All Forum Posts by: Mark Graffagnino

@Neil Schoepp Thanks for the helpful information.  I was thinking it was much more time consuming.  Mine is in Atlanta so the heat will be a factor too.

Has anyone ever had an above-ground pool removed?  Just trying to ballpark a price so I can make an offer.  There isn't enough room to get any equipment around to the back of the house, so it seems like it's going to have to be disassembled and then carried out.

Thanks.

Excellent post @Robert Mitchell  The City of Atlanta permits department is a full on ****-show.  Employees shuffle around like zombies.  If you've got the money, hire an expediter.  They recently cleaned house of a lot of the corrupt people and for now the wait times are worse than before.

I had one project in a historic district- remember that the historic district department has a different intake deadline than the regular permit department.  I got there 10 minutes after the cutoff, which I think was 2 hours earlier than permits, and could not get on the agenda for the next meeting.  Then when they finally had my meeting there were not enough board members to have a quorom so they cancelled it.  There were probably 15 people there to have their cases reviewed and they just cancelled it, no apologies, no nothing, just come back in two weeks.  

There is no accountability and very little competence in that entire building.  I will never do another rehab in the City of Atlanta.  You lose intelligence the longer you sit in that building.

I'm sure you've heard this before, but:

The choices are...Good Quality, Cheap, Fast....you only get to pick two.

Best guy I've ever heard speak/teach on asset protection is Dyches Boddiford. He's in Atlanta.  Check out assets101.com.  He'd be a good guest on a podcast also.

For me:

Each ownership/landlord entity has its own account for paying mortgage, tax bills, etc.

One PM entity has one account for collecting rent and distributing to ownership entities after deducting management fees, payments to vendors, utilities on any vacants, etc.

Use Quickbooks and set up each property (and tenant) as a separate "Job" as well as each property as a separate "Class".  That way I can run reports filtered by Job or Class.  

I also have an escrow account for each property set up to hold security deposits and monthly reserve funds.  These are essentially savings accounts that the bank calls "123 Main St Escrow Account". 

I"m looking to do a 1031 on an investment property in Atlanta.  I've never done one before, so looking for recommendations from anyone who has actually, personally had a good experience.  Thanks.

Thanks for all the helpful replies, @Kelli Huang, @Brandon Battle, @Chris Mason

For clarification, this isn't a flip, it's a rental I've owned for a few years and now selling it to a retail buyer.

I've got a property for sale and have received two very similar offers. Offer #1 the buyer is using a VA loan and Offer #2 is conventional. I really like the idea of helping out a veteran but I've heard that VA loans, as a seller, can add some headaches. Has anyone had any experiences, good or bad, as the Seller in a transaction where a VA loan was used? Thanks.

@Joseph Fradelakis I'll concur with what Alex said above about the Southeast.  I'm working with friends and relatives in NY on acquiring some deals in Atlanta.  We're focusing on single families.

@Alex Franks- transplanted Long Islander also (Lynbrook)...hear ya loud and clear...sometimes I think I'd give up my left nut for a bag of White Castles...I'll try to calm the fix by hitting Krystal but just not the same.