All Forum Posts by: Leland Barrow

I live there, please don't. I collect peoples bandit signs :(

I don't think BREXIT is a reason to worry. If the euro collapses then european investors will throw their money at the dollar and foreign investing. I would expect to see foreign investment in the American real estate market increase. I would expect to see people move investments around to hedge against BREXIT problems by investing in real estate. This is a completely different market than 2008. Mortgages are still hard to get and the purse strings are still tight. I would expect volatility for awhile but overall I wouldn't worry about the sky falling. When everyone else is running away from something it is time for investors to run to it.

I am sorry this happened to you. My advice is from personal experience and I am not a lawyer. I have been involved a few times in court actions and can add some very general advice.

File on all involved parties, both individuals and entities as soon as possible; include the son, heirs, all title companies, agent, agent's brokerage, FNMA etc. Do not delay because these situations rarely self-remedy. You want knee jerk reactions and you want to motivate resolutions. Sit back and watch the finger pointing start.

Separate yourself from this as much as possible. This has become a football, hand it off to the running back and walk away. Hire a knowledgeable and experienced lawyer and let that person handle it from here on out. Manage your lawyer and move on with the rest of your life. You have two choices you can lose money or you can lose money and have a tremendous heartache and stress about it. Stressing takes years off of your life.

Know that these things can be resolved. I have never lost in court (knock on wood) and I do not think you will lose here. All of the professionals in this situation should have insurance to protect against situations like this. Even some of the individuals. These types of situations are often spread among insurance companies. You are not talking about big money, settling out of court with insurance companies is a fairly simple process. Brush up on negotiation skills when it gets to that sit down. I would guess that you have a high probability of settling out of court within a year. 

Are you the police? I thought you were a landlord? If you have reason to suspect a crime is being committed then notify the police.

They need a restroom...come on. Put them in an inexpensive motel and chalk it up as a cost of doing business. No one is going to have empathy for you if you go to court.

Welcome to BP. Keep me in mind if you are ever in need of cash buyers.

There is many times that kids will not do what their parents want them to do as careers. There is also many examples of kids going their own way in life instead of building on what their parents have already built. I think this happens for a variety of reasons, including:

Parents are not transparent about their finances

Parents tend to share defeats and stress far more than they share their successes.

What child wants to go into an industry that they have seen their parents blood, sweat, and tears but rarely see the successes? I cannot say for certain as I am still trying to figure this out with my kids but I believe if you involve them and celebrate family successes that they will see the risk versus reward. Do your kids know what your net worth is? Can they see it change from quarter to quarter or month to month? Have you asked their advice even at 8 years old on what to do or asked them what decision the family should make? Do they see a dad that is always involved in real estate? Do they compete with real estate for dad's attention?

1. Make your finances transparent, who cares if your kids know. Get them involved in the families net worth. Let them see that it is a way to keep score. Celebrate when it goes up and talk about how to do better when it goes down. There is a reason all games keep score and life is just a game, and money is not real. 

2. Get them involved in the decision making process. Make a game of getting their advice and pretending to let them make decisions that you have carefully framed for them. What kid would not be thrilled to make a decision on which of three houses to buy, even though the decision is obvious because you framed it that way from the beginning. Being able to tell their friends that daddy buys the houses I tell him to buy is a very powerful and liberating experience for them. Let them be the CDM Chief Decision Maker once in awhile. 

3. Get them involved in the hands on and let them see the reward for hard work. My oldest has helped since she was seven to install hard wood floors, paint, etc. I don't teach her that it is a job what I try and teach her is that she is making the world better. By determination and imagination she can take something ugly that no one wants and make it beautiful. You have to frame perspectives for kids. Pulling weeds is not a punishment, pulling weeds is how we help flowers thrive. 

4. Celebrate successes in greater amount than you vocalize defeat or stress. No one wants to do something that is boring, stressful, and reward-less. Kids know your business by watching you, and they are soaking up everything that happens, and becoming a veterinarian or a ballerina can be a far better fantasy than fixing up old houses like dad did. However, if they see successes, get to celebrate those successes, and understand that the family is making the world a better place then maybe they wont be turned off by the idea at an early age.

My oldest is now ten and she would rather be with me doing what I do than anything else. I hope that she has fond memories of what we do together and that real estate becomes her passion because it will always connect her to dad instead of being what took dad away from her. I will leave this world similar to how I entered into it...with nothing. So, everything I do is for them to enjoy in their lives, might as well involve them in what I do instead of shrouding it in mystery, and letting them jump to their own conclusions.

Just my 2 cents take if for what its worth.

First of all you have your whole life ahead of you. You are not a typical fifteen year old and that alone will put you a big advantage compared to your peers. I have three daughters so I will give you the advice I would give a son in law. Life is a journey and the journey in itself is the most important part of life. A little worry is good but too much worry can be bad. The military is not what it used to be. As a veteran I would not whole heartedly suggest that anyone join. If you are going to join then I would suggest joining only as an officer (air force) or as a warrant officer (army). I would only suggest joining if it is a passion of yours to serve. Being intelligent and enlisted can be a very frustrating experience. A four year college degree is the equivalent of a high school diploma pre-1990. A Masters degree is the equivalent of a four year degree pre-1990. If you want a career that is rewarding financially then choose an engineering type of field and prepare for 6-8 years of schooling. You do not need a degree to be successful but you do need knowledge. There are two types of people in this world. Those that get paid for what they do and those that get paid for what they know. You should strive to be the second type of person. If that is your goal then look at life's journey as a lifelong education. Always learn and develop a hunger for knowledge. Financially there is only three powerful things to understand. Compound interest The true value of owning assets The power of passive income The American dream is a fraud. The idea of living to own a home that you cannot afford and saving for retirement is the best way to make sure life's journey is boring and hard. Wealthy people have two things that separate them from everyone else. Options Time The more options you have in life directly correlates to true wealth. For example if you cannot quit a job then you are poor and another man's slave. The more options you have the faster that you will accumulate wealth. Always look to expand your options. Time is the only way that wealth is enjoyed. The more time you have to do what you want the wealthier you are. Time + Options = Wealth Read Rich Dad Poor Dad.

That is a very broad question. I am assuming that you have significant W2 income to be concerned about taxes? You left out your goals, what are you trying to accomplish?

I would suggest that you rent. Personal residences are not an asset. Personal residences tie you and your resources up. 

How much in taxes are you talking about? If you are concerned about tax advantages versus investing then that is a math problem. If owning a personal residence saves you $7,000 in taxes on an annual basis but investing in real estate gets you a return of 15% on $100,000 then you should be able to make a decision based on the math. Rental properties have their own tax advantages.

Goals- define what your goals are.

Plan- work backwards from your goals to define your plan to reach those goals.

Good decisions- base all of your decisions on math and not emotions.

Personally I would not recommend buying a personal residence until you at least have the passive income from other investments to make the payments on that residence. Personal residences used to be a retirement vehicle, but I think they are now the biggest obstacle to wealth building. When pensions and social security was considered dependable then owning a personal residence was a way to store up equity. Neither pensions nor social security may be there for anyone but the boomers. Everyone else needs to accumulate wealth at a faster rate than previous generations and owning a personal residence is not the appropriate vehicle for that, unless it fits within your plan.

DIY Retirement

Step 1: Passive income pays mortgage on personal residence (Social Security Replacement)

Step 2: Passive income replaces W2 income (Pension Replacement)

Step 3: Accumulate other wealth to leave to heirs (Legacy wealth)

If you can get to step 2 while still being employed then you can retire at anytime.

The old mentality was work until 62-65 and save 2 million for retirement, and live off of the interest of $100k per year. No one gets wealthy by saving, they just survive. The new mentality is to replace all active income with passive income of about $8,400 per month using the $100k model. What is easier to do and can be done sooner saving 2 million or replacing $8,400 per month in passive income with rental properties? Buying a personal residence and dumping resources into it puts you on the 2 million track. That 2 million may be gone by the time you die and your heirs will get the junk left in your house and they will be running the stupid rat race themselves.  Or you can build passive income that pays for your lifestyle, and you can leave your heirs everything that you have built so that they can hopefully build on it more. You can also use 75-80% of other peoples money (banks) to go the 8400 route. The 2 million route is money out of your own pocket.

The American Dream and 401Ks are the biggest frauds perpetrated on Americans. People in other countries build wealth by owning businesses and meanwhile in America we just buy stuff like houses that we cannot really afford and think we are making good decisions. Meanwhile the average American has less than a $1,000 dollars in savings. Very few people could see the housing crisis in 2008 until it happened and in hindsight everyone asks why didn't we see the obvious signs? Wait until GenX and GenY retire on the 401K myth, if we don't change our thinking we will be in a world of hurt.

Hopefully that helps. If not feel free to ignore it.

The first place you can start is by going to REI meetings and getting to know people. The second thing to do is start bird dogging properties. You could work from home and be with your wife and bird dog properties. Bird dogging is simply putting in the hours to find properties for investors. Just a few examples are:

Craigslist

Redfin

Zillow

Trulia

Driving around looking

Talking to people

Your own website

County Records

Competition is heavy in this market and finding properties is not an easy task. The right investor or two will pay you for quality leads. Start off by doing it for free and only asking for a kickback if they buy the house. Use this time to ask the investor what they do and do not like about the lists that you send them. As an ongoing process the investor(s) can help educate you on how to get better at bird-dogging. You could ask for $250-$1,000 per property depending on the deal. If you were in Austin and could find a deal for me at less than 70% ARV I would pay you $5,000 after closing without a second thought and walk away thinking that I got the better end of the deal. The value of a good birddog is huge in this market.

As you get more successful and grow your network you will gain more skills and resources to help move into sourcing properties that have a better return on the time investment.