Real Homes of Genius – A home for less than $100,000 in Los Angeles? The attraction of being a landlord.
We are back to the days where low priced homes in Los Angeles County are a rare commodity. Yet those homes are out there for a variety of reasons. It is amazing how pervasive the flipper mentality is out here in good old SoCal. Everything is just a matter of a few HGTV remodeling techniques and then you are off to the big money races. Put aside your feelings for schools, quality of the structure, crime, or even if you would like to live in the area. So today we ran across a home that is under $100,000 in Los Angeles that is currently listed for sale. A sub-$100k property in Los Angeles? How can that be? Are we not living through mania 2.0? Today we salute you Los Angeles with our Real Homes of Genius Award.
Price reflecting reality?
The home we are looking at today is listed as a short sale. It looks like it has been active on the MLS for over 100 days. Let us take a look at this gem:
5972 HOOPER Los Angeles, CA 90001
Lot size:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,837 sq/ft
Built:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 1923
Beds:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 1
Baths:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 0.75 (?)
Square feet:Â Â Â Â Â Â 484 sq/ft
This ranks up there with one of the smallest homes we have featured as a Real Homes of Genius. 484 square feet and 0.75 for a bathroom. Does that mean you are missing a bath, sink, or what else? Interesting way to categorize. Yet this home is definitely priced to sell:
List Price:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $71,300
Believe it or not, this home was initially listed at $80,000 back in August but the price was dropped to the current $71,300. Here is a side photo with yet another property having a picture taken with garbage cans right next to it:
I love the ad on this place:
“HIS IS A SHORT SALE TRANSACTION. LISTING PRICE APPROVED BY THE BANK! HOUSE IN NEED OF COSMETIC WORK. NOT A FIXER. HOUSE LOCATED IN A NICE AREA, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IS BEING BUILT HALF A BLOCK FROM THE HOUSE. SUBMIT YOUR OFFERS. ALL COMMISSIONS WILL BE SPILT 50/50 BETWEEN LISTING OFFICE AND SELLING OFFICE!!â€
Not a fixer? In need of “cosmetic work� House in nice area? The median price for this area is $186,000 but something tells me this home is on the smaller side of things. Where are all the big pocket Wall Street investors? What about the foreign hot money? As I have stated, the hot money is obsessed with certain areas. I’ve seen the argument made that all this hot money is good for bringing communities up. Really? This would be a prime candidate for someone to jump in, remodel, and make this area a bit better with a nicer home. Yet big money is only interested in a quick fix (and not community) and the notion that this money is building up communities is nonsense. Otherwise Detroit and Cleveland would be booming with real estate activity.
I am however surprised that at this price point, someone has not purchased the place. This place would easily cash flow and for the price, someone can go all in here (for the price of some SoCal auto). Yet being a landlord is a job and the numbers for whatever reason, are not panning out here. Opportunity cost is real and how will you deal with vacancies, fix-up costs, and other items required to be a landlord? 484 square feet is extremely small so it might be hard to find many renters for this. Have you spotted any sub-$100k homes in Los Angeles or Orange counties?
Today we salute you Los Angeles with our Real Homes of Genius Award.
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38 Responses to “Real Homes of Genius – A home for less than $100,000 in Los Angeles? The attraction of being a landlord.”
This one at $30K is even more interesting
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5884-&-5884-1-2-Hooper-Ave-Los-Angeles-CA-90001/2115966981_zpid/
Good luck being shot while trying to collect on rent
Everyone wants to be a landlord? Having done it for several years. Good luck to most.
That is South Central!!! No chance of this area gentrifying. Lots of big dirty factories in the area. Still, the welfare payouts and food stamp scamming pooled by enough area drug addicts could produce enough cash flow to provide a good return.
But you will probably get shot.
Perfect for a section 8 tenant.
I remember boarded up s-holes going for today’s median back in the last mania.
This time around, investors flooding the market with rentals could drive rents down.
I lived in a cottage about that size in the late 90’s, but it was one block from the beach in the Ocean Beach section of San Diego.
I remember one time we were driving north on the 5, going to a Raider game at the Coliseum in 1991, and both the 5 and reportedly the 10, were backed up, heavy traffic. So I suggested taking Slausen over to the Harbor, but the rest of big tough Raider fans were scared to death of that ‘hood, lol.
Jason, I love San Diego. I almost made my trip out there a permanent one way trip. Sure, the places were small and a little pricey along the beach, but for what I was paying in Orlando, Fl, it seemed like a sweet deal to me! I found a studio in Pacific Beach for $800 a month back in 2007. My 750 sqft 1/1 in Orlando was $850. I’d take PB any day!
Yeah, there’s a narrow strip of land along the coast, and there’s the rest. If you’re not within walking distance of the beach, what’s the point of living in California?
Life is too short to be breathing bad air all the time, like I did in Bakersfield for 13 years.
I couldn’t believe how many people were complaining about San Diego. I was like, really!? Sunny all the time and warm! I was lucky to go to a week long conference paid for by my company. I went to Balboa Park, Gaslamp District, Padres/Sox game, Tijuana, The Midway, and dinner on the cliffs of La Jolla! All paid for by my old company. I even got to drive out to Joshua Tree for the day. I can understand why people would want to stay out there. I thought it was great!
If you like it, stay. I wouldn’t leave.
This house, built in 1923, was once home to generations of hard working Latinos. When the hard drugs and welfare state hit, it was all downhill. Soft core drugs, marijuana, have always been around these neighborhoods but even most Pachucos had jobs. The introduction of cheap crack and no jobs has effectively killed off large areas of our cities. And, most sadly, it is irretrievable. Both LA and Cook Counties have around 160,000 gang members each. And, it is very likely to get much worse. During Mexico’s President Calderon’s six year term, now ending, around 60,000 people have been killed, give or take a few ten thousand. That kind of mind set and drug “business” does not stop at the border.
These neiborhoods went from white to black. No way generations of Latinos
Unless you are like me and consider Latinos white. As a person who grew up in New Mexico, where Hispanics ruled, I could never understand where they got that minority mindset.
A house like this would be worth $800,000 in Santa Monica!
That house is a Canadian mansion.
http://www.crackshackormansion.com/
Crack Shack or Mansion! I just clicked your link and played. Scored 50%. Someone needs to put one together for the L.A. area! I don’t know what the average person in Vancouver does for a living, but wow… they must pay well up there.
Vancouver median household income is 67k. The cost of living is similar to San Francisco or New York, except that rents are lower. Price to rent ratio is typically in the 300-400 range.
I think they’re all realtors and flippers up there, and they sell each other houses every few months.
You would think that anyone that buys a million dollar’s worth of yard up there would be willing to put a nice 250k house up, after bulldozing the shack that came with the land.
I got 69%. But what it and the MLS for Vancouver tell me is that regular people need to get out of the Vancouver market now, before the bubble bursts. I call this bubble bursting within a year.
Or 2 million in Vancouver. Here are some 3 million dollar houses:
http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=12033441&PidKey=-1959408039
http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=12588077&PidKey=-327377623
http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=12529105&PidKey=-538685900
http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=12401102&PidKey=-176419902
How about $10 million?
http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=12301120&PidKey=2122948753
http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=11562593&PidKey=1995368633
http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=12139517&PidKey=44689800
@ Matt….LOL!!!! So true.
A house like this on the moon would be worth billions!
a 3/4 bath is recognized in the east and it’s quite common to see…this is a bath with a toilet, sink and EITHER a shower OR a tub, but not both
Ditto that, here in the Midwest, too. Not used all that often. In plumbing lingo, a 4 fixture bath includes toilet, lav, shower and tub, so 3/4 means a tub or shower. Many of my Victorian era rentals can only accomodate showers.
Wrong Deb. A 3/4 bath means that it is a shower with no tub. If it has a tub it is a full bath even if it has no shower head with the tub. At least here in CA. Now in a place like that the bath is so small you have to close the door before you can use the toilet. 1800+ sq ft lot too. In Detroit a city mentioned in the docs post a house like this would see for 5K or less.
I would rather live in Syria rather that this crap hole
$1.298 in central Texas (and that was no comma)
Garbage cans in front of that place really don’t hurt its presentation …
In this neighborhood, garbage cans are patio accessories from Williams Sonoma with a nopalito growing in them.
How true!
I think you will need the National Guard to collect rent and secure the perimeter when contractors come to do repairs.
Just the other day I saw condos in Fort Myers FL, with decks that had more square footage than this house & yet they werent pricy despite being on the water.
Good luck finding a job there bro. I was in Florida for 5 years from 2005 to 2010. It was fun, but it was a huge pain in the ass for housing. Moved into an apartment, then it turning to condo kicking us out. Then moved into a house with a friend, he bought a house, so we moved out of that into a condo. The dude forclosed on the condo so we moved into another apartment.
No matter where we went, it was way over priced. If your lucky to even find a job in Floriduh, good luck finding something that pays a decent salary.
It was fun when I was in my mid 20’s, but I would never want to try to settle down there with a family. No thanks!
Another “Take it in the Shorts Sale”.
LOL
It does not matter what any here have to say. Price, condition, city, income, blah blah blah. The ONLY reason not to buy this or at least rent it is:
“elementary school is being build half a block from the house”
Our company does a lot on investing in South Los Angeles (SOLA). We had already analyzed the property in your example and we rejected it for the following reasons.
1. VERY small lot size 1,830 sqft.
2. VERY small living space 480 sqft with no possibly to expand due to lot size.
3. Busy street.
Properties that are so non conforming are just not worth the effort.
One of the reasons our company does purchase many properties in SOLA is clearly demonstrated by many of the reply’s to this post. This lack of popular knowledge creates lower competition, thus better profits for us.
Most people just have no idea how much this community has changed over the last decade. The Latino population has grown from 30% to 80%. There have been more new schools built than any other part of LA. Crime has dropped significantly. And there are two new METRO rail lines.
Here is a link to a press release on the subject http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/10/prweb10021234.htm
As an outsider, are the new schools a good or back thing ?
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