All Forum Posts by: Jacob Sampson

I would be interested.

I love the idea. Not sure if date or time works yet.

You don't want my advice.  I am content with boring and my advice is just that.  Ease your way into this business, take time to master the level you're at before moving to the next.  If this business is exciting, you are, likely, doing it wrong.  This is a grind wherein by the end you hopefully have some significant wealth.  This is a business of time and quantity...and time.

You have stepped into the biz, sit back and learn from this first property.  Make sure the reality of buy and hold is what you want.  Be opportunistic, meaning buy great deals as they come along.  Don't just buy to increase the number of units in your portfolio.  Stick to the math, don't fudge the numbers to make the next deal work, again, just so you can add to the number of units you own.

Now that you have, likely, depleted your cash, take some time to breathe and rebuild.  Piles of cash are the best protection for the progress you've made.

I will allow pets in the homes that I have wood flooring all throughout.  I do try to limit size and quantity, but I limit them by higher fees.  I have a lady that has 3 German Shepherds living in a home of mine.  I charge $40/month per dog as a fee (non refundable).  She has lived there for 4 years now.  That's a lot of money she has paid in pet fees. 

We regularly (every 3-6 months) inspect our homes so I know if something is really going wrong.  So far no big deal.  And as I stated above, I try to finish the home out in materials that are not easily damaged by pets.

There isn't any cash flow in that deal so it's a no for me. 

I have 16 units, but I'm a fan of the boring plan of have large piles of sweaty cash.  Nothing protects you from calamity like tons of cash.  I doubt thats the answer you wanted to hear, though.  It's OK to take a breather.  Take some time to store up cash and protect the progress you have made so far.  That probably isn't the advice you want either.

Now that you have some experience you could look for a partner that will put up the cash for 50/50 ownership.

Well, I don't have a problem calling a local bank and just saying, "Hey I am interested in looking at the properties you have forclosed on."  They either say yes or no.  Loan officer is probably who you would ask for. 

The bank I do all my investing with usually just runs properties by me to see if I'm interested.

Ultimately, you are going to find the VAST majority have a process in place, which is to run them through a local realtor and they are going to stick to that process. If you watch the MLS enough you get familiar with which realtors are primarily forclosure realtors.

On a pretty regular basis, I search the MLS and then pull the homes up on the appraisers site to see what they last sold for, what the taxes are, and other info like that.

Alot of investers don't think the MLS is worth the time. In my market, that's all I use. I'm a boring dude.

I absolutely love the idea of starting out with a duplex that you live in one side and rent out the other. I never did it, but if I could go back in time I would. A SFH that you live in and fix-up then rent out may be the next best thing.

Not necessarily. The building they office out of will likley be in there. As you are going through the list any of the homes or land will, likley, be forclosures. Also, remember they usually sell through realtors, so many of those properties will be on the MLS, as well.

You can search the appraisers site using national bank names as well, for forclosures that national banks own.

I'm a little concerned about $135k for $1600 in rental income.  That is a bit high for my taste, especially when $200/month of it is gone right off the top.  That being said, If this is a long term deal for you then I think you look at it long term.  If the vacancy issue is a short term problem then it's not that big a deal.  If you think this could be a sporadicly reoccuring problem, I would add a slightly higher vacancy rate in my calculations.