All Forum Posts by: Geoff Perkins

You can get cards printed with your name and phone number and a saying like “Creative real estate solutions” but I wouldn’t suggest it until you solidify your niche and plan. You probably won’t use many cards in the beginning and want to change things up so go low cost & low quantity. Ps Most places I’ve been require you to have a business license and some require you to put license numbers on all marketing including business cards.

How are you planning on running your rentals? Are you factoring in operating capital for each property? Ex: unexpected repairs, vacancies, tenant damages, etc. I know from personal experience being over leveraged and cash poor when the unexpected happens can suck pretty bad. (Fraudulent lien from a contractor who went bankrupt and a house fire in a rehab)

I purchased a 107 year old home to renovate and live in about 2 years ago. Originally it was going to be a lipstick rehab, but knowing the risks, we decided to upgrade the foundation before we started. Some walls cracked as expected but upon removing the damaged plaster we discovered that the re-wire and re-plumb that had been done 6 years prior were both full of code violations. We then decided to gut the house and do a complete renovation. This blasted our budget out of line. We tried 4 different loans and each said that they could lend in its current condition but in the end the underwriters said no to the house being under construction. Does anyone know of a lender that will lend on a rural-ish “owner occupied” property that is mid rehab that is free and clear? Thank you

I'm keeping the radiators on the first floor of a house I am rehabbing for myself since they are pretty and keep the old feel of the house. (I'm doing forced air for the upper floors). One big issue I found where I am is that not many people have them so getting parts/ anyone to work on the system is hard. I am a huge fan of the updated vintage look in my houses but for a flip I would probably go forced air due to modern comfort, but it depends on what buyers want/ are willing to pay for. Gotta keep the cost/benefit ratio in mind!

Sorry, I must have missed that. I'm not familiar with Texas so disregard my post

I tried it once, and it did not go well for me. I didn't get much exposure to buyers, even with lising it on several online websites. I did end up getting almost endless calls from Agents offering to list it for me. After a month or so I listed it regularly with an agent.

Another thing I tried with better success was using a flat fee listing (that one was not in CA) but I paid about $200 for the broker to place it on the MLS & put a supra box on the door. I was offering 3% to the buyers agent & ended up paying my broker a $1000 fee to handle all of the escrow paperwork. I took the pictures, made the flyers & created the remarks for the listing. It was a pretty good savings considering it was a $430,000 sale.

Hey Boe, unfortunately what you are trying to do is against Washington law. I ran into this when I started. If you do not intend to occupy the property as your principal residence, you cannot do the work yourself. See Washington State RCW 18.27.090 - paragraph 12 (Section 18.27.090 which is talking about who is exempt from contractor registration):

"(12) Any person working on his or her own property, whether occupied by him or her or not, and any person working on his or her personal residence, whether owned by him or her or not but this exemption shall not apply to any person who performs the activities of a contractor on his or her own property for the purpose of selling, demolishing, or leasing the property"

"Luckily" in Washington contractor registration is pretty much a joke. Anyone can apply with no experience and there is no test like other states. Its $113 or so a year for the license and then all you need is a bond & insurance which will run you somewhere around $2,000 a year depending on your experience and insurance company. There is no experience requirement or test to become a contractor, they just want to make sure people are insured and bonded. Plus if you ever end up in lawsuit and you are not properly registered as a contractor, you are pretty much screwed and can't do much as a plaintiff or defendant.

Also something to consider about a "sale to yourself" is the Excise tax you have to pay when you sell a property. I personally have never transferred a property to myself so I don't know for sure if you would have to pay it (check with your title company), but when you sell a property regularly you have to pay state excise tax on the sale (1.78% of the sale price for my area). See:

http://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=82.45    for RCW 82.45 - Excise Tax on Real Estate Sales

&

http://dor.wa.gov/Docs/forms/RealEstExcsTx/RealEst...    for your local excise tax rate

Another thing you can do is transfer the property into your llc from yourself without selling it. Check with your attorney, but my understanding is that you just go down to the county clerk, pay a filling fee and it transfer in.

As always check with your attorney or do your own research but this is what I have found. Best of Luck,

Geoff