All Forum Posts by: Laura Williams

The area around Cerner ( in the past) has not been considered a good area.....it might be changing now with the new complex being built..not sure?. It looks like you're barely getting 1% in your examples above and in my opinion you'd be better off buying in a better quality area and getting a 1% there. For example: a top school district and in demand area like Lee's Summit or Blue Springs, etc. It might be a little more expensive and take a little work to find a 1% there but it is possible. 

There's no way to really tell how good of an investmet any of these houses are going to be by only running the numbers. The area you buy in can make or break this. For example: how quickly will these houses rent when they are vacant?? Will you get multiple tenants wanting it the first week it hits the MLS or will it sit for 3-4 month vacant between tenants?? What kind of tenants will you get?? Are these houses and area going to attract a high quality tenant that will take care of it and want to stay? My friend just had an eviction where the tenant took the front door with them and smeared fecal matter all over his place. Your little maintenance numbers would be destroyed for several years with just one tenant like that. How is the area for thefts? Is your house going to get looted the first week it sits vacant?? (this just happened to a friend of mine and cost several thousand dollars) or is it an area that looks out after each other and is safe? Plus there's also the consideration if this is an area that has the potential to appreciate? That can really add onto the bottom line and appreciation is not to be underestimated. Just my 2 cents :)

I believe Colony American Finance and B2R both loan to foreigners. Worth a call??

I use State Farm insurance. If you PM me I can send you my agent's contact info ..not sure if I can post it on here. They are very reasonably priced. I've also heard good things about Shelter Insurance.

State Farm has a liability policy that covers up to 25 properties for 1 million dollars each for $250/year. But as far as regular home insurance I'm only aware of insuring each house individually.

Conway Churaman Don't be so hard on yourself. New York City is a really tough city. If you don't have an amazing high paying job or trust fund then its a huge struggle for the average person just to survive here. If you want a life change then you got to do what you got to do ...save money by any means necessary ..living with parents ...part time job etc, and make it happen. It won't be pretty for a short time but the rewards will be worth it. I do think there are better opportunities in real estate for people without huge cash reserves in other (less expensive) cities than New York.

My friend had really good luck with an ozone machine for getting cat pee smell out of a house when nothing else worked. I would give that a try along with that primer paint that's suppose to kill smells.

I use State Farm for all my policies. Have found them to be very competitively priced & they're a big name. I use Matt Shrum as my agent who deals with a lot of investors. He's in the Grain Valley office. You can PM me for contact info.

@Eric Lierz 

I've heard great things about Brice Bradshaw as a commercial broker in KC. Website is 

http://www.kccommercial.net/

@Kim Tucker 

Is there a petition or anything we can do to rally against this passing?? I don't live there but own properties in KC. This sounds like a major pain & costly if it passes. 

It's in all my rental agreements that the tenant must get renters insurance. From what I know it's a pretty standard requirement. In NYC all the buildings management companies (that I know of) will require the person to sign a paper saying they will have renters insurance while they are living there. I don't know if they ever double check that the person actually gets it.