All Forum Posts by: Jeff Garzik

Good:   Sometimes you can get guaranteed rent from a local homeless council or fed/state government.
Bad:  Much higher maintenance and turnover costs.

Gambling on appreciation is still gambling.

Start with a good cash flow base, in case the gamble doesn't pay off... your mortgage is still taken care of at any rate.

When you hear "small business loan" that is normally for office equipment, inventory, things other than real estate.

I understand the motivation - I once thought as you do - but that's the reality of real estate lending. You'll usually need some sort of guarantor that will not declare bankruptcy the minute something goes wrong; too easy to do that in an LLC.

Once you have a track record, private money folks will lend to you, and on larger properties (large MF) commercial real estate banking looks almost exclusively at the property.

Spend some time researching the financing options.  Having the money is what unlocks real estate...  so you must become an expert on finding the money.  Know which loans you can and cannot qualify for.  Understand short term (bridge/hard money) versus long term loans.

Do careful research on your chosen area and building costs...   you really have to do your research to find a lot + new-building cost that appraises enough to give you instant equity.

Echoing Kevin, most banks will not lend to an LLC unless it has a significant business credit history, or you are personally guaranteeing the loan.

Echoing the others' experience.   You almost never recoup costs lost.

This is a contract dispute, and you will most likely be paying the attorney up-front for prep, plus additional litigation fees. Depending on the contract, you may have to go through arbitration first. Unless it's extremely clear-cut that they were paid for work but did not do it at all, figuring damages is difficult.  Once damages are calculated, that ultimately becomes a number that's negotiated down.

I've had contractors fired due to drug abuse (meth), contractors that ghosted after getting paid, contractors triple moonlighting and working themselves into hospitalized exhaustion, and more.

Lawsuits have negative ROI, no matter how wronged you are.

According to my reading, an ozone machine should be effective for anything related to organisms or micro-organisms.  (Just no humans or pets or leather sofas in the house while it's on!)

Just purchased a "stinker" house and ozone machine, let's put this thesis to the test.

No mortgage?

I would do a cash-out refi, pay for improvements, and use the rest of the money for other rental properties.

Charlotte is a great area; I wouldn't sell.

First thought:  Examine total diversification.

Having a lot of equity/wealth tied up in a single asset can be a risk.

Call me an optimist, but I think there are plenty of deals in the Atlanta area, for any price point.

The key goals are:

(1) be disciplined and stick to your numbers, and

(2) be flexible about location:  look outside the perimeter, or in Class B-/C+ neighborhoods.

In terms of finding properties to buy, there are a few Atlanta wholesalers with reasonable dealflow month-over-month, as well as a few MLS deals if you move fast.

As another poster said, having cash or hard money is very helpful. HML will eat you on fees, but depending on the deal it can definitely be worth it.