All Forum Posts by: Bruce Woodruff

I've done this (long ago) and so have many others (do a search).

There is very little advantage to having your own RE license. UNLESS.....you want to work as a Realtor helping other people buy and sell properties...

Otherwise there is very little benefit. The MLS is no longer any better than Zillow/Realtor/Redfin/Trulia/Etc. And IMHO, some of these platforms have better search features than the MLS.

And you will not usually even save the $$ that you think you will. You can offer 3% less to the seller but that doesn't always work, although it may give you some edge. You can buy/sell houses all day long without a license, I've done it many times and it is not that hard.

But as @Carlos Marin said, if you are just an investor, getting a really good Realtor on your team will make your life easier and save you money. But good Realtors are very rare any more, like maybe 10% IMHO....

+1 to @JD Martin and @Matthew Paul

If you were to call me or another qualty Contractor, this would be a complete tear-down and redo. It's easier, faster, cheaper in the long run. And the price would be much higher than $8600. But it would be done right and would last forever.....and look really cool.....

Generally this should be a NO since most tenants do lousy work. You can't tell  anything about paint by a picture. 

Will they use primer over old areas? Will they use quality paint or the cheap $29 gal stuff? Will they apply 2 coats or be lazy and just do one?

IF you want to keep them happy, maybe let them paint, but only if they use a licensed painting Contractor who signs a contract with you, provides you with any warranties...

Maybe a little high, but not all that bad. Maybe get a couple of other quotes and see where they land?

Although its tough to advise on this specifically, I would just say.....I find too many people fixated on not paying the Cap Gains Tax. Regardless of how much profit they are taking. Sometimes it's just better to pay the dang taxes and move on.

For instance, I have a good friend who is going to sell his house for $800k after buying for $650k 18 mos ago. Taxes are about $40k and he's stressing about how to avoid paying. My advice was to just pay the $40k and walk away with $110k.

Not a bad return for 18 mos of doing nothing right?

Don't know where you are located, but maybe just say that the place is already rented (to a previous applicant)....

This is one of those 'do-anything-to-get-rid-of-this-guy' situations! You have already gone way too far to make him happy. Offer him the opportunity to move on and even encourage him with a few bucks......

I wouldn't worry about an LLC for your first and only property, wait until you have acquired more properties. LLCs do not offer the anonymity or protection that most people think, they are easy to pierce. Just be sure to have ample insurance. If/when you do one, just use Legal Zoom, attornies are expensive and unnecessary for this easy entity.

It's tough starting out in Cali for a new investor, buying a turn-key STR is going to be so expensive that you will have trouble with any positive cash-flow. Are you up for finding a distressed property and flipping it , or keeping it for a LTR?

Bad idea. It just scares the crap out of me....but then I had a disastrous period in my life where I was forced to do this, so bad memories of seeing the ramifications are probably clouding my judgement.......

As was said, only do this if you are positive that the rewards points are guaranteed to be higher than the interest you are losing. And your 'profit' from this tactic will be small, why not use your time and mental energy to fo find some killer deals and make real money?

And you're still paying interest-on-interest as @Chris Seveney said.....

True.....but I would be wary of them because they do not take into account two of the most important factors: 1) Reno budget - this is critical to get right and the cause of most failures. 2) Time - it is near impossible to calculate this accurately, too many moving parts...

Still, thay can give the prospective investor a ballpark idea.....