All Forum Posts by: Mark Holencik

If you can hold it in your mind, you can hold it in your hand. 

Just do not quit. The only way to fail is to quit.

I would not let that alone play a part in my decision. I deal with people with no criminal record with the same caution. People with cheat you and use hot materials without a criminal record. 

Ask your CPA how to expense your handgun. 

You need to be wise about when you go into these places. Going into vacant buildings is always scary. If you do not have fear there is something wrong with you. The building itself may not be safe. Someone in the building is the second thing you need to worry about. 

If you are going to carry do not carry an automatic. Carry a revolver. If you fear for your safety, **** the hammer. The person will hear that and leave you alone. TV leads you to believe that that the person will try and take the gun from you or shoot it out with you. They are looking for easy pickings. They do not want any trouble just like you. Attitude will carry you through most situations.

How did you find the property manager?

Is it a single family?

Your Mom could lease it to you with an option to buy. The lease could be for $1 a month. The money you stick into fixing it up could be the sales price. There are an many ways to set this up. Without knowing all the details and consulting an CPA, no one can tell you how to set it up to benefit both you and your Mom.

When your Dad asked you, "Why doesn't everyone do it", he was not looking for an answer. He already knows the answer. He wants you to find that out before you fall into all the pitfalls that he also warned you about. Because they are real. Any investor or advisor that does not tell you about the things your Dad brought up, do not trust them. 

I invest in areas that most people would not invest in. I would not recomend investing in these areas to most people, because most people will fail. That said most people will fail in good areas. 

If you fail in a low income area, you will lose everything. If you fail in a better area, you will not lose everything. 

In a better area if you get tired you can turn the property over to a property manager and sell when you get your price.

In low class neighborhoods finding a property manager will be tough if not impossible. Empty or bad tenents will make your property of little value at best. I buy from investors like you all the time. 

What your Dad wants you to do is research your exit plan if your plan does not work out like you expect. Get it down on paper. The worst possible senerio. Then develope an exit plan to limit your loss. Have the two plans on paper before you make a decision. 

If you decide to invest in these areas, get ready for all the suprises that no one is telling you about. 

If you get the cards in your personal names, you have to make sure that you charge each card equally. In an 50/50 LLC each partner needs to put exactly the same amount of money in to the LLC.

The nursing home would know who the Power of Attorney is. They know all that before they let anyone in.

Most tenants do not wait for the last day. Deal with it then. Do not waste your life thinking about it.

They will play games with us. But when the authority's show up they change their tune. If it does come to breaking in, Jim C. has the best idea. It is just the cost of doing business. This is where the investor finds out there is no easy money.

I have two ways I have done this. 

If your partner is providing all the money. I opened a an LLC with a 50% split. He provides the mortgage to the LLC. The money is to buy the property plus the repairs and updates. The LLC gives him 8% interest.

I take care of everything except supplying the money. My 50% has 100% of the decision making power.  He gets 50% of the ownership for providing the mortgage. So he makes 8% on his money. Plus 50% ownership in the property.  50% ownership gives him 50% of the profits and tax benefits. This is not a bad deal for both parties.

I have a construction company that does all the maintenance and updates. The construction company bills for this. I do not make any money on the work. My profit is in the ownership. It needs to be done like this because in a 50% ownership split, both parties need to put in exactly the same amount of money. This way neither of us but in any money except the initial money to start the LLC and any expense incurred before you buy the property.

You can do anything that makes sense for the both of you.