All Forum Posts by: Bienes Raices

It seems like for cash flow investing, at least, there are some pretty objective criteria on whether the deal is good or bad.

Eddie, do you ever find good deals on the MLS, or do you use "we buy houses" type marketing to find deals on your own, if you don't mind me asking?

I was considering buying from a wholesaler as one avenue in buying a property.

I've seen some posts on here to avoid the ones are that bad, that some "sell junk". My question is, how do they manage to do this in a relatively small local community of investors, since their bad reputation would get around? Don't they need a stable list of buyers for their deals? Or do they only sell to newbies?

Do people use a buyer's agent to find REOs? I can see the use of having MLS access for comps, but, since REOs are a #s game, what's the incentive for a buyer's agent to make 30 or 40 offers for you to get a 3% commission on, say a $40,000 house? Would it be better to skip the buyer's agent and deal directly with the REO's listing agent?

Congratulations! It's great to hear a success story from someone who was careful and did their homework. You are an inspiration to those of us who are still learning.

Thanks. This might sound weird, but do any of you charge a non refundable smoker fee? Is that allowed? I would assume that some work has to be done to get rid of the smoke smell at the end of the tenancy.

In my state there's no limit to how high of a sec. deposit you collect, so is there a point to going to the trouble of a separate pet deposit with a pet agreement? Also, what is the rationale behind asking for non-refundable pet fees? Thanks.

welcome to the sunshine state! You passed the first hurdle by moving here during the hurricane season and not having a tropical storm mess up your move. That's a good sign.

I think we'll see a gradual increase in crime nationwide if/as the economy worsens and the unemployment benefits begin to run out. I think things would have to get REALLY bad here (like food not showing up on the store shelves) before any kind of serious disruption could happen in this country. I don't mean to America bash, but I think people here are more into conformity and keeping up with the Joneses than being revolutionaries. But there will probably be more instances of people going postal at work, and more draconian measures by employers.

What I really want to know: when China's economy overheats and burns out, who finances our debt???

Back to Japan, from what I understand, the Japanese have been able to survive the last two decades of their anemic economy because they have one of the world's highest personal savings rates. Also--not that this is good or bad, just a fact--they have a much more ohesive society than the US where personal sacrifice is accepted, less prone to civil unrest and crime. Also, they had kind of a low standard of living (life in small, cramped apartments, extreme overcrowding) even during the boom years of the 80s, although they had lots of disposable income. So the adjustment downward may not have been as much of a shock.What concerns me is that the US doesn't have any of these things in it's favor.