All Forum Posts by: Chris C.

Sounds like bad leech field.  Just had another leech field added to one of my units for $1500.   You need to talk to another septic company also.  The tank can be dug up and inspected for less then $100 and can be pumped for $250 to $350.  They have to remove the lid to pump it anyway.

Sounds like you could make the same profit just listing houses as an agent with no risk.

Just my 2 cents.

I have been investing for about 5 years and educating myself for about 10.  Recently a young associate I work with has approached me about helping him get started in real estate.  I love to teach and often learn more then I teach so I am very open to assisting this young man.  He has a lot of initiative and a back ground in building so I feel that I will not be wasting my time and if things work out would consider him working with/for me.

My question is how do I structure this relationship.  The best way to learn is by doing I believe but I do not want to take advantage of him while also realizing I am paying him in knowledge.  I don't intend him to do any manual labor just run comps, meet contractors, etc.  The normal daily business we do in flipping, rehabbing, and rentals.  Any insight will be appreciated.

Thanks

I have a baseline like J Scott recommends. Mine is $15k which is eerily close to J Scotts but considering we are in similar areas and my business model is pretty much completely based on his books it is no surprise our baselines are similar. Like J Scott said build your own baseline.

I arrived at mine by building spreadsheets and using past expenses to develop averages. I now have a google spreadsheet that I can plug in sqft and ARV and it uses my repair cost to estimate what I should purchase the house for. It is literally called "Quick-N-Dirty Rehab Estimator".

I am with Jacob on this one also. You need to focus on being a great project manager. You hire subs and keep your time available for approving new purchases and making sure current rehabs are getting done right and quickly. The only labor you should be doing is the small stuff that usually falls the cracks to wrap a project up. J Scott talks a lot about what his project manager does so read some of his postings and material and use that as a guide to what your roll should be.

I am from Easley SC. Have several rental properties and started flipping last year. Closing on 2 houses this month to flip. Great time to be in SC.

Something to be aware of on the liability. From what I understand there have been some successful lawsuits were the LLC was sued but also the property manager for neglect. If a sharp lawyer can show that as the property manager you neglected that loose handrail etc then they can sue you directly effectively piercing the corporate entity. I am not a lawyer nor pretend to be one but would like to hear if anyone has any experience or know of a specific case where this has happened.

Thanks for starting another one of these threads J. Can't wait to see how this one progresses.

Thanks for this great thread @J Scott . I followed your blog for about a year then read your 2 books and that gave me the confidence to flip my first house last year. Thanks to following your advice I made a nice profit. It is hard for people to appreciate the time and effort you put into educating people for free. Thanks

I recently started using the Deposit Only Debit Cards. Wells Fargo gave me as many as I wanted for free. When the tenant makes a deposit my statement shows the last 4 digits of the card used so I reference this number to each tenant. My tenants are generally lower income and many don't even have computers so many of the methods mentioned above would just not work. The tenants love it because now they get a receipt immediately upon making payment and they no longer have to purchase money orders. Most of my tenants have always paid with money orders. I no longer get "the check is in the mail" or "I mailed it! You didn't get it yet?" excuses. I can now effectively enforce my late fees etc. and the bank is now my "office" for rent collection with multiple locations. This has been hands down the best tool I have implemented for managing my properties.

Couple of tips:

The bank requires a name on the card. I wanted all of them to just be my company name or whatever. They would not allow this so I used who ever was on the lease.

The PIN for all the cards is the last 4 digits of my google voice number I use for my rentals so that is easy for them to remember.

Welcome back to God's country Brian. Upstate Creia is the local investment group. Just google them and they have a decent website with a lot of info. As always feel free to message me and I will be glad to share any info I can.