All Forum Posts by: Karl B.

Well that stinks. It looks like you can write them a Google review, a Ripoff Report submission and a Facebook review. They might pay more attention to you/offer a resolution if you continue to document your experience with them on different online venues. 

I can understand why insurance agents, RE agents, wholesalers and loan officers send me colleague requests (in hopes of getting business), but even then - even if they do send me a message they'll pretty much never follow-up later on. 

And for the rest of the folks... I don't know. Maybe they like to collect social media contacts/colleagues/friends. A lot of the requests I receive are from new members. 

I've had people I've interacted with in a thread send me a request and I'm happy to accept those but that is definitely the exception toward the requests I receive. I can't even imagine how many requests the well-known BP members get....

Hi, Jack. I have an idea that could be useful. For my market (I have a few section 8 tenants) the local Housing Authority has a Section 8 Apartment List. Mine is available online. 

With the list you can see the demand for Section 8 properties (for instance, my market has an especially large demand for 1 and 4 bedroom Section 8 properties).

Also, one must consider the part of town a unit is in. For 2 bedrooms in my market, there are a lot available, however, most are in the undesirable part of town. 

I have a 2-bedroom in a B-/C+ neighborhood that is currently rented out. There's no doubt if it became vacant and I had it on the Section 8 list it would fill in no time. 

And literally every single 4 bedroom available is in a bad part of town. 

Knowing your market and getting access to the Section 8 apartment list is the way to go. 

Hi, Dominic, welcome! 

For me, it would depend on the potential rent the home would bring you. If the numbers are good then it's worth considering keeping. 

Also, one must consider tax implications. If you've owned the home for more than a year then that would work in favor for you to sell and 1031 exchange to a nicer home to rehab. 

Of course, you could refinance the home and use that money to buy a different home in a nicer neighborhood. 

It all depends on the numbers.  

Yeah - that's weird your agent wouldn't tell you - she knows you're not from the area and she's obviously knowledgeable on what properties should go for. 

You can either look at sold comps and make offers based on those or find an agent willing to offer you pricing guidance on making an offer. Perhaps find a realtor who is an investor as well and when having an initial talk make certain he/she is willing to provide you with the information you need.  

Now would be a good time to start making offers. It's better to be a month or two early than to have an issue where the closing date hasn't happened and your lease is up. 

If your market isn't hot, you'll have an easier time getting an offer accepted. When I bought my primary residence I was in the same situation - I started looking in May of 2012 and my lease was up at the end September (my roommate was staying but I was leaving and his relatives were supposed to move in). 

The L.A. market was beginning to get hot and after maybe half a dozen offers I finally got one accepted at the beginning of September. Luckily, my roommate at the time who was staying in the apartment was cool enough to let me stay three or so weeks longer and so I wasn't totally screwed. 

And the wild thing is it was a cash purchase and so once the offer was accepted things moved quickly (the process took maybe five weeks - they had to get the renter out of my soon-to-be house as well - the renter wasn't a problem but it took some time - thank goodness my realtor was an all-star).

Point is, it tends to always take longer than expected and so looking now is ideal - especially since the housing market tends to heat up in April.  

Websites like taskrabbit.com and even thumbtack.com would be useful for this. I know people have done this on taskrabbit - the 'taskers' mainly do a lot of auto insurance photo-related gigs on there and so their 'taskers' would likely be able to take photos of a property/give advice on an area. Approximate cost would likely be $25-$50 per gig. 

Easy. Go to the town's tax assessor website and do a property search using the address. It should list the square footage there. 

Especially if the property has been on the market for a while, lowball them. They'll either say yes, no, or will counter, and their counter could be something you're able to work with. 

Unless there's major appreciation, there's no way I'd pay 280K based on the increased monthly rent of $4000.

Depending on your current living situation, getting a FHA loan would be a good idea. You would need to live in the property for a year but FHA loans are great for investors.