All Forum Posts by: John Harris

Just for a little bit of a different perspective, I am a builder in Texas. If you are having a home built, please read your contract and your warranty materials carefully. Make sure that your expectations are in line with what the builder has agreed to do in writing.

Inspections are definitely a great idea but you'll need to talk to your builder about the fact that you'll have an inspector before you sign the contract in most cases and make sure that he agrees to the inspector. In Texas the building standards are now spelled out very specifically. If you want your builder to comply with some code other than the relevant municipal code or the TRCC (Texas Residential Construction Commission) standards, then please have that in writing before hand.

Lastly, make sure that the inspector is a good one, get references from a good construction lender or another investor. Some inexperienced inspectors will try to find things wrong that aren't really. They evidently feel that if they don't find problems then their existence isn't justified.

Also make sure that you inspector can work around your builders schedule. Waiting for an inspector to show up for a pre-pour slab inspection is a ***** when the concrete trucks are there at 4 am.

As with every service profession, the good inspectors are underpaid and the bad ones should be shot.

You are correct. The new loan will cost more.

Maybe it's not a word, but it happens to me a lot.

That's exactly what got me started. Along with a little desperation.

I was working for a family member as a salesperson on a land development. When that project was done, I didn't want to go back to a regular job so I started a small development of my own. Luckily I learned from other's mistakes first before I made too many of my own.

I actually believe that individual deals are often due to luck, but overall success is not.

I've gotten an estimate at about $4000. I'm in Texas and I presented the attorney with specific information to a particular property so that may have had an effect on the price.

I'd like to hear form others who may have gone through this.

So true.

The story is just a story. So what if it is only "based" on a true story. The more imortant thing is the content. If the story teaches important lessons, and those lessons improve lives and make the author money, then everyone wins.

But the upfront money is borrowed by the investor, right?

Sorry, but I have seen this type of deal go bad on a fairly large scale. Everyone loses except you, because you kept money from the front end of the deal.

I'm not saying that your deals will go bad, just that in my experience it can't work when the investor pays above market value for a house and tries to rent it out at a profit.

See my earlier warning on this topic.

http://forums.biggerpockets.com/viewtopic.php?t=7678&highlight=

EDIT: I don't mean to imply that you are unscrupulous. I just think the business model is risky.

Who makes the payments when the renter leaves?

The risk is the part of the equation you left out.

In most cases, if a seller is going to be picky about your appearance (or car), they probably aren't the seller you are looking for. What I mean is that you are looking for desperate sellers not picky sellers.

It wouldn't kill you to dress nice but I wouldn't go out and buy a new car to impress sellers.

I've known many investors who were successful. I can't recall one who wore a suit. I have known bankers and attorneys who were also RE investors, but I'm pretty sure they wore the suits for their day jobs. :wink:

I do think that what you are wearing makes a difference. Even though you may be the buyer, you are selling yourself, especally if you are talking to your banker or partners. I normally wear jeans and a nice shirt which is usually untucked. In the summer I often were flip flops. I don't think my "sloppy" dress has hurt my business much, but I think I could stand to clean up a little.

One of the benefits of being a real estate investor is not having to dress up in a monkey suit every day.