All Forum Posts by: Martin Zawarski

great job. I like the way you used your imagination to redo/reuse what you had. What is the next project in the pipeline.

thanks for the reply, yes all cash offer. I just checked zillow and their price was at 154500 with a rent being 1344. I like that.

an estate home came on the market this week. I am a buy and hold guy and it was underpriced by about 20,000 at 129,000, and is a 3/1.5. I saw it immediately and couldn't believe it was in move in shape. I could easily get $1,375 a month rent for this. All my home purchases in the last year were homes I had to put money into, but not this one. Great carpet, new heat, air, windows, even was newly painted, this home is nice. Home was staged and showed well.

So I turned in two offers at the same time. The first was a full price offer with the owner taking a second at $25,000 and the first would be a conventional loan . The second offer I thought would be a low offer at 121,000.

Well they accepted the second offer. I never used this strategy before and I am sure it made them think and think again about the deal , but I am happy either way. ----thoughts please .

I have been buying properties for a bit over a year now and my only hubzu deal is the best transaction I have made. I am glad they are clueless, I still search out their homes regularly .

I am on the east coast 45 minutes from both NYC and Philly. We are getting 15+ inches of snow today on top of the one foot that is frozen on the ground. The frost is 16" deep and could take three weeks of warm weather to make it permeable . I see major flooding if we get temps like you are saying happens. Now this is all part of Global Warming, right.?

having a license is key, because I look at over a hundred homes each day on the MLS. The numbers have to work first of all. You have to buy right and it is you that determines that and not your agent. Every day I open up my search that is on my initial search " Bank Owned and Estate Owned". I don't hear much about it on this site but estates sometimes are great bargains! In my geographical area there are about 90 of each on the market at any one time. Once I see some properties I like and make financial sense then I go look at them.

The thing with being a realtor is you see the properties right when they hit the market or you see when there is a PR.iCE drop. I have purchased properties the day they were listed or the house was on the market less then a week. I could do what I do unless I had my license. I unless you have a partner that has a real estate license or your an attorney that gets estate homes you will have a hard time getting the best properties. Get a license and be in an office where there are agents that do this business. I work with another agent that feeds me deals that don't fit his criteria but fits mine so now I have another pair of eyes working for me.

Hope this helps.

If you are just starting out and you need more income than what you are bringing in from the rental income, there is an answer. Sell a unit or two during the year. My first year I acquired 8 homes of which I will sell one and make well over 50,000 on the sale. My other seven properties generate between 250 to 450 per month in income or about 2,700 per month.

I would love to hold the one house I am selling, but I love eating and keeping a roof over my head more!

During the first six months of me doing this, I negotiated and wrote all my contracts to purchase properties. I do have my brokers license . Then I hired another agent to handle writing, presenting and being the point person to negotiate the deals for me. I think it kind of removes me a bit from the transaction. I think it also makes me a bit harsher on price and terms, which in most times is a good thing. Plus I focus more on what I enjoy and do best, and that is work on and coordinate the work on the homes. I also have him to scout for properties. What I lose is just part of the commission.

What are your thoughts .

Just to get you through some chilly nights. I have three units in my home, and typically one has issues right during peak heat or AC season. At times it may take 2-3 days to get parts and get it fixed. So, I bought a 9" x 25 feet flexible duct. It folds up and fits into a small garbage bag for storage. But I just put one end into a vent and tape up all the seams and then extend the duct to the other floor. I usually run two ducts and that is sufficient for the heating or cooling until the problem is fixed. I have done this about six times so far in 26 years that I have been living in my home. I still have 1 original Heat Pump system still working. Its a 1988 model. They say a system is good for 15 years, I guess I got my moneis worth.

Yes I understand your problem. But lets say you update your home that you are refurbishing with all new walls, trim, lights, appliances, cabinets, flooring and everything in between and now flash forward to 2035, basically 20 years from now, what will you think? Or better yet build a new home from scratch with all the current trends in fixtures and fit and finishes. You will probably say the same thing. What was this person thinking or doing using glass tile backsplash in the kitchen and bamboo on the floors. Why did they go with oil rubbed bronze hinges and door knobs?

You can tell a house's age by the products that were used. Just today I walked into a condo that I built in 1985 that is on the market as a foreclosure. It had my all time favorite vinyl floor in the kitchen. It is a 9" square basket weave pattern. I loved it then and I love it now. I liked it so much I called my flooring contractor and told him that my favorite vinyl is still in this house and it looks great after 30 years!!!

I have taken down wallpaper that is three layers thick with paint on top of it. Try getting that off the walls. Well not really- what I really did was drywall over it with 3/8" drywall! fooled ya!!!! But I have taken down my share of wallpaper and in one situation I found a bit of mold under the wallpaper and the walls were plaster. The exterior of the home was full brick. I think this is an old issue because there are no water marks just some spotting in a 3 x 3 area.