All Forum Posts by: Hattie Dizmond

 You can do a couple of things...

1.  Create a profile for your company here on BP explaining what you do.  If people PM you, you can always direct them to your company profile, which would also be linked to your personal profile.

2.  (This is the route I take, as we provide a subset of the services you describe.)  I simply tell people we provide services to out of market investors, and they are welcome to PM me, if they would like additional information.  Once I receive a PM from them, to ensure I'm not abusing the purpose of BP, I ask them to send me an email, so I can so I can respond our service catalog and investor screening material.  Taking this approach puts a little more burden on the investor asking the question, but it ensure I can't be accused of spamming or anything like that.

@Douglas Skipworth

Since you own the company, your post is pretty much an advertisement, which is banned in the forums and restricted to the Marketplace.  

I would expect it to be removed by a moderator.  

@Douglas Skipworth

Welcome to BP.  I'll skip my normal newbie hits for leveraging BP, as education is not where you're going to get the biggest bang for your time.  You're key is networking.  To that end, I'd like to visit with you about your goals and plans in the Dallas area. 

@Jarrod Gregory

Off Market simply means a property is not listed on the MLS or other comparable type listing service. That isn't uncommon for a commercial property. Most of them are not listed.

It is also not uncommon for agents listing high value (> $1mm) properties to ask for POF up front. (LOI tends to be more geared towards commercial properties, whereas the POF request will apply to both residential and commercial.) It weeds out the tire kickers and the people who just want to see the property out of curiosity, without even the intention of noticing whether or not it has tires.

As for your comment about "thinking an MLO might work nice", I have no idea what you're referring to with that acronym.  The only MLO I'm familiar with is a Mortgage Loan Originator.  However, you said you can't finance it outright, so what does a mortgage loan originator buy you?

At that price, you're going to get an unbelievable CoC return. My questions...

How much rehab is required for it to be rental ready? 

Is a standard 10% Vacancy rate enough?  (In a lower income area, you will often need to increase your vacancy reserve as people tend to be more mobile and more likely to encounter issues, which would require them to move.  You can partially mitigate this by making your property one of the nice rentals in the area, but you don't want to over-improve.)

PS...we tried a couple of different approaches, but almost everyone who owns property in Texas is familiar with the TREC style and form.  As long and complex as it is, it seems to create a greater air of legitimacy and a level of comfort for the seller.  Plus, the length and complexity means, if you use it properly, there really shouldn't be much you need to add to it.  Section 23 is a huge win and eliminates the need for all the goofy "weasel clauses".  Give yourself 10-working days.  If you can't figure out whether to proceed by then, you don't need to be buying the house.  But, Section 23 means you can cancel for any reason or no reason at all, and the only thing you lose is the small Cancellation Option fee you paid under that section.

@Chris Kates

We use 20-12 One to Four Family Residential sales contract, as is.  We add a clause for a "Right to Show" and use Section 23 to provide us with a 10-day (business days) inspection period.  We do not add any additional contingencies or goofy clauses.  We also list our company name as the buyer with an "Or as Assigned" statement.  Even though residential RE contracts in Texas are generally assignable, we call it out to ensure there is full disclosure.

You'll need to follow that up with an assignment contract.  That doesn't have to be anything elaborate.  It's just a basic agreement between you and the end buyer that assigns your contractual rights to them.  There are many versions in the File Place.

 It should be fine, but I would dilute the bleach, if you're using it on a uber porous stone like travertine.  Also, since you retiled it, you probably have some left over tiles.  Just run a test on a scrap piece.

@Brenda Hedges

Have you had the mold tested?  "Black mold" is a very specific strain of mold, stachybotrys chartarum (atra).  While it is true that it is greenish-black in color, many more common molds are also dark green to black in color.  The problem with molds is not the mold itself, which are not toxic, it's the mycotoxins some molds produce, as is the case with stachybotrys chartarum.  The most common indoor molds are Cladosporium, Penicillium, Aspergillus, and Alternaria, which are mostly just allergens to those with sensitivities.

As for the stain blocking paint idea, that can be a dangerous tactic, even after you have completely dried out the mold.  Once mold is completely dry, it goes dormant.  It IS NOT dead.  Mold can be resuscitated simply by introducing water/moisture, unless that liquid contains an agent capable of killing the mold, such as bleach.  (It's a lot more complex than that, and there are parts of mold and other fungus that are incredibly difficult to truly kill.  The site www.aspergillus.org.uk is an amazing reference for all things moldy!  And, yes, I'm a microbiology geek.)  So, if you introduce a latex - water-based - stain blocker, you will likely do nothing more than reactivate the mold.  Anytime you're trying to block mold, use an oil based product.  I personally recommend Zinzer.

You can purchase a test kit on line to determine whether you have stachy or one of the other mold types.

Finally, there is some really good information here about stachy mold in dwellings and cleaning here...  http://www.cdc.gov/mold/stachy.htm

Depends on the color of the grout, but I'm guessing, since you think it looks "filthy", that it's white.  If so, I still swear by a paste of baking soda and bleach.  

Make the paste like cake batter and pour it along the grout lines.  The moisture - bleach - will seep into the grout slowly, all the better to perform the bleaching.  Once the mixture is mostly dry, use a squirt bottle with bleach to moisten the baking soda and a tooth brush or scrubbing brush to scrub the grout line.  

Baking soda has an amazing amount of very gentle abrasiveness, which should lift any surface stains that remain from the bleaching.  As a kid there was very little my grandmother didn't believe baking soda and something could clean.

As for sealing, I like Miracle Sealants 511.