All Forum Posts by: JR T.

@Luis-Felipe Duchicela

I'm up the road from you in Frederick and have lots of small multi-family investments in Washington County. 

You can get into a lot of trouble paying employees as 1099. If your worker is working tasks you assign under your supervision and control, they work a schedule, they work inside your offices, etc. they are your employee.

Small operators get away with this sort of thing for years. What usually brings it down is you'll have to let somebody go at some point and they will file for unemployment. They're not entitled to it because they're not your "employee." When they complain unemployment will start an investigation to determine if they met the definition of "contractor" or "employee." If they find you paid employees as contractors they'll involve state and federal taxing authorities and you'll wind up owing years of back withholdings for which both you personally and the business are liable.

Tread carefully.

@Jack Brandt

Welcome! You're going to find tons of information here. Take some time to read and learn all you can - there are lots of helpful people here if you get stuck on something or want a concept explained in more detail.

One piece of advice I'd give you is to view your work more critically. While getting two full price cash offers so quickly seems like a wonderful result to a homeowner as an investor I would question whether I really got the top price for my property with two buyers willing to pay my full price would one of them not paid ~2-5% more had I studied harder and debuted with a more aggressive listing price? 

These small variances mean the world when trying to get a ROI.

@Joe Bertolino Is there a way to purchase the policy directly from an insurer? Do you know of any insurers that will take a call directly from somebody and write a policy?

Thanks for the very informative post.

That's a fabulous price. Is it so cheap because there is no variable data in the letters? Or can you personalize them? You should be marketing this to collection agencies, you'd get a lot more volume.

@Jason Bott Well sell me some freakin insurance already man!

@Jerry Puckett I've been dealing with them for years. I'm trying to get a wholesaler to show me a legitimate wholesaling operation. When they contacted me prior to learning of this forum, I just assumed they were straight up scam artists. I didn't know they cloaked themselves in the veil of legitimate real estate activity in places like this.

@Jason Bott @Account Closed

The problem I'm having now is that I contacted a broker in Hagerstown who told me they would not write the liability insurance unless I purchased casualty insurance for the properties. He claimed if there was a fire I would sue him. This just seems like a scam among Maryland insurance agents to force people into policies that are bad for them in order to earn a higher commission.

Any suggestions on a next step to obtain the liability policy?

@k. 

@Account Closed I agree with you on this. I tried today to get a quote for stand alone liability and the insurance agent told me he simply wouldn't write it unless I insured the property. His "claim" was he couldn't let the house burn down and there be no coverage. More like, don't want to work for smaller commissions.

@Raphael Cuthbertson Sometimes the best service you can provide a client is to sit them down like a stern parent and tell them when they're wrong. If he has any remaining self-worth whatsoever he will talk - about how much he respects you.