All Forum Posts by: Andy Collins

I have seen the water meter removed if a bill is too far past due,,the question I have is can they find the meter and verify its accuracy.

I had something somewhat similiar happen, but the city checked the meter,,in this case there might not be anyway to do that,,I would ask them to look at the history of the address,,that the usage they are saying is WAY out of line.

One other thing that I discovered during my fight on a water bill, people steal water, because apparently in the manufacturing of some dope they use a lot of water,,so the city watches for crazy water usage, so its better for them to steal it from a neighbor.  

andy

As long as it is liquid (which checking and savings are), its in your name, and you have had the money in there for the past two statements, your in good shape either way.

I have never used mailers, so I have no experience on that front, but I get them, a LOT of them every week for different rental properties.

Can you filter out owners that have over a certain number of properties,,,if someone has 10 NOO properties, chances are they are an investor and your mailers to them will get pitched. I would think the person with a single property. I hate to throw away mailers knowing people have spent good money sending them,,,but I'm not selling,,,I'm buying

andy

Moving a house you financed in your own name into an LLC will do very, very little to help you with liability. You are still responsible for the note, possible you manage the property yourself,,,the LLC isn't meant to be used that way.

If your a pure investor, don't manage the property, don't have anything to do with maintenance and buy the property in an LLC, you would probable have good protection,,of course you can't get a conforming mortgage with an LLC,,,

When I read the headline I thought, I wonder if it will agree with me,,yes, an investors worst nightmare is himself.  That could include being too scared to take the first step, not properly checking out prospective tenants, not asking someone (mortgage broker, contractor etc) for what you want.

Anyone with a decent brain and good common sense can read the forums here, follow through and make some great money,,most won't because they are either too afraid to actually make a commitment, or not willing to do the things to put them in  position to make the first step (such as saving for a down payment on first rental)

andy

It's not just about what the 'offer' is on a house. a lot of it has to do with the current 'owner/borrower'.  I have an offer that the bank accepted 6 months ago on a short sale, but they won't approve the short sale because they are not happy with the owner/borrower.  At one point they agreed to pay them 'cash for keys' to get out, then they said no, so we had to do new closing documents with no cash going back to seller.

I put the house under contract in November,, the hold up is if the bank want to let the borrower short sale, or if they want to push them into foreclosure,,,meanwhile the house sits empty and I'm sure developing 

From what I can tell the bank thinks they (borrower) has assets they didn't tell them about,,,again, nothing to do with my offer, everything to do with the current 'owner'

andy

A two year lease is great for the tenant, it doesn't do anything for me as a landlord.  It locks me into the same rate for two years,,,why would I give a discount.

I had someone approach me with wanting a discount for two years, I told them I would charge a premium for a two year lease,,,again, great for tenants, not good for landlord

It's 10 conforming mortgages, you can have as many commercial loans, bank loans, etc, but are limited to 10 conforming mortgages per person (Fannie/Freddie).

andy

I do the same thing on inspections, I use the same inspector and he knows I don't care if a light switch cover is broken, I will be  replacing them anyway.  I want to know if the systems in the house are working and if not what appears to be wrong with them.

I know there are some very good wholesalers out there, but generally I take all numbers I get from a wholesaler with a grain of salt.  If it has over $10k in foundation work on a pier and beam house (based on age), then the walls will really be screwed up when its leveled.  I am not a contractor so I don't even touch a house this old (and very rarely run into one this old in the Dallas area),,,that is the type of house you start to fix one thing, only to discover 3 other problems....I know in some parts of the country houses this old are 'normal',,,,they aren't in Texas,,heck after 100 years and the way the soil moves it probable needs to change it's address

BUY INSURANCE,,,just because you will pay cash and could go with out it, don't! I have one property free and clear and I guarantee it has insurance on it,,I couldn't sleep at night if it didn't.

Without insurance a LOT of things could happen,,including someone suing you for something related to the house and you don't have an insurance company to pay for your defense/pay claim