All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

You really need to look street by street. You can have a great property two blocks from a street you don't want to own on. Case Western tends to make agreements with larger landlords to place students directly with them. If you are looking to go through an agent/broker, contact someone from Holton Wise. Their business is built on investors. They can recommend property management as well.

I'm local and manage my own properties, so I'm no help there. 

I would strongly suggest you use someone familiar with Cleveland who can be your eyes and ears. Cleveland has tons of opportunities, but you can also have a lot of headaches if you buy in the wrong area.

Welcome Marta!

Krikey - good work!

Start meeting and talking to people. Lots of people. Friends, neighbors, realtors, investors, banks. The deals are out there, but they don't fall in your lap.

I find that most people that say they cannot find deals are not working very hard to do so, are not working very smart to do so, or both. Not saying this is true of you, I am saying that has been true more often than not when I start asking people what they are doing to get their business going. I probably speak with 10-15 new people every week.

Welcome - good luck! I do both buy and hold and flips in Cleveland. Great opportunities for both.

Welcome Rick - Plenty of opportunity here in Cleveland!

Sometimes its about more than money - at least to me it is.  

Will you regret paying the $90 per day? If you will, don't pay it. Let them know you are ready to close, the delay was their issue, you want to move forward but won't pay the per diem. If they balk, tell them they broke the deal and need to refund you anything you spent that they put at risk by not having their paperwork in order.

If you won't regret paying it - I would still say you will be ready to close but not pay the per diem. If they balk, then agree.

It's what you are comfortable with. No one else can give you advice about what is/is not acceptable to you.

Great comments Brian - I know how you feel. 

@MIndy Jensen Totally agree. It's great to talk about successes, but failures are where you learn.

I see a lot folks spend a significant amount of time posting/writing/talking about real estate investing. I agree that continuing education and planning are critical to success.

With that said, the single biggest mistake most investors make is not making a mistake. People are worried about failing, so they don't give themselves an opportunity to succeed. 

The same can be said about life in general. As kids, we care so little about what others think. We follow our passions and do what we love. As we become adults, we lose that sense of freedom and lack of inhibition. Here's an example - any of us that have kids (I have 3 sons) watched them learn to walk. They tried and failed, and tried and failed, and we continued to encourage them. At what point did we say, "Hey, you're not very good at walking, so quit trying. Move on to something else." Never! 

As adults, we tend to follow the opposite approach. If you make a mistake or screw something up as an adult, what's the first thing you think? Most people think, "Boy I hope no one saw that!". When you look at it from that perspective, who is smarter? The "adult" or the 8 month old refusing to quit until (s)he can walk like a pro.

"What if I lose money?" you say. Let me take the suspense out of it for you. You will lose money in your life as an investor - real estate or otherwise - I guarantee it. Now that you know failure is a part of the deal, shouldn't it be easier to take action? If it goes bad, so what? Take the standing 8 count, get back in the ring and keep fighting. Also - If you are in this solely to make money, find something else to do. If you don't love it, you won't go after it with everything you have, and you won't be successful.

I'm an executive in the food business as well as a seasoned real estate investor. When people ask me how I got to where I am at, I tell them "I tried. When someone asked for a volunteer to take on a hard project, I raised my hand and took action." It wasn't preordained I would be successful. I made myself successful - mostly by screwing up so much stuff that I learned very quickly how things can go wrong. I used those lessons to change my actions and deliver more desirable outcomes. One of my favorite sayings is "Experience is something you get right after you needed it." I have a ton of "experience".

Moral of the story - take action. Make mistakes. Tony Robbins is quoted as saying "There is no success or failure - there are only outcomes. If you don't like the outcome from your actions, take different actions".  Words to live by for all of us in every aspect of our lives.