All Forum Posts by: Danielle Shulman

I absolutely would disclose that! Cooking substances is extremely dangerous and toxic. If the owner is not aware of that then they will not do the proper testing during inspection. Usually mold and air quality is tested but nothing else. Those chemicals are just as dangerous as asbestos. The long term affects can be dangerous. Better safe than sorry! If you do not disclose that information and know about it they can sue you. 

I am going to utilize as much free advertising as I can for my company, whether it be via social media posts, blogs, etc. Our budget hasn't been released for 2015 but I found we wasted a good deal of $ on ads that did not turn into serious inquires. The more organic SEO we can get, the better our overall numbers will be and we won't have to utilize PPC ads.

Does not bother me either way.

If you are looking for an investment property, what appeals to you most, a full-gut rehab or a basic "face-lift"?  Why?

We started out working with full-gut rehabs but noticed on these 100 year old Chicago homes, we run into so many more structural issues than we'd like to see. This in-turn takes longer and cost much more.  We recently have adapted to what we call, "lipstick rehabs."  These lipsticks include new flooring, counters, appliances, removal of one or two  non-structural walls, and  as much cosmetic fixes as we can do. This allows us to flip the property in roughly 30 days.

As an investor, what plan is most-appealing?

Additionally, if the owner's address matches the property it's because they own it as opposed to it being an investment property. It is illegal and a bank/lender can default your loan if you say you live in the house and do not. People do this to avoid the higher down paymentrequirement of an investment loan vs traditional loan. If the property is not for sale I do not know why you'd be contacting them anyways. 

Does anyone know of a service that could locate empty properties? I do not understand what you are asking, please clarify.

Also after we find a property, how to find the property owner if his/her county's record is the same mailing address as the property's? Almost all counties will have the information online. You can look up the property by it's PIN and the owner of record's address will be on there. However, pins are associated with the lot not the person who actually owns it that is why I say owner of record. A lot of counties do not properly file the paperwork (as is the case in Cook County, IL) and an owner from ten years ago can still be listed on the property.  The best is to look at the records and try to recorder of deeds to see if the property is owned, bank owned, foreclosed etc. From there, you should be able to find out if the property is owned or was lost. If lost, you can find it on any listing site.

Wix is VERY easy to use and gives you a lot of options as far as templates and layout. It also ties into SEO very well. You can keyword each page and add separate SEO settings w hich are very important for being found.  I highly recommend using Wix. If you need help message me. I created all our websites andwork and then some.

When investing in real estate, what do you consider a strong rate of return? When you decide to make an investment on your own or through a reputable company, what numbers are realistic? Before you invest, do you research the numbers, and where? What data do you use to compare your investment with others?

Good luck! If you need help finding renters we have a large renter pool in FL.

I enjoy writing blogs as well as posting news articles about what is happening in the real estate market as well as positive news for the cities/areas we invest in. 

Detroit. for example, is a hot market right now with A LOT of potential. The city unfortunately was hit hard during the recession and lost a lot of residents, businesses and character it once had. I try to find and post articles that help investors see the positive things about the city and the market. 

I recently posted an article on new major businesses establishing headquarters in one of Detroit's major buildings and all of the good the company will do to help bring life back to the economy.  I also post the quarterly market updates published by business reports and major real estate sites to help investors know how well the area is growing.

When deciding to invest, how important is the local economy to your decision making process?