All Forum Posts by: Jerry W.

@Michael Ruvido, form the LLc in the state you plan to buy property in.  Run it correctly, observing all of the corporate formalities, and have good insurance.

@John Carlin, welcome to BP. Unless you are already massively wealthy why would you possibly want anonymity? First it means you are setting up several entities instead of just one or 2. Second it costs more to run, you have to run multiple sets of books and quite likely several tax returns depending on how you set up the tax status. You will have to keep several bank accounts, insurance, etc. Third, who are you going to trust to run it all? How do you expect to run it and stay anonymous? Are you going to pay an attorney to write checks, sign purchase offers, deeds, insurance forms, loans, mortgages, etc? What bank is going to loan money to an anonymous LLC? Trump has a good reason to have an anonymous LLC head a company he owns, I doubt that you do. I also doubt that you can afford it or that your portfolio will be able to turn a profit if you pay to keep it in place. How will you go to REI meetings and make connections and build a network if you are anonymous? How will you get wholesalers to send deals to an anonymous entity? How will you spread the word to all your friends to send folks to you who are selling their house if you are an anonymous owner or buyer? Being anonymous sounds cool and smart, but it is not affordable to most and impossible to all but very wealthy investors.

Buy insurance, run your business right, form one or at most layers of companies, and work on buying real estate before you try to set up a protection scheme that will drain 50% of your profit for the first 5 years and slow your investing down to a crawl.

@Jason H., ever hear of wholeselling?

@Joshua W.,

several years ago I purchased a home in Fort Wayne and meant to buy more but got sidetracked.  Since I meet the criteria for yellow letters I have received quite a few of them.  I look them over for ideas, but never call them.  I finally called on one just because it was so unique.  It actually had a picture of the house I own.  This was cool in part because I actually do not have a picture of my house there.  Anyway, upon seeing a picture of the house I simply had to call to say great job.

@Jake Kraft, even Thermopolis has seen an influx of people moving from larger metropolitan areas.  Prices are rising, but obviously nowhere near as much as in Sheridan.  Cody has seen significant increases in valuation as well.  I have been trying to purchase a property in Sheridan, but have pretty much given up.  Let me know if you see any deals you are not interested in.

@Cameron Calvert, I had one hostile neighbor who attempted to buy the duplex before me.  He offered me $50K less than I paid for it in order to do me a favor.  The other neighbor is absolutely wonderful.  On at least half a dozen occasions I drive by and see them doing a joint cookout with my AIR BnB guests.  I try to shovel the snow from my neighbors walks when I do the rental, and other little things like that.  I am also always polite.  Oddly enough the grumpy neighbor has gotten better.  He apparently went on vacation in Europe and stayed in VRs while there.

Your situation may be the same, it might not be.  Mentally ill people often do not rationally.  I would try me best to be friendly and cooperative.  It might not work, but it will be better than being a jerk.  It could actually cause your VR to fail, but also might not.  You might as well give it a try.  You can always offer to take down the fence and see how things go.  If they go well leave it down, if they disturb your guests you may have to put it up.  I love the idea to put up the security cameras.  Good luck.

@Jeffrey Evans, my post keeps getting erased but I will try one more time.

My wife has opposed pretty much every rental I have bought for the last 25 years.  Since my wife is still not really on board my advice may not be nearly as good as those from guys who convinced their wives to jump in with them.

First give her the respect of listening to her uninterrupted while she tells you why it is not a good idea.  Be open minded, DO NOT INTERRUPT HER.  She probably knows you better than nearly anyone and has a reason to feel like she does.  You need to respect her feelings.  Just listening without arguing will help.  Seek to understand before you seek to be understood.

Next, when I started I really was not very good at real estate.  It took about 6 years before I wised up and started doing math on paper to evaluate houses.  Now I put down price, interest rate, term of mortgage, monthly payment, taxes, insurance, a monthly amount for repairs, capital expenditures, vacancy, and estimated cost of rehab.  It didn't stop my wife from objecting, but it made her a lot more comfortable.

I explained to my wife that when we were dating I was riding bulls, riding race horses in races, working in an oil derrick 140 feet in the air, etc.  I was a risk taker.  She cannot expect me to be someone I am not, nor to change who I am inside to please her.  I don't chase other women, go out drinking all night, spend money on gambling, or things like that.  I deserve the respect of being able to try to run a real estate business if it doesn't endanger our family.  I am educated and intelligent, you just cannot assume I will fail.

Next I explained that I don't want to work until the day I die like my father did.  I want financial security for us and our family.  Real estate is the only avenue I see to get there.  I have a very high stress job, I don't want to do it forever.

Finally, I don't want to sound like a bigot, but I made upwards of 90% of the family income.  It is my job to provide for the family.  She does not have that weight, but I do.  I need to provide even if I die early.  Real estate is a safety hedge in case I am unable to work.  Now I would NEVER have achieved anything near my current success without my wife.  She is intelligent educated and very hard working.  She helps offset my lack of organization and impulsiveness.  She actually does all of the books of my rentals.  That is a dam tough job.

We occasionally still have arguments about real estate, but not very often, despite buying for 25 years.  Saying often says we have enough, or we just need to pay them off and stop.  We are now over 40 units and we fought for months over hiring  someone to help run them.  We try to disagree respectfully.  There are times she appreciates the rentals.  One rental I bought she looked at and said it made her want to go take a shower it was so bad.  I sold it 3 weeks later for a $14K profit.  That favorable impression lasted until I bought the next one.  I made some mistakes and learned lessons.  I have learned to listen to her, she sees things that I often don't.  I still go ahead.  It can be hard when you only hear negative comments.

She deserves the respect to be listened to seriously, you deserve the respect to be able to try.  My net worth in my real estate company is double all my other assets, including retirement.  My wife appreciates that.  Sometimes you have to agree to disagree, but you cannot change who you are to please someone else.

I hope this helps.

Absolutely the $1 million.  First even if the assets I bought did not produce $10K per month.  With the paydown on principal on the property I bought I would do massively more than $10K a month, besides I would ALSO have the $1 million if I took it regardless of the monthly income I made with it.  If I only made $9K a month with it it would take over 80 years to equal the $1 million I invsted..

@Elaine Chen, there are no state income taxes in WY so no filing is needed there

@Jim K., thanks for the thread, it has been fun reading.  I have been doing the LL thing for over 25 years and probably close to 30 years when I had just one rental.  I currently have about 40 units and manage about 30 of them myself.  I have never had a tenant try to intimidate me.  Now I had a burly partner who was a life long contractor who had several altercations.  The contractor was about an inch taller than me and a good 60 pounds of muscle heavier.  My belief of why we had different results was out attitudes and how we treated folks.  He was the in your face kind of guy.  I am a bit pot bellied now, but I always treat folks with respect.  I sit in an office a lot of the time and so am only in half of the shape I should be, and I am in my 60s.  Unless a person is drunk most of the time they respond according to how they are treated.  It probably does help that I was the DA in a town of only 3K people for a dozen years.  Now I could tell you stories about putting folks in prison and getting death threats.  As a result I do carry concealed, but have never had an occasion in LL stuff to even consider drawing a weapon.  We rarely collect in person and I have told folks that I would be filing an eviction and they actually understand.  I suppose being the prosecutor might actually help in some situations but, I personally think it hurts in as many.  Being fair and respectful is the key.  We don't have to worry much about being robbed, I cannot recall that ever happening in my community in the 30 plus years I have lived here.