First, the history of CA is about sprawl. Can’t have land without sprawl. Like it or not, that’s what it is.
I for one think that property management is the best retirement job. I share time between different cities. When I’m old I can manage my properties and earn spending money without touching my principal. Going places is actually fun to visit friends and family at the same time. For misc repairs, call a contractor. For the occasional eviction, you use a local attorney (never came to that for me).
For me PM is fun. You get to meet people and give them housing. Some of them might become friends. One one my tenants is a cool guy who does sports/entetainment programming so I’m learning something new. And with experience you get better at screening tenants so you don’t have evictions.
I learned how to solder plumbing and tile and install wood flooring. Not that hard and it’s fun to do. The key is to not overextend yourself that you’re stressing to meet deadlines and make payments.
As for Moreno, I’m jealous off my buddy. Wish I had followed in buying at the bottom.
As long as there is population growth, then real estate is good if you can buy well below replacement cost. You have to identify the window of opportunity and just do it.[/quote]
I was a LL in the eighties on a duplex and again in the early nineties on a triplex which we sort of “inherited” and kept for about 4 yrs. I HATED both jobs. I don’t have the patience in dealing with a tenant late on their rent when it was obvious that they paid the local cable company $150 more per month than I did and drove newer vehicles than mine. I’ve just heard a lot of sob stories but the reality is that they could afford my rent but couldn’t properly manage their incomes, hence chronic late payment of rent. Meanwhile, my mtg payment was due. I just don’t like the whole tenant-victim culture and for that reason if I DID rent out my house, I would use a VERY local PM company (w/ a UD firm chained to their ankles) and get the largest security deposit I could get away with.
Life is much too short to deal with that noise. I don’t have the personality for it.
