All Forum Posts by: Andy Collins

About 20 years ago a house I lived in when suddenly declared "in a flood plain" and my mortgage company demanded I get flood insurance, I freaked out, called my insurance agent, who was also on the city council,,it turned out the back 2' of the property were in the flood zone,,nothing close to the house. It was resolved and the house was marked outside of the flood plain (there was a storm ditch running in the area behind the house, guess that was the problem.

As others have said, see exactly where the property is in relation to the flood plain and what flood plain

andy

First let's talk about the stock market and my personal experience,,you said as long as you buy an index there was little chance to lose everything,,,maybe you should have been in the S&P 500 Index in 2007/08,,I was and was on margin,, I lost about 80% of what I had in, so never say you can't loose everything, you can.

Most of the problems that are possible in real estate would be because of mistakes you would make. You don't do your due diligence and buy a property the numbers don't work on,,,you don't screen tenants and have problems with tenants,,etc etc...

Remember, your tenant is paying down the principal on your house and your getting cash flow (if you bought a house the numbers work on), your get the tax advantage of real estate (how about getting $300 in cash flow and paying no tax on that),, In the long run you have a paid for house, that has put money in your pocket for 20 years, and you now own it free and clean....

You have much, much more control in real estate than in the market,,in the market your along for the ride, however it occurs, in real estate your flying the plane.

if your numbers are right its a deal at $20k,,,what you don't want to do is try to save $2k and have the seller take another offer.

If a deal is good, I don't push for the last few dollars,,,lose a deal that way and you'll want to jump out a window

One of the things that made me scratch my head more than normal was from a forum on here. A guy was wanting advice, he was graduating from college, going to get a job and buy a used Lamborgini, then after it was paid for start buying real estate.......

I consider that in the same line of thinking of "if you give me the promotion I will start working harder"

I know one very well known Billionaire very well, at the time we were working together (ok he was chairman of the board and I was a director), he worked 18-19 hours a day. You would get e-mails from him all night long. To this day if I don't get a reply from an e-mail I send to him in a few minutes, I know he is tied up, and I will probable get a response a 2-3AM from him,,he lives for work (and the sports franchise he owns)

"Tenants" could also be called your "clients", without tenants you will go broke.

Yes, I enforce late fees, make sure they take care of the lawns, etc etc, but I always remember its a 'two way street', I need them as much as they need me. I treat my tenants they way I would expect to be treated by any company I do a lot of business with, in a positive, friendly manner.

I have virtually no turn-over, unless they move out of the area or get a divorce, they normally stay,,,,

Justin, if you have good jobs/income, why not try to secure some financing on the property?

I can't say I would recommend buying a property with a 0% credit card offer,,,,but I have done things like that, and I'm sure others here have too.

My biggest concern is what if you run into a $7,500 expense you didn't plan on, are you "tapped out" for credit/cash?

andy

I think the decision to get a job in real estate or get a job in the field you have been in, is really according to what your skill set is.

If you make really good money in your field, it will probable take a long time finding a job in real estate to replace that, if your more in the early part of your career, it might be possible to replace your income a little easier as an agent, etc.

I would really recommend finding a steady source of income, without that, you will have a very, very tough time finding the loans you need, and if you do the cost will be high.

If your making $100k doing "xyz", and would have to start out making $20k a year in real estate working for an investor (I'm making that up), go back to "xyz" and build up your reserves, if your making $25k in "xyz", then going to the $20k job and learning real estate while your doing it wouldn't be such a big hit.

If the property is in another country, you need to find out what the banks do in that country. An idea that might help in the US might be a bad move in another country.

I have negotiated for a living forever, from selling radio advertising to buying and selling radio stations.

Always remember, they (whoever your dealing with) don't care about what a deal can do for you, they want to do know you/it can do for them.

Don't talk about 'features" (here is how we will do a double close, etc), talk about benefits to them (they have someone focused on your property, not just another listing for an agent, etc).

Never, ever, argue, I've made millions of dollars negotiating and I've never sold anything by arguing, cutting the other person down, degrading them etc,,,its amazing how many people do that.

As far as your age, if you have knowledge, 90% of the people won't care about your age.

There are many great books on sales, including some of the ones listed by others,,I've taken the Dale Carnegie Course three times (once as a student, twice I was ask to be a 'teachers assistant),,its great but not focused on self but on living your life

I still sell and still cold call, I start every new call by explaining who I am, what my firm does and say "I wanted to call to see if I could be of service to you",,,its about serving others "as the late Zig Zigler says, I get what i want by helping others get what they want

jIf it were a house I was going to live in I'd go with the 15 SEER and go gas, but for a rental I would stick with a 14 SEER AC and all electric.

I don't see any advantage for a rental to have gas, and its one more thing to worry about,,when I buy a house that has a gas furnace unless its nearly new, I replace it (with gas, but want a new unit).

Tenants usually don't even ask if its electric or electric/gas. The fact that you have a brand new AC will be a selling feature to tenants