All Forum Posts by: Brian Serina

No but my wife and I really like the southern area of France.  Please do let us know how it goes - I would be very interested in the journey you take if you do purchase something there.  We went to Nice a couple years ago and spent two weeks bike riding and while there ended up looking at a lot of property for sale, mostly vacation rentals.  More for curiosity I suppose.  A lot of Brits have rentals there and it seemed like a lot of stuff on the market that was for sale were owned by...Brits.  Like anything, make sure you have a good lawyer that can navigate both the French system and the American.  Dealing with two tax systems gives me a head-ache just thinking about it...

It's all about the level of satisfaction you want as a buyer. Sch E seems like a must-have. All the major MF brokerages require them as part of the listing packaging process. The only time I have ever seen Sch E or p&l's not available is when a MF listing ends up on the MLS by a residential agent. And private off-market deals, it's part of the conversation right up front so there's no surprises (and it's part of the seller profile analysis - who are we working with and what is he/she willing to provide...). On those rare occasions when the seller is not providing anything which I am involved in one now, is a nasty divorce or partnership split and they have to shed assets - those are usually a quick(er) close in lieu of full due diligence with a hard money loan up front to make things happen.

 There is no law saying a Buyer should do any due diligence as there is no law saying you shouldn't walk in front of a moving bus...but common sense would dictate that all buyers should be...careful...Rents collected should be easily traceable as deposits to the seller's bank stmnt.  I always advise my clients to do a quick test, a test to see how much testing you might actually have to do.  Pick a month in the past prior twelve months, pick two, and tie out all rents claimed to have been collected to a bank statement.  If the one or two months tie out and agree, you are probably looking at a clean recording system.  If they don't, I tell them to go for the past 24 months and get a really good explanation on why rent receipts the seller is claiming are not agreeing to the deposits being made.   And get the tax returns direct from BOTH the IRS and the Seller since there are cases where rent receipts claimed from a seller are different from the ones that ended up on the tax return actually filed.  And if the Seller says no, well, each no is a shave off the selling price.

 At least you would be able to get in touch with someone if that were to happen...

Folsom is a great place to live and raise a family, the bike riding is fantastic.  Investing?  Not so much.  There are better areas in and around the Sacramento area where your investing dollars would make more sense.

Hi Howard, feel free to reach out to me.  W Sac is growing, pockets in and around east of mid-town and south.  It’s all growing.  11k new homes in Folsom,  7k new ones in Rancho Cordova, the demogs show a continuing increase of people coming here.

If you do post the business for sale on either of those two sites, be sure update “refresh” so they don’t become old and stagnant.  By tweaking just a few words it changes the posting and gets resent out to everybody that is signed up on those sites (that maybe looking in your area).  I do mine every other week, sometimes once a week.  

 If you happen to visit their office, let us know.  That would be interesting but probably not as productive as you would want it to be.

Hi Justin,  they’re around.  Market still seems to be rather active.

Hi Howard, the Sacramento area has experienced a surge in growth over the past ten years but there are still opportunities that come up.  My suggestion would be to read some books on investing, being a landlord, and get to know the neighborhoods.  Everyone wants to invest and flip homes homes in Folsom until they realize all the homes are $600k to a mil.  Those calls are always entertaining - we are not Ohio.  That being said, the area continues to grow and expand.