All Forum Posts by: Alvin Sylvain

Go East Young Man! (well you can't go West, that's the Pacific Ocean)

I've been looking sporadically in places like Riverside County (Hemet, Menefee, Lake Elsinore, etc.) and San Bernadino County (Yucca Valley, Beaumont, Redlands, etc.)

You're talking a couple of hours drive from LA proper if you're already in LA and plan to do your own maintenance. But cash-flow deals are a lot easier to find. And they're in some fairly reasonable neighborhoods. Many parts of Los Angeles have long been cesspools but still have prices in the stratosphere.

That's why the traffic is so horrible. Everybody works in LA and Orange County, but nobody can afford to live there.

@Omar Khan So what do you expect a good ROI should be? If anyone would care to elaborate.

@Peter T. OK ... you are not looking for dollars per door. That just leads to a different question. What kind of COC and ROI are you looking for?

@Thomas Weidner I know nothing about legalzoom, but I HAVE read that you definitely do NOT want to do it yourself. There are a lot of moving parts to corporations and LLC's, and you only need to miss one teeny tiny detail and YER SCREWED.

@Khenkis K. This is why I maintain a general philosophy of never sharing my off-duty plans with anyone. (Unless I know they're like-minded) They will either laugh, shrug, explain in minute detail how they failed (doing it wrong) or try to talk you out of it.

Originally posted by @Michael H.:

I'm curious what investors are or aren't doing in relation to the impending market crash a lot of people (smarter than me) are saying will happen in the next 2'ish years. 

I'm selling a house in the next few months and contemplating just paying the capital gains instead of doing a 1031 exchange.  Probably won't, but it's a thought I had.

I don't believe there exists anyone out there who can predict anything with any kind of reliability.

Crash? Fine. Two-ish years? Can you be a little less specific please? All this accuracy is wearing me down!

Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely no doubt we're in for a crash of some sorts. What it will be, what will cause it, when it will happen, which industry will be most affected, what we can do about it, well, those are the Magic Beans aren't they?

I also have to point out that people have been predicting the End of the World since the Beginning of Time. My favorite one is when a prominent newspaper predicted the World would End on April 17th, 1785 (or some such date). The big story on April 18th was that, yes, the World in fact had Ended, but nobody noticed.

There are prognosticators galore predicting all manners of doom and gloom. Every once in a while, they're right, but not because they knew anything more than anybody else, but more along the lines that if you predict "THIS YEAR IS IT!" every frikkin year, sooner or later, this year WILL be IT, and then they can bask in the glory of "predicting it all along."

I would just suggest that you make your investments with the consideration that, well, maybe the World won't End, but, something disastrous might occur. You or a loved one might get hit by a bus. Your favorite 4-plex might burn down. The neighboring 4-plex might get overrun by drug gangs. What are your contingency plans for catastrophes like that?

I imagine they'd work as well as any attempts at being "prepared for the crash".

Originally posted by @Jeff C.:

Originally posted by @Alvin Sylvain:

Originally posted by @Jeff C.:

@Alvin Sylvain

The SEC, and federal securities law. Rule 501 of regulation D.

Ah, OK. It still seems to me anybody bringing home that kind of bread would laugh at $300 to be part of Than Merrill's little lecture tour -- and would probably laugh at Than Merrill! 

There are plenty of stupid people with money, believe it or not.

 $200K annual income purely from investments? Heh, I wouldn't mind having a little bit of that kind of stupidity!!

Originally posted by @Jeff C.:

@Alvin Sylvain

The SEC, and federal securities law. Rule 501 of regulation D.

Ah, OK. It still seems to me anybody bringing home that kind of bread would laugh at $300 to be part of Than Merrill's little lecture tour -- and would probably laugh at Than Merrill!

Originally posted by @Brian Adams:

@Alvin Sylvain the income can be proved out by a 1040 or W-2 statement and the net worth is reflected on a PFS (Personal Financial Statement) - Assets less Liabilities equals net worth.

 Yah, OK, but who said it had to be $200K to be "accredited"? I mean, like, you only make $199,900 and fifty cents, and you can't join the club?

And, probably more importantly, remembering the comment from @Justin R., why would anybody bringing home that kind of bread waste his time with Than Merrill?

@Charles Kennedy I think you need to shop PM's. I have seen some with varying reviews on Yelp. Maybe let prospective PM's know you're shopping around, and maybe they'll try to be more competitive.