All Forum Posts by: Kate Johnson

@Chris Seveney

Yes, I have a contract.  2 Pages.  Says the word "contract" on it many times.  

This quote on the DPOR website is what I'm banking on.

"If an investigation indicates the individual or business is not properly licensed, DPOR may take criminal action."  Is this a lot of bark but no bite? 

Any tips for prevailing in Small Claims Court?  Dude has a criminal record a mile long, it turns out.  And lies left and right.  Not sure that those things matter in my case, though.  He didn't come to do the job by the time he said he would.  That is the actual breach of contract.  

What are the likely consequences for filing a complaint on a person who publicly claims to be a Class A contractor in Virginia but holds no license at all? Backstory, I got into a bad deal with a bad contactor. I take responsibility for not doing my due diligence but I want to try to get my $3,000 bucks back. I gave him until yesterday at 5:00 to refund my money or I was reporting him to Virginia's Dept of Professional and Occupational Regulations for not having a license. I thought getting turned on to DPOR might be a significant enough event that he would want to stop me by giving me my money, but I guess not. Is DPOR not very authoritative or powerful? Not a lot of bite? I also plan to take him to small claims court because I believe he breached the contract we signed. He just said "I guess we'll see you in court." Any tips on how to prevail would be appreciated. What is the worst that could happen if I lose?

Shawn, thanks for the feedback.  A few more questions if you don't mind.  

Regarding financing, can you tell me how much different factors weigh when it comes to financing. What percent of income do they allow for all mortgages? Our household income is ~$120k and we would put 20% down on the new property. Our current PITI (which is escrowed) is only 13.5% of our monthly income.

I'd be open to a househack, but we also want more space, so I think it would be difficult to find a multi-family that gives us extra square feet.  

Please critique this strategy:

I want to buy a short sell to live in and rent out my current home.  

We are also feeling a bit cramped in current home and would also like to change neighborhoods for a variety of reasons.  We did not purchase our current house at a deal, per se, though it has appreciated quite nicely in the 7 years we've owned it.  I know I need to make my money "at the buy" as an investor.  So what if bought a primary residence at a discount via a short sale?  If we are going to move anyway, is this a good way to get our foot in the investing game?  I really want to make the leap this year and this option seems reasonable in my head. The reason I am thinking this could work is that we are wanting to move anyway but are also not in a hurry and short sales are slow.  

Here are some numbers: My current PITI is $1,360. I think we could easily rent the house for $1,850 per month maybe more. $196k left on my mortgage. Our realtor said she would list our house for $310k, but I think that is a tad high.

We could buy a larger house for less money per sqft where we want to move.  Considering a short sale discount, I was hoping we could find a place we wanted to live for about $250k.

We are within 5 minutes of 2 military bases in Virginia Beach, so the rental market is strong with good candidates.  

Foolish plan? Or a smart way to start our REI journey given that we want to move anyway? Or just sell this current house if we want to move?

Originally posted by @Kristen Caccavo:

Hi @Kate Johnson, Did you happen to purchase the course? I'm looking into purchasing the same course now and came here looking for a review on the course.

 @Kristen Caccavo, Sorry I am just now replying!  This got lost in the Thanksgiving shuffle.  

I did purchase the course.  This year I started a bookkeeping business and would like to specialize in serving REIs, so that is why I purchased this.  This course has has helped me somewhat, mostly with the recording of property purchases and sales.  I think I would have had a difficult time conceptualizing how to do that on my own. 

Are you wanting to do the QBOnline version?  When I purchased this course, I spoke with Gita herself on the phone. She did everything possible to convince me NOT to buy this course because she says QBO is not a good product for Real Estate.  She wanted to sell me (and try to convince me to use) one of the QB Desktop resources she has created.  Personally, I am doing just fine and meeting my client's bookkeeping needs with QBOnline.  But I know that Gita is not the only one that frowns on QBOnline for Real Estate bookkeeping.  I think Intuit is realizing that the cloud is where the whole world is heading and they are really putting resources into developing QBO into a legitimate accounting product.  It can CERTAINLY handle the needs of beginning flippers.

Also, I think that this firm has some very respected resources, but I think most of her top notch products are the written ones.  I think this firm is new to creating video courses, and the QBO course is only in video.  The course Table Of Contents was also noticeably incomplete (links that had no video, videos that were supposed to have attachments did not have attachments). I sent them a very long and detailed feedback on the product pointing out some errors and some omissions.  Perhaps they have made those corrections.  

I know I have received some advertisements from Gita's company this week for Black Friday deals.  I'd pick up the phone and ask for those deals to still apply to you.  It is not a polished enough product to pay full price, but has some decent "bones".  

I would be happy to talk to you about your specific bookkeeping questions.  If you don't have an accounting background, accounting for flipping can have some unique concepts that you wouldn't just know about from basic knowledge of "Income" and "Expenses".  The course assumes that you know about flipping accounting/tax rules like "capitalizing" costs until you sell the house.  

Bleh. My phone didn't keep my formatting on my reply. Sorry.

Some ideas for content for college students- - You could sell ads for little college side-hustles (tutoring, yard work, ride sharing to airport at Chrismas - Ways to reduce energy bills -Gift ideas for your mom and dad who are hard to shop for - Why you should remove dryer lint with sensational story you find online - Cheap monthly recipes that taste good - "Biggest Loser" competition with prize money (an old complex of mine did that) - Great new cheap place to eat - Your business stuff that you really want them to read: late fee reminder, lease renewal dates, guest parking, pool rules, trash guidelines As I type this, I wonder if your situation of tight geography and demographic might make for a good closed Facebook group for only your current tenants. People could post stuff for sale, sell football tickets to each other, etc. You could also post a 1-2 sentence reminder of whatever information you are hoping they read. Also, I bet this would be a great job for a tenant to do for a small discount on their rent. Journalism or communications student. Who knows, they might really run with it.

I don't have any properties yet, but have similar thoughts about improving tenants lives when I get in this business. I am a big fan of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. I thought about somehow encouraging tenants to take the class, perhaps by reimbursing tenants for the cost of the course, reducing rent for anyone who takes it, or even giving it as a gift at Christmas or lease renewal or something. I figure the better my tenants are at personal finance, the fewer late rent checks I will get.

Welcome! Sounds like you will have a lot to offer folks on BP.

Oh, and I am certain this course will talk to you about increasing the overall lie and about his principle of increasing your BATNA (best alternative to negotiated agreement). I bet you wont be disapponted with the course.