All Forum Posts by: Juan Diaz

Max out investing commitment at 80% of your liquid assets (not including a 6-12 month reserve) and 50% of your monthly free cash flow (income without this property - personal expenses - taxes). That's my motto. If a deal goes over these thresholds, you can run into liquidity issues. 

The only thing you can't do relating to dogs under the eyes of the law is to refuse housing to someone who has a service dog. A service dog is not considered a pet, and if you refuse someone with a service dog housing because of it, you will be out of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Otherwise, all dogs are very destructive. There's the pure physical damage, plus the incidental smell that can be almost impossible to erase. The damage impact on your property can vary greatly, and you should go with whatever you're comfortable with. If you're getting an extra $500 a month, it could be worth it. Whatever $$$ value gives you security against the potential damages (stained carpet, chewing on anything that's wood, even some people who let the dog urinate and defecate all over the house).

Hi All,

Today I’m here to reveal the SUPER-MYSTERIOUS way to add units to your property (if you’re trying to make it a legal unit on tax records). Since the topic had come up elsewhere, I thought I’d lift the veil on this mysterious process. So here we go:

• 1.Go down to the zoning/planning office that has jurisdiction. Ask them how to get approval for adding a unit to your property.
• 2.Once you have approval from zoning/planning, go on to building department (if necessary) to pull permits for any necessary changes for the change in units.
• 3.Do the work on the permits
• 4.Get them inspected & pass inspection.
• 5.Voila! You just added a unit on to your property.

That wasn’t so bad, now was it? It might take a while (*cough* zoning/planning *cough*), but it’s actually a pretty easy process.

@Kimberly Farrally if you're closing through escrow the title company *should* take care of the tax redemption. But that is pretty difficult to pull off if you're crunched for time, what we have done to get around that is to draw up a contract, get the contract signed off on, and walk the payment down to the tax sale ourselves. In your case you might get the buyer to walk the payment down, because anyone can pay the redemption amount.

The keys as I see them are getting into a legally binding contract the seller cannot back out of, and after that, paying the redemption amount by the redemption date. However you do those two things is up to you, but if you're able to lock those two items down in that order you should be fine. Just make sure your contract is up to snuff.

1. Get zoning/planning to approve
2. Get building department to approve
3. Do the construction
4. Get it inspected
5. Pass inspection & voila, legal unit

It all starts by going down to the zoning/planning department of your city.

Unless you've got the money to invest yourself, you're presumably going to want to work for a real estate investment firm to learn the finance aspect, or construction to learn the construction aspect. If you're going the heavy finance route, it doesn't matter as much what you do in undergrad, but you'll probably need an MBA or masters in Finance or Economics to get into a major investing firm that specializes in real estate. If you're looking to go the construction side, you'll want to major in architecture, engineering (structural,  MEP) or construction management. 

Likely the reason that number has responded here is that no degree really prepares you for a career working as a landlord or flipper. You can touch the fringes of it via the paths outlined above, but you're better off getting a major in a degree that can get you a nice job out of college, and then starting your real estate investment on the side until it becomes your career. There is no ladder to climb in real estate investing, unless you're talking about running a REIT fund in NYC (the high finance route, outlined above).

 Don't leave anything up for the buyer--if you're buying a house wholesale at a tax sale, make your redemption of the taxes part of the contract, and redeem the taxes on your own. I wouldn't trust someone who got into this situation to not take the money and run--because the taxes are secured against the property, not the person.

To find out how much the amount is, call up the county that's doing the tax sale. Their tax collector should be able to give you the redemption amount pretty easily. Sometimes the selling county will also give that amount as a part of the sale.

 You're asking for something that cities/counties won't give out. You'll only ever get lists of properties that are up for tax sales on cities/counties. If you're looking for a good resource on delinquent taxes that aren't up for sale, you can buy those lists from places like Alesco Data at decent prices. If your title insurance company has a good relationship with you, they might be able to pull a list of tax delinquent properties in certain zip codes.

I've had the complete opposite experience from John. In Oakland, the city is usually happy to wipe out the code violation fines when you fix the problem. We've got fines from over 100K down to zero. 

Whatever you do, talk to the building department of the city about this. They'll be able to give you much better, more specific answers than anyone who does not have specific experience investing in Ft. Lauderdale and taking care of those fines.

One complication is that taxation from real estate can be different for a foreign national investing in US real estate. I don't remember the specifics, but an international partner on one of my flips had all kinds of headaches with his tax reporting, to the point where he hasn't invested in US real estate again. 

I'd talk with someone who's familiar about the tax burdens you might face as a foreign national investing in the USA before you dive in.  To my experience, index funds will not give you that same headache if you're investing. Then again, I'm not a foreign national.

In real estate investing, I usually turn money over twice a year and average return on investment per property is around 18%, so usually 36% ROI in a year. I do flips primarily, I don't buy and hold.