All Forum Posts by: Michael K Gallagher

@Peter Butcher congrats on jumping in!  What a way to get creative and make win win for both parties!

The most famous guy who pushed this whole thing was and is Clayton Morris, the guy who fled to Portugal after getting caught in a huge RE scam in Indy. I'd tread carefully with anyone pushing this method. I can see where it might be worth while when interest rates are 6-7% and the HELOC is substantially lower....but at the rates they are now I personally don't see much of a point...the benefit of the leveraged debt being so cheap now is to be able to earn more on your money elsewhere.

@Jennifer T. interesting idea....I wouldn't say no but I'd for sure run some super conservative numbers.  If you made a worst case scenario...being that you don't get paid and can't start rehab until the leases are up...what does that look like?  Is it still worth it?  I'm not sure the 10% discount would be enough for me...but I also don't have all the data.  I'd find out what price actually makes sense to have to hold it for that long before you get anything out of it.  In parallel obviously going after eviction as well.  So get a price from a great RE Lawyer in your area and work that price into your numbers....and if there is a price that makes the up side worth the head ache...pull that trigger...I doubt anyone else will.  but yeah 10% would not be enough for me.  If the wholsaler has to take a hit thats their issue not yours.  

@Marqus Freeman I use Zillow for all my PM stuff.  I use their application, and run my own Due diligence follow up on all the information provided by the tenant.  I know its a novel concept but I actually call their place of work and references. But then Zillow allows you to do all the documents electronically, and to collect rent electronically so I've had nothing but good experiences with it. Granted I only have 2 doors, so not sure how it scales, but it seems like it would do fine.   

@Robin Hines Thank you for posting and I'm so sorry for all the distress he has caused.  Man I was thinking "well this guy did eff up but hes owning up to it so maybe he gets it on track?" then read your portion about your lawyers response and my god!  how can someone write those emails knowing they are just a complete fraud...anyone checked flight records from Clevland yet?  might be headed to Tulum or something...reminds me of the shiz Clayton Morris pulled a couple years back in Indy.

@John McAllister congrats on the house hack!  I also did a house hack and used Zillow in its entirety.  Their 10$ fee was well worth it and I use their entire system.  The screening, the application process, the payment portal all of it.  Its been great and extremely user friendly. I also marketed on "rentals.com" but had all the leads from rentals.com apply via zillow anyway.   

@Sean Beksinski congrats on jumping in! Small multi family is a great place to start. If you have not already considered it, from personal experience I cannot say enough good things about starting with a house hack. It lets you learn to manage your own properties and to understand what goes into that. I feel it positions you better to hire someone to manage your portfolio later, and it lets you use an FHA loan to get into it as it will be owner occupied. I am not familiar with Maryland as a market however so I am not sure how feasible that is. I'm in Columbus OH where you can still buy a well rehabbed duplex in a decent area for the mid $300's...So might be a little different.

As far as resources I've loved the "house hacking success" podcast and their youtube channel is great.  I'm also loving "crushing it in commercial real estate" which is more about larger multi family units but the advice on self managing in it is absolutely amazing! 

If you are interested in what Columbus has to offer in more detail don't hesitate to reach out.  Happy to share my own properties numbers or to show you some others that are available currently.  cheers!

@Michael Zagorsky interesting take and I can for sure see how you would get there....to tell you the truth I have the opposite experience. Granted I only have 3 doors, and am an agent but the most valuable info I've gotten out of the podcast are the Sunday mindset episodes. However, I go into the episodes understanding that each person and situation is extremely specific and its impossible to give sound advice to apply to the many given that REI is so location and personal goal specific. I use it more as a gut check to ask myself "am I doing the right things? am I really working as hard as I could be? Am I working on the correct things?" These kinds of questions help me take their broad information and focus it down to what is applicable for me.

You are absolutely correct that the topics are more broad and general business focused lately...I'm just finding it more advantageous but I'm also probably at a different point in my journey.  Have you found any other shows that are fitting your needs more closely?

@Theresa Harris great suggestion. Having the police reports in writing and as evidence can be very powerful.

@Rick Harmon did you’re realtor get that other offer signed as a backup? That would have been my strategy. I’ve sold and bought all but 1 of my properties in backups. **** happens and it gives you a leg to stand on and negotiate assuming the backup still is interested...