All Forum Posts by: John Rooster

Off the top of my head, I can not think of a single time my tenants called the police. It does bring to mind the time a couple years ago, when I had one of my crew painting an SFR that I had been renting to the same couple for 3 years. My worker tells me that someone dressed as a telephone repair man knocked on the front door, when the tenant answered the front door, a swam of about 5 police exited an unmarked van parked just down the street, entered and searched the house. The wife (about 45 years old) had evidently been previously convicted of having painkillers illegally, and there was some report of her having more pain killers, or some such thing. This was just some daffy woman with a painkiller dependancy, not some big dealer. The cops then supenaed (sp?) my lease. I think they eventually dropped the charges.

The only basis for the article title appears to be this sentence:"RealtyTrac recently put out a report that said more than 50 percent of June home sales in Nevada, Florida and New York were all cash. In Vermont, it was 80 percent." and some vague reference to some Goldman Sacks report that says something about the percentage of purchases made with cash being twice what it was 7 years ago, no mention of what those percentages are or were.

Firstly: Any data from Realty Trash is highly suspect in my opinion. More specifically, I do find it plausible that 80% of home purchases in Vermont are cash buyers, to me that is obviously an error in data collection.

Secondly, even if one is inclined to believe Realty Trash data, the data quoted is specific to only four States. And it would seems probable to me that New York, Nevada, and Florida would have historically high cash purchase percentage rates.

I have a mix of condos, townhomes and SFRs for rentals. A question I get from about one in four potential tenants is "How much do the Utilites run". I have no idea how much the utilities are on any of my properties. Fact is the local Utility where I live will not tell me what the electric/gas usage is/was without consent of the tenant, I expect that policy is the rule now. If I had an apartment building, with a bunch of similar units, I would make an effort to establish an answer for this question, but I do not. And most of the people that ask this question fall into the 'not very motivated, window shopping' category of potential renters, further demotivating me from researching the question. I suspect this question derives from some prosaic advice repeated hundreds of times on how to rent a home.

.

I am curious if any of you landlords actually make an effort to answer this question.(?)

In the forth paragraph the author does put forth a disclaimer to the effect that the volume numbers are Montelongo's and that based up some other assumptions (the 50% net which he appears to have manufactured), his net last year is estimated to be $50,000,000. But the reporter did nothing to verify or refute the Montelongo $100,000,000 in revenue number, or the 350,000 seminar attendance, or even put forth a skeptical tone. And there is no such qualifier in the Headline. Thus bad reporting imo. And I am not interested in hearing some B.S. about the reporter not writing the headlines, anyone with any integrity would insist upon writing their own headlines.

Agree with the others, the $50 Million number is a gross exaggeration. Sure he has probably sold some sucker a $40,000 seminar package, but the vast majority are almost certainly less than $5,000. Unfortunately the quality of news reporting these days is very low, even at Forbes. It is well known that he is a fraud, it is all over the internet for anyone that bothers to look. It sounds like the reporter bought the Montelongo hype about what a big shot he is.

If you have a mortgage interest rate below 4.5% and you are going to continue to live in the area, and holding that house is not going to prevent you from buying another house, then I would say rent the house

I rent 5-10% below market, so about one in 3 people that I show to end up wanting to rent the place. I also put language in my ad that discourages non qualified applicants from calling me. This strategy works out well for me. 0 for 12 indicates to me it is over priced. Not sure how you are evaluating market value, if you are going on CL and looking at similar properties for rent, you are only determining what properties are not renting at.

While I agree with you in large part. I will argue that there is a place for wholesalers in theory. In theory it takes a lot of time for investors to screen potential deals, and it is worth paying a wholesaler something to find, vet, screen and negotiate potential deals, so that the investor can better utilize his/her time on remodeling, selling, managing and financing properties. But the reality is different. An investor needs to vet and screen the potential deals from the wholesaler, and this usually is just as time consuming as finding and screening deals from Sellers since most wholesalers are just failed or green wantabe investors that have an inflated valuation of their service. This is where the Walmart/Target analogy breaks down. And btw, your 20% wholesaler commission is a long way from reality. And yes, in normal markets, the really good deals that wholesalers do manage to score are usually from unsophisticated and infirm sellers.

Just an "I buy houses" post card would be best. There is no need to mention the unpaid property taxes.

As far as the wisdom of targeting people with unpaid property taxes, well not such a productive strategy imo. Unless maybe they within a couple months of actually losing their property to a Tax Deed.

In addition to Joel's excellent explaination, I would add that many (probably most depending upon area) agents are part timers. Most of those part timers have some other source of income (full time job, spouse, child support, rentals, investments, parents (just saw the movie Parker), etc...). In fact some part timers are so unmotivated they maintain agent status primarily for maintaining their social circle.