty. Lots of professionals who are well-qualified to rent so you won’t need to worry. As far as I’m concerned, a tenant who works for a well-known company near his home is pretty much money in the bank. Tenants are busy kids-free professionals who are never home so they don’t damage your unit.
I also own a condo in North Park. That area is more expensive to purchase, the units are older and require more maintenance. The rents are lower, relative to Mira Mesa in the same house value range (because there’s a hip factor to NP and buyers are willing to pay more, especially those who can’t afford Hillcrest or Mission Hills).
North Park is relatively more riff-raff with tenants whose income is harder to verify. One tenant might have an easily verifiable job, but the girlfriend is a hairdresser type deal.Regardless, you cannot buy an SFR for $350k in North Park.
As far are the cheap SFRs in other areas at about $350,000, you’re talking the ‘hood almost, if you can find one in SD. I know that you can’t discriminate against families with kids, but those are little monsters who will damage your rental. I’m generalizing here, but pick a neighborhood where SFRs go for $350k, and see how people live.
I’m assuming the OP wants to buy in SD only. There are not a lot of choices unless you want to accept a lower return.[/quote]
FIH, did you have a close look at the MM condo suggestion? It was so narrow that there was no room for a standard staircase. Instead it had a cheap spiral staircase that a small dog could fall thru and become severely injured. And don’t bump into it in the dark! I’ve seen this “traincar” floorplan in SD County condos before and it is a joke, IMO. It is a classic example of the developer trying to squeeze as many townhomes on a city block as they can.
Several posts in this thread suggest that the rental return percentages were good for those who bought in late 2009 thru as late as late 2011 (in some areas) and that buying an investment property for a reasonable price is over in SD County, for the most part. If there has actually been a 100K “uptick” in prices since other Piggs may have purchased in or near this MM complex (as was suggested here earlier), then this is all the more reason why this condo isn’t worth today’s asking price. I seriously doubt any Piggs would pay “today’s” listed price for it.
In any case, this doesn’t apply to Eve’s situation as she is in a position to pay cash for a rental property NOW.
You also comment on a typical North Park tenant-couple applicant as being possibly one “professional” and one “hairdresser-type.” And also that tenants in MM are all “professionals” (whatever that is supposed to mean). That condo in MM could barely hold two people (and their stuff) with room to turn around. Hopefully, it has a dedicated garage to itself or assigned storage closet. Don’t tell me that the “MM rental-applicant crowd” isn’t full of single-parent families, para professionals and blue collar applicants cuz I’m not buying it. MM is actually blue collar, white collar AND retired and always has been. It is NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, “upscale” or sought after by the well-heeled as is parts of North Park and its close surrounds (South Park and Normal Heights).
If two highly-paid “professionals” who work in Sorrento Valley or Sorrento Mesa choose to rent together instead of buy, they have dozens of vacant rental units in the UTC area, LJ Colony and Carmel Valley to choose from. They don’t have to rent in MM.
I laughed at your statement here that the typical girlfriend/spouse co-tenant in NP is only a (lowly?) “hairdresser type” (and therefore probably doesn’t qualify to be a co-tenant)? It’s funny to me because several regular male posters have posted here that their spouses/SO’s do NOTHING. Meaning they have no “career” whatsoever. They stay home … are housewives, so to speak.
I suggested that Eve might be able to find a light or cosmetic fixer in a nicely gentrified area … I erred when I suggested she shop for SFR’s >1000 sf on a 5000+ sf lot. I meant <=1000 sf on a 5000 sf lot (750 sf to 1200 sf or larger if she can find it). You state NP is "hip" and commands high rent yet you state MM attracts a better tenant and so commands higher rent (for a comparably sized condo/SFR)? That doesn’t make sense, Flyer. Most of those ~1000 sf (circa 1925-1935) houses in NP (92104) have open layouts, sometimes with pocket doors between the dining area and LR (can be opened up to one big room). They usually have a BIG bathroom and two fairly good-sized bedrooms. Over half have one or 1-1/2 car garages. If there is any “traincar-like” homes nearby (like our sample condo here with a ~$235 mo HOA dues obligation), they are likely in NW Univ Heights (92103). I don’t recommend that area for that reason as well as its many odd-shaped substandard lots.
I DID warn Eve that tenant-families could be a lot more of a headache (if she intended to manage herself) but I disagree that tenants in MM are any less of a headache than the urban area(s) she was shopping in. MM, PQ and several other North City SD communities all have their share of Section 8 and other assorted “fixed income” tenants and tenant-applicants.
You’ve also stated here that most (or all) houses listed today for $350K in SD County are located “in the ‘hood” (does this include any possible $350K houses in MM?) and therefore wouldn’t make good investment properties. I disagree that a $350K house listed in SD County today, especially one purchased with all cash, would necessarily be located in “the ‘hood,” whatever the h@ll that is supposed to mean. Eve CAN likely purchase a small 3 bdrm SFR in South, East or Inland North County for $350K all cash today. But it would likely attract applicants with children. Just like the family tenant-applicants in MM, MANY of those applicants are looking for a rental in the area where they grew up because that is where they have relatives nearby to help them with their children. They may very well be a “professional” and even work in Sorrento Mesa/Valley but need to live near family for childcare reasons.
Contrary to the seemingly “popular belief” here, tenants living outside of surrounding zip codes to SD’s high tech office parks aren’t all running brown paper bags in and out of vehicles parked in their driveways for a minute and a half just as soon as dusk sets in. I know it might be kind of a stretch for a few Piggs, but open up your minds just a little. Or better yet, get in your car and this time, get off fwy exits you never have before. Start with the areas which have active SFR listings today for $325K to $400K and do “drive-bys.” If there are any listings in this price range in MM, you can start there, and then compare those streets to streets elsewhere in the county with SFR listings. You might be surprised at the pride of ownership on a lot of these blocks and the level of owner-occupancy, even though they are relatively far away from high-tech office parks. You might also find areas with mature trees you like and houses in this price range spaced a bit further apart than those in MM in this price range. Shocking, I know, but …. they DO exist!
