All Forum Posts by: Jay Harding

@Jessica Vollendorf Lets meet at the Gold Dust Meridian on SE Hawthorne, if you've never been there they have the longest happy hour in PDX 2 - 8PM everyday, great drinks and appetizers are outstanding as well. 

http://golddustmeridian.com/

I can do anytime after 5:30 but 6:30 is really good. 

Cheers, 

@Jessica Vollendorf lets do a week from Monday evening which would be June 12th,  What part of town are you in? 

@Jessica Vollendorf ,,,,,,Happy Friday Jessica and please forgive me for the delay in replying, just crazy busy!

Regarding the UMBRELLA going over both the LLC which is a business and Personal policies like your private passenger auto policy and the home where you reside and it's insurance policy the only way to know is to get a "SPECIMEN POLICY" from your agent or broker and read it, highly recommended if you have insomnia, ha! My experience is that most if not all Personal Umbrellas "EXCLUDE" business pursuits IE policies and that a "Business/Commercial Umbrella excludes coverage for personal policies, again please know I am not currently licensed and could be wrong but if an agent or broker is telling you different I highly recommend getting a copy of the "POLICY FORM" IE Specimen policy before purchasing and reading it if you'd like as someone with ZERO SKIN in the game I'd be happy to meet for coffee or a beer and go over the form with you and give you my thoughts.

Secondly under a business owners policy the named insured would be your LLC, it would cover the property used to conduct your business, like your computer, printer, desk, tools if you rehab homes and the list goes on, because I'm assuming you office out of your home and most homeowners policies only have a small limit of coverage for personal property being used for business. You would also have liability typically $1,000,000 in case someone sues the LLC and since I'm sure you use a PERSONAL VEHICLE insured on a PERSONAL AUTO POLICY for your business purposes you like most folks have a huge GAP in coverage as personal auto policies exclude auto's being used for business purposes and people don't know this because their agents don't tell them and normal people don't read their policies. That's whats good about a business owners policy because you can buy a COVERAGE called "NON-OWNED/HIRED AUTO" coverage which is usually $1,000,000 and goes over an "AUTO" that the BUSINESS DOES NOT OWN but is using for BUSINESS PURPOSES or IF you RENTED/HIRED a vehicle for a day or weekend.

Finally regarding using two different companies I would say definitely save the extra cash for sure because to be quite frank typical agents (NOT ALL AGENTS MIND YOU) are great at either PERSONAL LINES or COMMERCIAL LINES very few do both well and honestly its the same for the companies that actually issue the policies, most large commercial carriers policies are superior to a business policy of a company that writes mostly auto and homes and vice versa. 

I'm not sure if you attended the BP Portland Meet up earlier this month but I met an insurance broker there who is also an investor and he holds a designation called "CIC" which stands for "Certified Insurance Counselor" and takes time, money and continuing education every year to keep, these brokers are typically far superior to other brokers in their knowledge of insurance contracts etc. I know because I was a CIC myself! If your interested I could certainly get you his information. 

Have a great weekend,  

It looks like they were just fined for not filing financials in a timely manner last year according to the case# @Karen Black provided and they seem to be still operating: http://www.portlandfunding.com/

That said I have no experience of working with them. 

Cheers, 

Count me in also and thanks for organizing this! 

@Jessica Vollendorf, I spent 20 years in property & casualty insurance for whatever that's worth, however you should know that I sold my agency several years ago and I did not renew my licenses.

You should first have a "Business Owners Policy" covering your LLC's business pursuits, property etc, etc. Then of course you will need to carry "Homeowners Policies" on your properties, now the named insured on the homeowners policies will be your LLC if in fact your LLC owns these properties. Umbrella policies are always recommended if you have a large amount of assets you need to protect. Please be aware that all umbrellas are not the same, so you need to ask your insurance broker specifically which policies does the "UMBRELLA" go over? For example is your primary vehicle owned/insured under the LLC? If so it should be insured on a "Business Auto Policy" and you would for sure want the umbrella to go over both the Business Owners Policy & Business Auto Policy. If you're primary auto is insured on a personal auto policy and you are using the vehicle for business purposes you should read your policy to see what it says regarding coverage when/if it's being used for business, or call your agent/broker and ask them but make sure they put in writing whatever they tell you, like an email. If you use the vehicle to drive to your main job and only use it occasionally for your real estate ventures let your agent know this. Commercial Insurance contracts are fairly complex and thus I highly recommend using an independent insurance broker that represents multiple companies and writes a lot of commercial insurance. Regarding your tenants they should know that none of their personal contents, furniture, clothes electronics etc are covered under your homeowners policies and therefore if they want them covered they should purchase a "Renters Policy" and please note that the renters policy should come with some liability coverage should your tenants have guests over that get injured which is helpful to you especially in a serious accident where damages could be significant. The renter's policy should be primary coverage for their guests before your business owners policy limits would come into play. If you want to make sure that your tenants keep the policy in force you could ask them to have their agent/broker include an endorsement to their renters policy that is called the "ADDITIONAL INSURED" endorsement and the additional insured would be your LLC if it owns the property or yourself if you own the property, this endorsement will require the insurer to send the LLC or you copies of any cancellations or changes to the policy, you should know though that this endorsement cost's additional premium that the renter would pay.

Good luck . . . 

Jonathan, you are welcome glad to be of a little assistance. 

Now again I'm a newbie but my mentor is a very successful veteran and if he were on BP and commenting here he would say don't hold your breath waiting on a reply from planning because they are extremely backed up. Your best bet is to go downtown take a number and meet with a planner, plug your meter for MAX hours and take a good book! Make sure you check the office hours as they close at 1:00 PM one day I believe it might be Thursdays. 1900 SW 4th Ave #5000, Portland, OR 97201

Cheers,  

Jonathon, first I'm a newbie investor for sure but interestingly enough my first deal last year was on a lot that was dividable, in case your not aware this web-site will tell you your zoning and if it is dividable Portland Maps . The one thing I learned that currently in Portland it is a lengthy process to get the lot divided and can be costly depending on the situation. The nice thing for you is that you are living there so the length is not a big deal and the extra lot would most likely be a very valuable asset. Lastly these guys were highly recommended but I have not had the opportunity to personally work with them yet Faster Permits . 

Good luck . . . . 

@Jay Hinrichs If you read into my post that I was making myself out to be as you state "SOME MAJOR PLAYER" that's completely on you Jay, you should re-read the post, I did not like him lumping all brokers/wholesalers into the same lump., never did I even in the slightest way suggest I was an REI guru!

In fact most of my responses in the last year or so on BP I make it clear I am new to the game. That said I did not get in the business blindly, rather a very successful REI guy I know has mentored me and even encouraged me for well over a year before I ever started and I did a lot of research before doing so including trying to make sure that it was legal to wholesale property.

Secondly, if I did not give you the address of the property as you say then I did not have the property under contract yet, other wise I would have certainly shared it with you like I did 30 or so other investors in PDX including the firm who actually bought the contract via the assignment route. I must have been seeking your professional opinion on the deal is all I can figure I don't actually remember and to be honest like I said it's so irrelevant now and with this issue so who cares? 

Thirdly, I thanked you originally for your insight to me on this thread about the legality of marketing property that I don't actually own and that I would call my broker. But instead of you looking at my honest gratitude you arrogantly tried to flip it on me like who am I not to trust you by calling someone I do know personally and trust, certainly you have/would do the same thing in similar situations, no? Perhaps I used the wrong terminology calling him a broker, is there a difference between a licensed real estate agent & a licensed real estate broker? 

Lastly, never have I said you did not know what you were talking about that would be utterly foolish and disrespectful on my part. Why? Because I don't know you from Adam and I have no reason to not believe what you write, but again it would be unwise of me to not verify what you say for the very same reason which is I don't know you, right? Consider this, you yourself in this very thread have stated there are bad licensed agents in the business just like to their are bad people in every line of business. 

You can have the last word on this if you so desire because I have more important work to do, namely figure out if I can still be in this game and if so what is the best, smartest way to do it and with what partners. 

Honestly I wish you nothing but much more future success Jay.  

@John Thedford I went back and re-read your initial post that I found offensive where I called you unwise for lumping all brokers together & can easily admit that you were not necessarily referring to all wholesalers but rather wholesalers representing themselves as brokers, please forgive me for the misinterpretation? It should be known that I have never represented myself as a broker and as stated have always made it very clear to my sellers that I was not a licensed agent/broker, rather only an REI/Wholesaler.

All that said what I have done in the past may not be legal anymore which will change my game plan for sure. I have lot's of research work on my plate before I do anything else in the REI race.