All Forum Posts by: Angelo Behar

Actually, it could possibly be.  Here's something to consider (or at least be aware of):

Hoarding Officially Recognized as Mental Disorder

Bad News for Landlords, Hoarding is Now Recognized as a Mental Disorder

I just got done replacing a broken faucet , I got there at 9 am and the sink was full of gross dishes and pots and pans, there was 5 trash bags in the corner and clothes laying all around . The tenants always pay on time thats not a problem . Well I look at the faucet and it needs to be replaced , but I tell the tenant that I will be back in 4 hours , clean the place , I cant work with the odor of garbage and a sink that is growing a science experiment .  If I come back and its not clean , I cant fix the faucet .   She was a bit upset , but I dont care .  She cleaned , not great , but good enough . I told her that I will be looking in once a month instead of every 3 months .

Thank you @Angelo Behar I have been putting a lot of thought into renting a single family home. I would like to eventually explore other avenues, but I think renting with a buy and hold strategy would be the best for me given my limited stat-up capital (school is pretty spendy these days).

I have genuine concern about becoming a landlord especially in property outside of CA, which I plan on doing because of cost, property tax, etc. I do feel however, that my fear is due to lack of experience and knowledge.

I was a huge proponent of Google Wallet.  The service is free and you can easily transfer money to people through their easy web interface or the nice App they have.  The only real problem I've had with the service over the past couple years was that it tends to take longer for funds to appear if you're on the receiving end than most other comparable services (Intuit, Chase QuickPay, etc.).

Then this week the unthinkable happened - a tenant took their payment back.  Luckily for me this was a very small portion of their rent that was accidentally made in two separate payments (only $25).  But it illustrated an insurmountable flaw with the service, namely that somebody could take their money back without any say from me, the receiver.  In this case, my account was debited the money at the same time I received an email notification of the reversed transaction.  I had to transfer the money from my bank account to Google Wallet before being able to use it again (I also pay some people with GW).

After several phone calls to customer service I was informed that this was a dispute and just like a CC dispute they credit the funds back to the payee until it's resolved...fair enough.  They tell me I have to dispute the dispute to get my money back, a bit of a hassle but I can deal with that.  I filed the dispute explaining that the person received services and had no claim to the money.  Then today (after about a week of back and forth) I finally figured out how this whole situation came to be:

-Tenant paid rent around 1/5

-Tenant disputed the payment with their bank (not Google Wallet) around 1/15

-Their bank pulled the money back from GW

-GW pulled the money back from me

After several more irritated emails about how ridiculous this is (and them explaining how they can't fix it), the conclusion was that my options are to reach out to the sender and work out a solution or to file a lawsuit.  Since the person is living in my apartment, I'll likely be able to contact them and work out a solution.  But this could easily be much worse than the $25 I'm out right now.  

So the end result is that if you use GW to RECEIVE money, you better be 100% sure that the person sending you the money won't screw you over or that the amount of money is either insignificant or worth filing a lawsuit over because any money you received can just disappear for no reason.

Bottom line: DO NOT USE GOOGLE WALLET TO COLLECT RENT OR ANY OTHER PAYMENTS!

Tags: electronic payment, rent collection

I'm in the Quad Cities. Its a fairly steady market with a decent manufacturing base with John Deere headquartered here. I live blocks from St. Ambrose University and Palmer College of Chiropractic. Nobody here moves in the winter which can partially explain the market. I'm just wondering if I'm persuading myself to pay too much because I want to live there for awhile. 

As a newbie eagerly looking for his first buy and hold multifamily property, I'm trying to evaluate the direction the market is heading and wanted to get your opinion.

My concern is buying too high with a possible impending shift in the stock market.  As investors in real estate, we should keep our eyes on market volatility and trends since it may be beneficial or detrimental depending on when you buy. 

Interest rates, stock prices, employment and real estate seem to be closely tied together and if you ask me stocks are currently artificially inflated by money being printed like crazy, while wages have not kept up with the rising cost of living (including real estate).  

With interest rates sure to rise, I'm curious to see how the inflation comes into play as well.

Check out this chart that shows a where we are now and the dot com bust and the great recession that bottomed in 09.

http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/historical/spx19...

Either way, I feel real estate is a great hedge against stocks, but also aware they are susceptible to other economic factors. I realize these are some of the possible pains of a buy and hold investor, but I'm also thinking in terms of exit strategy.  I have some cash and want to ensure it is properly placed in RE.

What are your thoughts on this?

Good luck to all!

Adrian Lopez

[email protected]

917-293-1004