All Forum Posts by: Jerry W.

@Patrick Philip, in part it depends on what you have in place.  My fastest closing from looking at it to closing was 3 days I believe.  I looked at it then he told me it was going to be foreclosed on in 3 days and I didn't want to go through the hassle of redemption and more legal fees.  I got title insurance in 2 days and used a line of credit where I had the bank do a certified check to the title company.  The title company was really the hero.  The bank doing the foreclosure did some bad stuff right before closing and the title person actually lined them out pretty well and got it closed.  They are the only local title company I use now.  I really wasn't sure it would close until The title person headed out the door to the courthouse to file the deed.

Hey Alex,

Welcome to BP and to Powell.  That is a stronger market than my area.

@Michael Nyszczot, I am aware of one person.  I apologize that I do not know her name.  I can give you contact information for her husband.  I believe she has a few 4 plexes and a few houses over there.  She could tell you a lot more about the market than I know.  Her husband's name is Ernie Bunn.  He works at County Title, and the number is 307-864-2001.  You might wait a week to call him, he just lost his mother a week ago.

@Shoshana Shulman, it depends a lot on the law in your area.  Sometimes an oral contract is enforceable, sometimes not.  if you are in Israel I have no idea hehe.  Usually a contract involving real property must be in writing in order to be binding especially if it is supposed to be for more than 1 year, but it will vary.  Did you tell the second person that they had it?  If not you are in the clear either way if you give it to the first group.  Hopefully you have some qualifying language when you show a property like, you must submit an application and pass our criteria in order to qualify to rent a property from us.  I NEVER accept a tenant without checking them out.  That is a very dangerous thing to do.

@Michael Nyszczot, since you don't live in Gillette, keep in mind that coal mining got the crap kicked out of it in the Obama era.  While jobs have come back that town and area were hit hard with many hundreds, even thousands of layoffs and not many of those jobs have come back.  You can buy a lot of dam nice houses for take over payments at the moment.  there are foreclosures everywhere.  If coal comes back big you will do very well, if it does not that market will be seriously depressed for a long time.

@Christopher Cadenhead, here is my 2 cents, and it likely only worth that.  First in many states you must have a license to be a property manager.  It is very common for that license to be through the real estate commission.  You can complain about incompetent or unethical service to their licensing board.  That is usually a very big deal to them.  Another thing you can do if you are serious is take out an add in the personal section of the local newspaper and tell everyone how in your opinion they are so unethical.  You need to be right or you can be sued for libel, but it can be very effective.  Not many companies want that reputation.  File complaints with the better business bureau and online fraud reporting companies.  Make sure everyone knows the truth so others don't get this same company.

Now as to @David Moore calling @Nathan Gesner out about showing how property managers actually add value.  First I have seen thousands of posts from Nathan.  He is VERY knowledgeable.  That is a very important first step.  Next he is very ethical.  I am personally aware of his reputation and it is excellent.  While he lives about 100 miles away, I have made a point about inquiring about him.  Let me tell you a few stories about property managers.  In one case a client had a rental in another state.  The tenants he placed got behind on rent.  There were the usual check must have got lost in the mail to eventually my wife has cancer, so before long he found the rent was over 4 months behind.  Eventually the tenants just quit replying and he tried having a notice filed on the tenants to leave but nothing.  He had a friend take pictures and the place was getting trashed.  Eventually he hired a property manager who hired an attorney to get the tenants evicted.  It did take another 2 months but got done.  Work had to be done on the house before it could get rented.  Carpet had to be changed out, windows replaced or repaired, lots of cleaning painting and hauling out of trash.  It was very expensive.  I do not recall the amount, but my recollection was over $3,000.  the contractors were lined up by the property manager.  New tenants were placed, but this time they had background checks done complete with credit checks and calling the old landlords.  As far as I know the same tenants are still there after 3 years now.  The management looks very easy now, since for 10% it appears the property manager only co9llects rent and forwards it to the owner.  The owner got himself into the mess he was in.  He had not checked references, had not done credit check, or criminal check, and he kept letting the tenants get farther and farther behind.  Between having to pay for repairs and clean up and missing 6 months rent and another month of rehab, the client lost a lot of money the first 2 years he operated it.  Had the client been lucky and gotten great tenants the first time all would have been well, but he didn't.  The place was bought with a mortgage so he was digging into his pocket quite a bit in the beginning.  There have been some small things required like faucets, etc. nothing major.  Now the client claims he is making about $400 pr month even after management fees, but it is actually less because he only counts taxes and insurance and property management fees as expenses.  He doesn't take out for cap ex, maintenance and vacancy.  He makes way more with a property manager now than he did before getting one.

I have heard horror stories of property managers as well.  Often they are in connection with buying a turnkey property.  I recall one where they had renter insurance that guaranteed you would get like your first year with full occupancy.  A tenant quit paying wouldn't move out, and it turned out the insurance was useless because the tenant who was placed was a convicted felon so it voided the insurance.  It was a mess.  It goes both ways.  In my profession I see attorneys who are barely above being crooks, charging huge fees for only so so work, and then I see good lawyers who charge fairly and deliver value even when they lose.  Everyone is just a person.  Levels of skill, hard work, and honesty vary between them.  I currently have over 30 units, just under half of them are managed between 3 different outfits.  They vary in quality.  Anyway again just my 2 cents.  Best of luck.

Cheyenne is a bit fa for me to invest in, but I am coming down to do a conference for the 26th through the 28th this week, unfortunately I am badly behind at work and cannot hang around much extra.  I have been looking at some multi units in Casper.  I really need some more time lol.

There is also a Wyoming real estate forum, but it doesn't get much action.

Hey @Patrick Winstead welcome to BP.  There is a fair number of folks from BP in Cheyenne Wyoming.  I would set your key word alerts to both Wyoming and Cheyenne.  I can think of few folks to link in, maybe @Michelle Y

@Account Closed, and a few others.

@Basheer Al kafaf, another big problem in WY with foundation problems is lack of qualified contractors to do the work, and a long holding period if you are wanting to sale.  If you can fix them competently at a reasonable price there is opportunity.