All Forum Posts by: Alexander Felice

You could make a game like this similar to the old oregon trail game. Complete with dysentery!!! 

Use your other resources. Referrals are always preferred. Get on your facebook/twitter and let the world know what you're looking for. People LOVE referring people they know. 

Won't matter. He's breaking the law, knows it, and is going to keep trying to make his money anyway. Simple capitalism. I say stop worrying about his business and worry about yours. You'll be much more productive that way. 

Welcome! 

I did 4 years on Bragg, stuck around afterwards. We have a decent real estate market, although its currently FLOODED with buyers. Rentals do well here, I know a bunch of guys flipping, and wholesaling does decent too. Only thing that is tough (imo) are small multis, Because of the high demand of rentals large size apartments lock that space down and make the duplex/triplex/quadplex market tough to compete in. 

Army is a great career to do real estate on the side with. Decent pay, infinite stability, good hours and VA loan advantage.

Good luck! 

The horror stories in this thread have been impressive until I reached this post. I'm pretty sure James wins....but to be fair, he also lost. 

@Kyle J. is right. Craigslist is a godsend. 

For every lazy contractor who owns a lousy business there is a hardworking laborer who has the talent you need, but he just can't run his own shop well. Don't discredit that resource.

Secondly, American capitalism is beautiful. There is ALWAYS someone out there hungry for work, and will charge you market price (unless you're REALLY REALLY on the wire). if you have a week or two, you can get someone out there to do it. Just gotta find the right person. 

bought my first house (primary) with nothing down. Now it's a rental. Bought my 2nd with 5k down. I plan on buying my 3rd with <10k including renovations. 

Just depends on what type of investing you want to do, your area, and what kind of return you want. Cash gives you flexibility, but it's not always necessary. 

Legal marijuana is coming, and fast. Get used to the idea that your tenants may be using it. It will be pretty soon that it's federally legal so if you're against it, you need to find a way to cope. 

As for legality of asking what their source is, I don't know. I'm sure there will be protections in place for prescribed marijuana usage as well, until then, check your local laws but I would assume if they aren't allowed to smoke per the lease, they are in violation regardless of prescription. 

regarding marijuana usage I say "who cares?". They don't even drug test at the banks anymore LOL 

It's (almost) always better to sub things out. The less work you have to do, the more efficient you can manage your time. The reason why a person would choose not to hire out work is because when economies of scale are low, it's expensive. 

When you're one guy, trying to get 1-2 deals and you're supporting all your overhead on those deals then you need to save every penny you can and make your sweat equity go as far as possible. When you're doing 10+ deals at a time then it's not longer efficient for you to be spending your own time.

Same for rentals. You have one property? Probably best to learn a little bit of handyman stuff. Once you have a bunch of them you hire a guy and spread that cost over your portfolio. 

The more diversification and scaling you have, the more cost efficient hiring becomes.

Pot smell doesn't stick like cigarettes. Should go away pretty easily once the usage stops.   not a big deal at all in my opinion. 

Eviction depends on local laws. use the search function to find Chicago eviction threads. 

good luck!