All Forum Posts by: Karl B.

What are a few of your favorite wholesaling/RE deal-finding books?

I'm not so much interested in becoming a wholesaler but I am very much interested in learning the best ways of locating off-market deals to purchase.

Buy a used 1UP arcade machine for $150-$200 on Facebook marketplace. 

I bought one years ago and it has roughly a dozen games on there (Contra, Blades of Steel, Castlevania and some others). 

You don't have to worry about anyone stealing any of the games as you would with a console system and it will keep the kids both busy and happy. 

When people ski over them? :-)

 This X1000. Never put all your eggs in one basket, tenant-wise (especially when the potential tenant is giving off uber-demanding Karen vibes). 

I'm not against a potential tenant being thorough (I have a tenant who - when checking viewing the apartment - made certain each and every outlet worked... and she's been a decent tenant thus far) and wanting to live in a place that is nice but from what the OP is saying it sounds quite excessive. 

Check your water meter. Is it moving? Most of my meters have the red arrow and are not digital. I've found that toilet leaks tend to be constant and slow moving on the meter while sink/tub/shower leaks tend to be more jerky on the meter. 

Ask your tenants if any of them have a leak. In the event none say yes give 24 hour notice and bring a plumber in to check each and every unit. 

I self manage. Mainly because the property managers I've come in contact with (where I have my multi-family properties) are dumpster fires.

When a repair is needed, I use my own team of electricians, handymen and plumbers whom I have dealt with and trust. Also realize that some property managers bill a property owner/add a % to the tradesman bill, which is just wrong, IMO, as one would think that should be included in the base % the PM gets every month, but some are greedy (it's typically outlined in the PM contract but it's still greedy, IMO).

Also, I'm going to work harder to get the best bid for a repair from reputable tradesmen as it's my money that's being spent.

I could go on and on... I'm selective with who I let into my properties and enjoy making the decisions and keeping that extra 10%.

And managing isn't complicated - for me, much of the work occurs when I buy a new multi, repair it and get tenants (if there are vacancies). Once I have a place full, I spent very little time on the day-to-day. On some days, I don't do anything pertaining to managing a property.

Seriously, self-manage. If you don't like it, hire a PM. But chances are, you'll find it to be easy, especially if you're living nearby.

Thanks to your thread I've realized that I liken Dave Ramsey to lukewarm pizza:

Cold pizza would be having a lot of bad debt (credit cards, payday loans, etc.) and paying interest on that debt

Lukewarm pizza is Dave Ramsey: not having debt and paying cash for everything. This was me in my 20s. I thought I was being safe as I didn't want to get burnt.

Warm, delicious pizza is using bank debt/other people's debt to make wise investments that make sense and have room if things go south (such as a good cashflow that will continue even if rents drop 25%).

Scalding hot pizza that burns the roof of your mouth and causes misery for three days is overleveraging on debt where the house of cards could realistically fall with the next refinance or market change.

When I began real estate investing I went from lukewarm pizza to warm delicious pizza. 

This is perhaps my finest analogy on BP. Cue the confetti. 

Based on your parameters I will guess around 10%. 

Of course, there are many of us in that category who also have other businesses (and although we could live off our real estate profits we also have other money coming in through other ventures = investing more in real estate and other things). 

I think a good amount of people own 1-3 properties and are content and although they can't live solely off that profit I will still commend them as they're supplementing income and/or if not already they'll someday own a few properties free and clear that they can hold or later sell for a big payday. 

For four years I managed 6 doors in Pennsylvania when I lived in Los Angeles. Then I moved to Missouri for two years and managed many more doors from afar. It got to the point where I decided to move back to Pennsylvania as I was making more than enough money to be a professional real estate investor.

Living 2 hours away and managing a property is 100% manageable. I did it from much farther away and I always laugh at those who act like it's an awful idea. 

Some advice:

-At the very least you're going to want to visit the property once every two or three months and you'll want to inspect your property (inside and outside) at least twice a year

-Meet the neighbors and give them your contact information. Tell them to contact you if they have any issues with the tenant or if they have any general concerns

-Have a list of vetted tradesmen on hand (especially plumbers, appliance repairmen and electricians) so if something needs repaired all you need to do is make a quick call so the tenant and tradesman can coordinate with one another to quickly have the repair made; online reviews will help you decide who is legit and who isn't; I especially like Yelp reviews as they can't easily be faked, unlike Google reviews, which can easily be faked. 

Any questions, feel free to PM me. 

Here's what I would do:

-Take the ad and post it on Facebook marketplace

-People will inquire

-Respond asking them questions to see if they qualify (for my renters it's credit score, monthly income and if they've ever been evicted or sued by a landlord)

Have one showing at 5:30 PM during the week and one on Saturday around 11 AM. Give those two times to all who qualify and have an open house.

Also, check out rental ads for similar properties VIA Facebook marketplace, Apartments.com, Zillow, etc. and check rental comps to make certain your monthly rent is competitive.