All Forum Posts by: William Bannister

My question is 3 prong its how much did you pay for property because i want to know how much money is at risk here. The second part is what return are u getting in rents. risk vs reward.
The next part of my question was how fast is the shrinkage or town losing population. I have bought land deals in a place called Bluefield West VA. This particular place you could pick lots for 100 bucks and some had houses on them. It was a ghost town former mining town.
The mine closed and so did the jobs in that town for all practical purposes. My deals I went to
eBay to sell
If you can get money out of a situation I would be inclined to do so and bring it back to where you are.. unless its a total loss and you can get income since some of these places you can still get rent from people that still live there. Its good to know figures before making decisions. If u put some figures il try to give my 2 cents on the matter. Il also share some similar situations I have had in the past and made money on.

Welcome Sadim good to have you on board its always nice to talk to people that have there eye on the Windy city market its such a large inland market.
Regarding your question about pic uploading I would give it a day or 2 so moderator has a chance to approve photo my guess is they have a lot to do in here to manage there site. If it doesn't show up in a day or 2 maybe try to re post it and if that doesn't work you could message moderator to ask.

Go to the library and get some books on real estate investing for free. Read about the following subject matter. assignments of contract, wholesaling,rehabbing,landlording,tax deed and tax lien investing. Taking property subject 2. developing, property management, foreclosures,flipping or selling deals u get retail.
Here are a few authors on the matter. Donald Trump art of the deal, Conti and fFnkle= apt investing. Ron Legrand= wholesaing. Larry Loftis on tax deed and lien auction investing.
I might add to look at a few books on the tax benefits as well as do a little looking around on the matter of type of investors.
I hope this gives you some better subject matter to research on before you land on one that seems like your personality.

I can certainly understand your position. When market forces where different and I had to chase down deals pre 2007 boom era. I did keep writing letters though since the hand written letters seemed to get phone calls coming in. I had that problem as well. seems like I was spinning my wheels a lot.
Im curious what kind of deals are you looking for. Are you looking for rehabs or deals for yourself or to whole sale or assign. I also am wondering if your financing deals or paying cash since if your paying cash I would think that the world of tax deed property in Tx or foreclosures would be easy picking right now?
Dallas Metro seems like a big enough area with enough real estate you could keep drawing a concentric circle away from your house until you land that good deal you want. I will say this now days I dont waste the postage because deals are every where and money is not. The key with postage is to only send those letters to that one property you know enough about that could get you the deal. I used letters a lot on tired landlords to buy 4 units and up. I figured it takes the same time to buy a 4 or an 8 unit as it does a sfh so why not make the letter count? Just my 2 cents..ps: tired landlords with no debt also make good bankers;)

Welcome Elvis, how are things going in Miami? Good to have you on board.

Welcome Nicolas, Its a great place to pick up experience in this business. Your about an hour away from some great land deals. WestVa I have been buying land deals there for 100 dollars a pop for about 7 years now. I buy deads that the state auditor has striken the property from the tax rolls. It means they toke it back as a result of non paid property taxes. I offer the state auditor 1 dollar and pay 1 dollar for the land lot and I pay 25 to process serve the previous owners and I pay 61 dollars deed fees and get free and clear deed about 60 days later. So I have about 87 bucks into the deal then I sell property for 700 to 1500 after I take possession.
We have gotten homes this way too but they are really junkers and require a ton of rehab so I just sell them quickly for a couple thousand bucks. PS: I live in Evansville, Indiana. nice to meet you.

I would say if its not too big a deal say under 20 units 50% is fair as a % of the deal if u run the rehab. If you were rehabbing for him and were not going to be in the deal then I would say get paid the same as a contractor - 1/2 the commission you got on the deal. I had a partnership with a broker many years back and we did 50/50 on deals but he did not get commissions when we bought deals that money would be realized into our deals instead of income in his pocket. Watch out for the 5 D's of partnerships death,divorce,disabled,disputes,decisions. Make sure your Articles of organization have this in place. some say partnerships are the only ships that wont sail. I just say cross your t's and . your i's so it wont be a problem when a challenge arises between partners.

Jon is correct in his analysis.
I would just be careful and go by fair housing laws and you should be pretty safe. While you dont have to expose any credit issues unless they have permission from the tenant. I make the recommendation based on credit history and care for my apt. A few of the keys with fair housing laws is race,color creed and the protected classes like disabled and such these are areas that you must use the fair housing laws to guide you.
Privacy of credit, I take seriously and I have instructed my managers to get a call from any tenant that wants there credit information shared with a 3rd party. We verify the person we are talking to and we aren't just giving out random data to a private bill collectors and detectives that are just fishing for information on someone.

I understand your skepticism its a quality I call self preservation. Over the years I have become more a skeptic then an excited enthusiast when it comes to investments. It probably because I have weathered the storms of bad investments, bad investment decisions, poor timing, stock market crashes, lack of experience, government taxation/regulation/corruption. These have all been things to add to my negative experiences in real estate investing.
Having bad tenants was nothing compared to fighting city hall to keep one of my buildings from being torn down for example.
I have invested in hedge funds, gold silver,stocks bonds and various other business to include car lots,pizza joint,construction business,pawn shop,and other things i am to embarrassed to mention.
Real Estate is hands down the thing I have done over the years that has returned my labor more then others. I have come to be so negative about the stock market and government and bank manipulation its almost gotten me frozen when it comes to paper investments. If you read the Book by Micheal Lewis The Big short you will understand why I am the way I am about the stock market.
I lost money in 401k's because I could not get money out fast enough and ect. I am also a control freak when it comes to my finances.
Your NYC market is a double edge sword for the educated buyer that does there due diligence it can be the best market in North America and your timing could not be better near the end of a bust cycle. night mare tenants come and go but wait and see what happens to rents after QE-3 hammers the dollar and the fiscal cliff becomes reality as the government inflates its way to paying for baby boomer ss and medical costs. Your NYC prices should go up to compensate for the lost value of the dollar. Tell me paying 2 times the rent your paying now doesn't scare you? You can face the music like the rest of the US as a renter or locked in with a fixed pmt as the dollar slowly slides into oblivion. The largest monthly bill you will ever pay will most likely be housing. why not get into a fixed pmt or shop a great deal and move into something and be able to in 10 years from now look up when those 700k duplexes are 1.2 million and breath a sigh of relief. Just an example. I have no idea what prices are where u live. also shop long and hard and get a good deal;)
The things get good and they get bad but they keep going on I have noticed and over time adding real estate to my portfolio had added head aches but fewer headaches then a 9 to 5 job would add. I have been in the corp world and I dont like it. Things may get bad here in the US with slow growth but I dont want to be so negative. focus on your personal economic situation having cash reserves and down pmt and getting a good deal and the other bad stuff around you probably wont matter as much like the price of gas going to 5 bucks a gallon. at least if you own a building you have a little control ..that is if there isnt a rent control in place on that building....
Personally I pay cash for real estate because debt is too risky for me and if I lived where you were I would be packing my bags for a cheaper city down south like the rest of the snow birds. I also dont have 10 cool ethnic restaurants within 1 mile from my house. Good luck,hope to see u on the buyers side being its the best investment I ever made.

Phillip has great insite reminds me as a saleperson that everyone we do business with is a potential client handing out cards. For example your trip to doctor, dentist and laywer are all 3 professionals that you can let them know if they get into a situation where they want to invest but dont have time to manage your there answer. If they dont want to use you then well there is always the aspect that there are other doctors and dentists that might be better suited to take care of your teeth and body. why should they get your business and you not get theres?
Most Docs dont mow there own lawn! When ever I got an acct in a great hood use both neighbors on each as a place to drop in quick fliers.
I think if your married you might have a wife with a different doc as well so there is another approach have her drop your cards on her contacts and so on you get my drift.