All Forum Posts by: Mark Elliott

hi jared. let me tell you a brief story to help you. there are a lot of foreclosures on the market today.  in fact, there are so many, that the feds put a limit on the number of foreclosures that a bank can put out on the market because these houses were destroying the housing market in our economy. hence, the banks were forced to " sit" on many of them that they otherwise would have put on the market and sold well below value. so, te banks we left to decide which ones they would put back on the market. if you were a banker and you had 100 houses that you foreclosed on, 1/2 of them were loan valued at over $100,000 and the other half under $100,000, which ones would you put on the market? easy answer, huh? so, the others??? well, banks are actually " dropping" them. thats right, they are releasing their leins on them if they are in bad shape and the banks will never get any decent price out of them anyway, or, there is no way the bank will come even close to the loan value with a sale. so, they release their lein. the bank no longer owns it, is no longer responsible for anything that happens with it, and most importantly, they get another one off their books. what happens to these houses then? well, since the previous owners most often are long gone, the letter the bank sends out to them usually never reaches them. so, the house sits for a very long time with virtually no owner and falls apart. it racks up thousands of dollars in back taxes and usually winds up in the lap of the county or state for back taxes, which then auctions the house off for pennies on the dollar. here is where you come in, or even before. i have personally found 2 of these houses, and bought them for $2000 for one and $2250 for the other. of course you have to assume the back taxes and such, but in most cases, you wind up with the house well below what it is wort anyway. the house i paid $2000 for???? i sold it 2 days later for $10,000. the other??? i am doing a rehab on it and will make around $40,000 in it in the future. get in touch with me if you want the details on how to find these places. 

hi vanna h. you need to read my post a little closer. i said there were 18 different species of BLACK mold, not just mold. toxicity can come in many different forms, yes. the degree of reaction to it is, of course, directly related to the person that comes in contact with the mold, be it breathing it in or touching it. some people with asthma can be more greatly affected by it than someone without asthma, of course. what i am saying in my post is that the black mold species that is most dangerous will show itself within 48 hours after the effected area is created. so, in this case, if black mold, ( the dangerous kind) has not shown up in 3 weeks, chances are it will not. can other species of mold form in this case??? certainly. please read clearly my post before commenting on it. by the way, i am a professional home inspector with a mold remediation certification. just thought you may want to know that

i back up darren as well. i have never used serve pro myself either but not because i don't trust them, but because i have never had the need, thank god. yes, the water leak source is an issue. was it on account of the freezer thawing? or was it the water line that fed the fridge? the cause of the issue needs to be addressed as well as a complete repair of the results of the leak. if it has been 3 weeks, mold most likely is not going to be an issue. most black mold will start to grow within 48 hours and certainly by 3 weeks would be very evident. there are 18 different species of black mold and only 2 of them are toxic. the chances of getting the toxic kind are slim, yes, but still possible. a reputable company such as servepro  certainly could leave you with no worries in the end

hi eddie. first of all, you are in new york, so the taxes part of this formula will change every year, and that means NOT go down. consequently, your monthly cash flow will decrease as well. lets look at the bigger picture. a house, bought 4 years ago, is now vacant. why?? after 4 years, this current owner has already figured out that this deal doesn't work for him. why?? if it doesn't work for him, why would you think it would work for you? he could put someone in there as well as you could and the numbers would work the same for him, so why doesn't he do it? simply...... because this place, with these numbers don't work. there is no equity, there is not going to be any equity for some time to come because the market in new york sits pretty still, and there is no one living in the place right now to get instant income from. obviously, no one live there very long anyway because it is vacant and this guy has only owned it for 4 years. in any rental situation, you can factor in a 25% vacancy rate as well, meaning at any given time, you will have no one living in there for 3 months of the year. $226 per month times 12 months of the year is $2712 per year. factor in 3 months of the year with no income at $950 per month, and your total years profit is gone. i would run the other way on this one. find another deal. they are out there

hi. i am a landlord but i do not manage a 60 unit building. i agree with everyone, get a property management company to run things for you. i do a lot of work for a property management company here in the buffalo, ny area as a handyman. quite often, we handymen know of better and faster ways to get the parts you need than doing it on your own. that being said, a/c units have to have a licensed professional work on them anyway, but knowing how to get the parts faster is always a good thing. as far as the tenant threatening the police, lol, they won't even get involved. they have better things to do than worry about some joker sweating a little bit. you dropped off a fan, the tenant refuses to open the windows, which is on him, so he, himself is causing himself and his family more harm than you are. if he is worried about the high crime issue being on the second floor, lol, criminals work as little as they can. they sure as hell are not gonna scale the side of a building like spiderman just to rob this guys place of residence; unless he has a bag of money or gold stashed in the place, in which case he probably wouldn't have been late with the rent 6 times. 

my advice, continue down the path you are on. hire a property management company, boot this dumbass out the door when his lease expires and let him become someone elses problem. good luck

hi jonathan. these two ideas are good on the merits, but your situation goes a little deeper than what they are recommending. sure, banks will not give you a loan without credit and a job, thats simple enough. you can just get a job, but you cannot just get good credit. i would recommend moving to another area. $40k will not get you very far in las vegas or any place west. here in buffalo, we have a good market. the prices stay pretty level for the most part. the killer is the taxes. then again, we have the winter issues too. not only does it get very cold which makes it hard to work on a place, but we have winter about 6 months out of the year.....lol. as far as your credit, pick up a part time job in a field that you have been in before. then, the job is a lateral move, not starting a new job in which you would have to wait 2 years before you could get a loan. second, take $1000 of that $40k and put it into a bank. after a month, go get a $1000 signature loan from that same bank, using the $1000 you have in the bank as collateral. state that it is a short term loan that you intend on paying back in 6 months. then, take that borrowed $1000 and go to another bank and deposit it. after a month, borrow another $1000 from the second bank, again using the deposited $1000 as collateral. continue this with as many banks as you can. when the first note comes due, use borrowed money to pay it off and continue as such with each bank. what you are doing is establishing credit with these banks and soon you will be able to go into any one of those banks and borrow money because you have good credit with them. 

hi. well, lets see. in this real estate business, there are two key things to remember. never go with a sole proprietor business, and two, learn the value of OPM ( other peoples money). first and foremost, form an LLC. without the LLC, your liability is limited to the business, i. e., if you are sued for any reason, they cannot come after your personal assets. and lets face it, people are sue happy these days. protect yourself and what you have. second, always borrow money to move ahead in this business. using other peoples money risks none of your money and gives you stronger motivation to work thru the problems you will ultimately encounter. the trouble for you is that the business card will come only wen you can show 2 years worth of tax records on that business. if you form the LLC now, you won't have that 2 years of tax returns to show for.......... two years. you may have to get a card based on your personal information. if you need to, start slow and low, but get started. you will be amazed at what you can do with the little you can start with. good luck

one simple question for you alex. are you a slumlord??? if not, who cares what other people think? if they called you a millionaire; are you? just because they say you are a millionaire doesn't mean you are, so why does their opinion matter? do what you want to do, and leave other peoples opinions out of the equation

i agree. never pay a contractor all the money up front. i just got burned doing that. i will probably have to take the guy to small claims court, but collecting from this guy will be another matter. this guy never completed any of the work, continually wanted to add more work and more money but never completed what he started in the first place. neer give the full amount up front and always leave a large amount due at the end so they do not just disappear

hi josh. today is kind of a busy day for me unfortunately. i am working on one of my flip houses in the tonawanda area since a contractor quit on me. maybe another time?