All Forum Posts by: Dory Peters

The market rents are less than the monthly payment (PITI) in certain areas.

Does that mean you'd structure your notes to be negative amortizing in those cases?

Jose is soooooooooo right about "most people would rather die than admit they don't know something." I also have run into hundreds of Realtors/agents/brokers who told me (and others) that I couldn't do something that I actually knew that I could do. I usually silenced them by referring them back to the relevant law(s).

For example, I once told a Realtor that I wanted to write certain terms on a contract, and explained that handwritten terms trump the legal verbiage in a contract according to contract law. He admitted he was unaware of that, and he check with his broker. His broker told him that I was wrong, and I referred him several links including ones from Harvard and Standford citing that law.

Like Ryan, I read every line of every page--including the fine print, and I'll hire a real-estate attorney to interpret the provisions that I don't understand.

I used to find it quite difficult to work with Realtors until I changed my approach. I found that most Realtors had a greater issue with writing multiple offers rather than writing low offers, and of course many of them also had issues with writing low offers. Now, I'll send a copy of my business and marketing plans to any new agents that I intend to qualify, and I'll ask them for a copy of their marketing plan. I explain that I'll use LOIs and I won't have him/her to write up anything until after I have an accepted LOI, and I won't schedule any visits for properties that I don't already have under contract.

We need to realize that a Realtor's time is his/her most valuable asset, and a little consideration goes a long way.

A lot of sellers in my area are delusional, stubborn, and fickle. Although they've read the news, they've seen some foreclosures in their neighborhoods, and they've entered into various negotiations, many of them are still trying to hold out for 2005-2006 prices--only to lose their homes via foreclosure or whine about the fact that their property values continue to drop. I hope my next statement doesn't come off as being insensitive, but I wish they'd sell or shut up.

Anyway, although I'd like to do business with some of the locals, I do deals mostly out-of-state.

Should the fact whether or not a property is listed affect the way one structures a wholesale deal? IMHO, no, because a deal is a deal.

Interesting post. I didn't know about a few of those sites (like classifiedflyerads.com, ahrn.com, rentals.com, rent-to-own.us, rentals.nationalrelocation.com, and rentdigs.com). I've received a pretty good response rate with craigslist and kijili--especially for posts with great pics.

Although I'm not sure about Arlington County, I know that certain code violations in DC are a matter of public record. One can obtain some info via OTR and code enforcement officers. Also, I called to inquire for similar information in Fairfax County, and I was directed to various county and state offices (depending upon the type of code violation).

Another "trick" to getting a contact is to call/write your county code enforcement agency to report a violation. Use the mini-skirt approach: provide enough details to cover the subject, and keep your description short enough to keep it interesting. Stated another way, give them enough info to warrant further investigation into the matter, and leave out enough details to make them want to call you back.

Advertise one of your TX deals via non-local classifieds (online and/or print), investor club forums, bus ads, etc.

You could also take a similar approach that many tech companies use for advertising their products/services during conventions in LV (like CES): hire some attractive, young co-eds to pass out some business cards, postcards, and/or other promotional materials for you. Sure it's low tech, and sure it works.

I suspect that property might be overpriced (assuming it's one of the typical 3/2 homes one will find in Arlington). Even if you were to purchase a property in Arlington at its current market value, then that property most likely won't immediately yield positive cash-flow. Will's observation, that this property doesn't satisfy the 1% rule, is also true for most properties in Arlington.

This property might work better as a sub2 or lease-option.

Vince, I agree with the other posters, and I'll also offer you another business model. Take a look at some of the Open Source software licensing models like the following: Gnu, Apache, Sun, Apple, and BSD. In a way, the model that MikeOH, Rich, and the rest of us are affirming for RE is similar to the Open Source model, because there aren't any secrets. The best practices rise to the top, and the others settle with the other residue.

Investors are competing/collaborating for deals as software companies are competing/collaborating for mindshare, money, server footprints, and desktop RE (I couldn't resist that one :). Just as there are more deals to do than investors to do them, there are more problems to solve than developers to solve them. The point is there's more than enough room in the market to accommodate all of the developers/investors who which to do business. Some people prefer to use a combination of "guru secrets" and marketing hype to sell their products/services; whereas, others (myself included--both as an investor and developer) opt to operate openly.

I'm originally from Cleveland, and I've lived in Columbus for years, so I know both markets very well.

One potential pitfall to avoid--especially in Cleveland--is that some property management companies won't handle properties in certain neighborhoods.

Also, make sure to hire a property management company that will monitor your property vigilantly--meaning they will drive by the property at least once or twice a week.

Let me know what zip codes you have in mind, and I can share what I know, or I can get an answer (from one of my contacts) even if I don't know the answer off the top of my head.

Until relatively recently, I kind of used to think that way too. I really have to thank Nick J and Jason H (who post here) plus Nick C (from REI-TV.com [he even gave BP a nice shout out]) for opening my eyes for ways to use sub2s even on properties with little/no/negative equity.

Here's a post (http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/61/topics/35970-subject-to-loan-modification) where I discussed 3 options that I presented to a seller on one of my offers yesterday. Although I didn't borrow anything new from Nick C, his videos contained ideas that helped to reinforce what I learned from Nick J and Jason H.

The point is that sub2s aren't only good for properties with lots of equity; one can structure them to work just as effectively for properties with little/no/negative equity too. However, the devil is of course in the details.