Some friends of mine started flipping houses in Riverside recently. The houses that they are buying are damaged and usually need about $20k of rehab work. If they buy a house for, say, $100k, they rehab them and sell them for about $160k. This type of house would rent for about $1350/mo right now. In order to find these deals, my friends might bid on 30 properties and only get 1 hit. The point is that on the low end side, there are deals to be had if you look really hard for them and are able to do the rehab.
The prices in Riverside are still coming down, though. That’s why my friends are flipping the properties. They don’t want to get stuck with an asset that is depreciating in value. We believe that by late next year, the low end will be very close to its bottom. At that point, I’ll start looking a properties to buy and hold as long term investments. There are some good deals to be had right now. But there will be even better deals in Riverside in the future.
