All Forum Posts by: Niman S.

On 3/1 Fannie will start allowing investors to hold up to 10 mortgages and get Fannie Mae backed loans. The limit had been previously reduced to 4.

They say there will be an increase in activity from investors who had been halted by the 4 property limit.

Just curious - how many folks here have been halted by the 4 property limit?

Hi Tony,
I was browsing through some older posts, and I came across this one. I'm quite familiar with both apps, and I was curious about what other features you were talking about.

We're always looking to improve our software, so I was hoping you could provide some more feedback on this thread.

Thanks in advance!

When has the world ever been able to trust used car salesmen? Ever heard that the used car market is a "Market for Lemons"?

There are good used cars and bad used cars ("lemons")
1. Buyers do not know beforehand if they are getting a "lemon", and Sellers will have a much better idea
2. Therefore, buyers are pessimistic about the seller's quality and price, and are not willing to pay the seller's price and will underbid
3. Even with a great car, sellers have no way to credibly disclose this information to buyers, and as a result, sellers have reason to pass off a low quality product as a higher quality one

Information asymmetry leads to lemon markets, and we all know where that leads (hint: the market crashes!)
George Akerlof won the Nobel Prize in 1970 for this theory. Wikipedia has a good read on it if you are interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons

As we can see from previous posts, not all of our experiences have been the same and may vary by state.

Josh was on point though, title companies can provide you with a TON of data for free - they just want you to use them.

For getting the absentee lists, just go to First American or Fidelity, these title companies have nationwide data. Everyone gets their info from them - even Zillow - I guess it's not so commonly known though...

Don't be afraid to ask, it's sounds like many of you are! Your title company will be happy to give you the tools you need to help bring business their way. Here's what I recommend:

Go to the title company, tell them you want a list of absentee owners in your zip code (you'll get their mailing address), so you can mail them your listings.

Remember, Absentee owner = Investor. Your title company wants you to market to them and bring them back their way.

Originally posted by C Martinez:

I'm sorta seeing a pattern here for quickbooks. Can you view each property on separate charts or graphs as opposed to one single statement with all properties.

Niman, I manage 20 units.

I'm not sure this entire statement is directed at me....
Yes, you can split the reports to view the properties all together, individually, or by owner. Our founder ran Quicken and QuickBooks for Intuit - so you will see some of the same important functionality.

From the sound of it earlier, I thought you managed many more units and not 20 - I would have strongly recommended Simplify'em right off the bat. Why do you use PeachTree for 20 units? Does it have features that are important to you, and what are they?

The reason I ask is because we have property managers that manage greater than 100 units with our software, and I am trying to understand what additional features are more valuable to you.

I mentioned the banks always lose when they enter fixed contracts, so they want to balance their exposure immediately.

FNMA & FHLMC were sponsored by the government to securitize mortgages and sell them on a secondary market - the purpose being to loosen/increase the cash flows available to banks for lending. Fannie & Freddie made money from interest rate spreads and transaction costs - and like the banks, their specialty is liquid assets, not real estate.

How many units do you manage?

Hi Alton,
I've tried the majority of them. You can guess which one I will say is the best. It really depends on your needs. (some people are QuickBooks folks and want extreme detail, some users are simple and just want to be ready for taxes). I definitely recommend doing your own due diligence to find what best fits your needs. Josh has a pretty full list, and many of the sites offer a free trial - I'd start there.

Once you decide, I would love it if you could come back and share with us:

Which did you end up using?

What did you like about it?

Jon touched on this, I wanted to elaborate: The main reason is that the bank must be able to balance its fixed/floating assets and liabilities.

For example, think of the bank's books when you take a loan. You pay a fixed mortgage with fixed interest rate. This is a fixed asset for the bank. The liability is floating. If interest rates change, the bank loses. For example
1. Interest rates go up - bank could have sold you that same loan at a higher rate - therefore, bank is at a loss.
2. Interest rates go down - you can refinance and payoff early - bank is at a loss.

The bank loses as soon as the market interest rate changes.Therefore, as soon as the bank enters a contract, they want to close out their position. Instead of holding on to your loan and facing the risk of interest rate change (since bank receives fixed payment from you for 30 yrs in exchange for lump sum) - they will sell this (to someone who wants to submit a lump sum in now exchange for receiving fixed future payments for 30 years, like an insurance company).

The bank is an intermediary between buyers and sellers of assets - they make a cut on the spread and transaction costs. Their specialty is managing liquid assets and hedging the risk - not easy with the current volatility of real assets.

Constant Contact has the best deliverability in my experience.

We don't use it because of the rates. Unlike most mail services, the Constant Contact rate depends on your list size, not the # of emails sent. If you have a large list that you don't plan to email very often, it's not quite feasible.