All Forum Posts by: J. Martin

That sounds like a cheap exit to me.

Listen to @Troy Fisher , and move on with your business. It's not going to be worth your time 19 times out of 20. The best revenge is living well ;)

I think it depends a lot on your business too, and what communications are being handled by the VA. I use a VA for some basic online stuff and 'internal research'. But not to communicate with any of my investors for real estate..

I use odesk.com and have had some success, but still early on.. good luck!

I agree with @Joel Owens - don't look at a 36% income tax estimate. Look at your own situation. For example, I don't think I saw depreciation in the estimates, which is an important non-cash expense you can take on your expenses to reduce your taxable income, in addition to your exact interest expense, and all other rental-related expenses. On top of that, be sure to make your own estimates. Don't use an agent's.

That's why everyone loves real estate!!

@Supreet Singh Sachdeva , you'll find more than all the demographic data and owner-occupied percentage you are looking for at www.city-data.com (plus income, distribution of commute times, household makeup and number, etc etc)

I think this is up @Bryan Hancock 's alley.. (in full disclosure, I believe he offers some himself if I'm not mistaken.. check..)

Unfortunately, I'm not an accredited investor yet! Or I would have tried to buy a slice of coinbase.com! (that's a whole different non-real-estate discussion!)

Interesting hours breakdown. Someone once told me to make a budget of the hours in your life, just like you would one for your income/expenses. Then you can see by % what you plan on "spending" your hours on. His idea was that you pre-allocate XX% to the things that are most important to you, just like a savings account (like time with family, personal growth,taking into account responsibilities.

It also allows you to set goals over the long term with your time. A big reason for investing in real estate for me was freeing up more of my "time budget" over the long term to "spend" on things I'd rather do than wake up early to go to an on-site w2 job (although I actually like mine well enough), and be able to live comfortably (although I live relatively frugally now).

I would recommend discussing those numbers with your wife too, when talking about 1-2 hours a day on ALL family activities and help.. Good that you built in misc time though..

I'm working 40hr/wk job, travel often for work, managing 6 units - bought, rehabbed and leased 5 units in last year. Took a long vacation. Enjoyed activities around my area.. Maintained lots of relationships, and lost an important one.. probably not really attributable to real estate. But between traveling for work and being busy with everything else, didn't spend as much time as I should have/could have to grow my relationship with my now-ex.. :-/

The landlording didn't take a ton of time, but I target vacant buildings, so prospecting, managing the rehab, and leasing everything up takes quite a bit of time.. This topic has made me think much more deeply about how I allocate my time.. Thanks!

Anything is possible!

You can check with a title company on who owns the lots. Probably a defunct or out of cash builder. May owe the city a bunch of taxes. The trick will be finding the buyer or hook up a new developer and private money. But this may take dual negotiations with the city and the owner if there is a big overhang of taxes.. The city might take a haircut though if they can get them developed and start collecting revenue on them instead of having vacant partially completed properties that often add to blight/squatting..

Good luck!

Lots of good suggestions.

Or you can have them go on auto-pay with the company if they have the money..

1. M2M is common after first lease period in my area. I wouldn't force otherwise in this case, but I might change the rent structure so there's a daily late fee. Then you will really know how busy he is to pay rent, because there will be a marginal cost to it. Nothing wrong with working with him. But it has to be worth your time / PITA.

2. If he's too busy and only "plans" on staying there short-term, he'll probably pay more in rent, especially if it is below market.

3. You don't need to give it to him now. When he gives you 30 day notice, he can not pay the last month. But if you give it to him now, then he doesn't pay the last month, you have no deposit..

Good luck!

If you sold one, you could probably do 30yr fixed mortgages on all of them, then buy some more.. I really like 30yr loans at this rate.. The alternative is contacting some local banks, and get a single portfolio loan with all the properties as collateral. A lot of banks are doing 5-10yr fixed rates, then go variable, with 15yr maturities. I have seen many of these. But it's rare to see banks giving 15+ year fixed rate loans if they can't sell them with a Fannie/Freddie guarantee.

Good luck!

I got an FHA loan on a 4plex on my first deal due to my lack of capital, and it worked out great! Others use hard money/private lenders, but requires a lot more work/finding a great deal, and a lot of time they are looking for experience. FHA & conventional don't require experience. But conventional requires quite a bit of cash! Homepath.com also has properties you can buy with 5% down owner-occupied or 15% non-owner occupied on single family homes. More on 2-4 units I think.

Good luck!