All Forum Posts by: Val Csontos

@Juan Pernas @Jay Hinrichs @Ben Leybovich  

IMHO No Money Done (NMD) deal WILL get you in to the game, and if you do if right (I used to and still buy about 20% below Lender Appraised Value (LAV), NMD OPM financing, and on occasion 50% less than LAV), your efforts will let you go higher and higher BUT at some point you will need to develop a "fear of heights" so you can look back over your current achievements.

       While looking back you should cautious a bit and start thinking about Wealth Preservation Strategies, Cash flow optimization ..... I personally really slowed down to catch my "breath" (moved family  to better schools, remodeled my in-laws and  my dead's house) but I am picking it up and get moving again. I does take a lot of energy and patience to sit tight and weight out the market cycles but I am more patient now than ever. 

Why acquire a headache only in the name of "growth"? NMD or not, we now only buy something if it is really really worth our time. K.I.S.S.

I am a Terp that should tell you all :)

What about using Areal Photography for roof inspections? Like a subcontractor to a home-inspector or a roofer co? Or checking roofing work completed on behalf of the homeowner and than send video to  a second roofer/home inspector via net for verification?

@J Scott have your Pm listed the property at the local HA and MBQ office?

If not than you might want to consider doing it.  We have a Sec 8 tenant and an MBQ tenant in our properties, that are somehow too "odd" for market tenants and these tenants have been in the unit for over 6 years with zero vacancies with very close to market rents......

Good luck to you!

@Phillip Gonzales show her how you are making money while investing in RE, and go out there and make some too, and she will demand that you invest more. Seriously, that is what happened to me. Also later whey you are getting bigger and better with your RE portfolio/cash-flow, she will really appreciate the security that the investment provides to you guys and how smart you were for coming up with this. ( just be conservative with your investment and listen to her "caution radar")

@Jade Wong I am attaching the article about the NO CAPITAL GAIN TAX for SEC 8 LANDLORDS. It is paste it on the bottom of my post directly from the IRS code docs;

        Also as far as your question about not having a renewed contract. If you have the "standard" agreement with your local housing office, your agreement will probably automatically was renewed IF you toke no action AND You passed or intend / will pass inspection. The "standard" contracts we were given by the HO office in the past 12-13 years were Federally written and approved by congress to be used in each local jurisdictions. 

Low-income housing. Low-income housing includes all the following types of residential rental property.

• Federally assisted housing projects if the mortgage is insured under section 221(d)(3) or 236 of the National Housing Act or housing financed or assisted by direct loan or tax abatement under similar provisions of state or local laws.
• Low-income rental housing for which a depreciation deduction for rehabilitation expenses was allowed.
• Low-income rental housing held for occupancy by families or individuals eligible to receive subsidies under section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937, as amended, or under provisions of state or local laws that authorize similar subsidies for low-income families.
• Housing financed or assisted by direct loan or insured under Title V of the Housing Act of 1949.

The applicable percentage for low-income housing is 100% minus 1% for each full month the property was held over 100 full months. If you have held low-income housing at least 16 years and 8 months, the percentage is zero and no ordinary income will result from its disposition

ps,: mentally ill people never show gratitude for kindness, so we help the mentally ill/ because it is the wright thing to do and we slip good at night. My mom had severe mental illness so have some insight into that area.

@Jade Wong  In our experience most of our Sec8 clients are mentally challenged recovering alcoholics etc. There is always a reason why they are receiving public assistance as most of them really need it.  

       When they "act up" do not take it personal it is not worth it! Just act professional and 

like @Marcia Maynard  said, get an upper-hand of the situation. Here is how we do it: 

If they don't pay we file the first step in court (failure to pay) and they get a notice and panic and usually find some money to catch up their share of the rent, sometime from church state agency etc...

If they don't let us in for repairs we just e-mail the case worker and usually with in a week thing are back to "normal" .

As a side note: Did you know, If you have long term Section-8 tenants in your property, you are exempt from capital gain taxes when you sell it? I had already posted this info on BP with reference to the IRS article under the tax questions.

@Elke Cardella When you are that far away, you need to keep in mind a few thing: 

    Out of state people might try to sell you properties that are not in nervelessly good investments for you but it helps them to achieve their goals by unloading it to you, and others.

    Also appreciation can be speculative as there are no grantees that you will get them in the future. 

That being said what you probably would want is to do your own homework, by look up US Census sites for various counties around here, and look for areas that had continuous population growth in say the past 10 years, and with a forecast for additional growth as well. I generally like to see at least a 1.5% growth. Then verify your target area by check the crime reports websites such as www.crimereports.com

       With out some some basic research, some one could sell you properties at highly inflated properties.  

        Before singing anything I would highly recommend to visit down here and see it for your self what you are getting into.The Southwest Airline Hub is located right here, at BWI (Baltimore Airport) if you catch them on a good day you can fly here probably for about $200 round trip.

     One more thing: 

"Caveat Emptor"

Years ago in the 90s my mentor used to warned me about "turn key" properties, he  said that experienced investors will always keep the "good" investments and only pass the so so ones to someone else, and they market those as "turn key" properties.

        If you are in the area and would like to learn more about our area, i will be happy to grub a cup of coffee with you.

Good Luck to you!

@Richard Sanderson 

IMHO The truly successful investors are always "Buy and Hold". They might start out with other things to generate some income/capital, but for the most part they majority of  investors with 8 figures net worth or more are buying and, ONLY selling case by case to improve the performance of their portfolios.

Garry Keller for his book has interviewed over 400 RE high net worth inventors (his book tittles the " Millionaire RE investor" I highly recommend to read it)  and in there you can read:

 pretty much non of the investors are "flippers" unless they do it to kill some time while focusing on "Buy and Hold"-ing their RE portfolio.

Good Luck to you!

     My friend and I, ran out of money in 1987 on the French Riviera, so we lived in my car that looked exactly like the one bellow: 

(1964 Skoda Octavia) 1.1 liter engine.

    We spent about 10 days in that car. We had hardly any food either, lost a lot of our weight, but I still have great memories of this car as it was my first, and I wouldn't mind to own it again one day :)

@Sheri H.  Last time (  end of 1999) I toke the RE agent's advise on Flipping/rehabbing game plan I worked my rear off for six months and made almost zero $$$$ on my flip but my "advisor" agent made two commissions on it (buy/sell).

The education I received was price less:  conduct my own due diligence and not let the Agent influence on what and how I need to buy.