All Forum Posts by: Sam Sagor

What you would do best with is use both the devil and the angel on your shoulder.

You should pursue a nonprofit for the "angel" activities and a pure investor strategy for your business. You do both. An example : keep the realestate profit first but also put time and effort into helping the community under the nonprofit. The parades, the patrols and dog and pony shows those you do under the non-profit. This gives you many benefits the most important being control what gets done in the revival, charisma for your business (you help rebuild the neighborhood people can feel warm and fuzzy about that when they buy a house) and tax advantages. You make a good profit (with the devil on your shoulder) and then do the angle thing - you can help stabilize the area because you can now access bigger financing grants and the local government is more likely to help because they see more of a chance of pulling it off the more money you can bring to the table.

Like the conscious metaphor nonprofit and for profit are really two sides of the same coin. Nonprofit does not mean you can't make money - it's a matter of where that money goes. You want to commit funds to this place a nonprofit setup to do that will allow you to do so with using less of your out of pocket personal finance. It means you can fund raise, people can donate things like cars or real estate to you and receive tax deductions. You can donate to your non profit as a business and receive tax deductions and use that to fuel the revival campaign. As long as it is a legitimate non profit and you aren't using that money to buy real estate - that's what your business is for. This obviously requires people willing to donate (and that pay taxes if you are motivating them with deductions) It's going to take a lot to get that message out there but if you are championing the revival and it looks like there could be something to your dream they can help.

Non-profits are a way to store resources. The benefits are unpreceptable. You aren't selling it you don't get profit from it ... but you do get what it is. You build a school you have a school. Control the curriculum. Own an MBA team? You get a point of pride. It is a means and it grows with all you put into it. Bishop estates is a good example they own land in Hawaii. A lot of it and they use it to make profit by developing, leasing and running the cattle industry. So they have a nonprofit to offset the taxes and give them a front which in turn gives influence and PR. This is having a profit arm and non profit arm.

John S. Has some very valid points and if you keep the advice of people like him in mind you will have a better chance of not falling for the pitfalls of trusting people who lack your altruistic perspective. For one due diligence should be a stepped up in an area like this.

For now I suggest look into the post above and try to figure out community things you want to do that could be fundraisers - i.e festival all profit to NPO cleaning up the riverfront. Oh and members (not board members) you get them and your nonprofit looks better to the government offices. Have sign ups at the events it shows that you can convince people to support you.

It depends on the bank local credit unions and banks offer different products. You should really shoot for a lower LTV than the banks will lend at. At the very least go for 75LTV. You had better be sure about the pay for themselves thing and even then DTI can be a problem because they want your portfolio to preform better than breaking even. It's not 1 but 1.2 or 1.3 they want to see as a minimum. You might want to do FHA just to put only 3% and closing down. More cash in your hand is going to help you more as an investor starting up... but it's up to you if you want the rate instead of the cash.

First off I salute you for remembering how to look up. Your post reminds me of "all of us are in the gutter but some are staring at the stars." These are the beginnings of change but you will need to commit yourself to seeing them through. It's also going to take a hell of a lot more investment than you think and to that end you are going to need to really plan this out and don't use only your resources - there are untapped ones you cannot have alone but can just by starting something that attracts others. Yes get investors but here's what else - form a nonprofit. Call it St. Louis renaissance or something cut out of silver linings. It's seriously easy / inexpensive versus what your doing here make yourself the agent and elect at least 3 other motivated people that care about the project ... they become board members. Then do what you're doing under that flag. Make house investments separate but research some of the really interesting grants nonprofits have that investors do not. Government offices like USDA and business development work with you more readily. Your going to need more capital but you can start this now and then use the grants when you have the resources.

About getting businesses in hold that carriage - go the NPO way and you can get loans to give to other businesses at low interest rates ... guess what you pay - zero. You also take the risk so you had better get good at determining profit potential and helping them so they don't screw your credit. You play venture capital here that can be a double edged sword so learn before you dive in and it may actually work. Research Non profits and see if you can get other less effective nonprofits on board if they have better reputation, resources or could get the neighborhood to respect itself. Help them because as a NPO they will trust you.

Ask me anything you want to know about this.

Welcome, as someone looking to get into apartment buildings I recommend you look outside the Hawaiian islands. I live here too and have found It pays to not arbitrarily limit yourself. Try using your VA mortgage to tie up a multifamily (you can live in it and get 3 tenants with this) or SFH for starting out ... this will give you landlording experience and be a good start you can reach now.

oh answer to the pineapples : Lanai. But they rebranded as Hawaii's most enticing island (they are now uprooting all the plantations and bringing in tourism)

Staging is fantastically worth it but how to put a price on it is a subjective thing. It depends on your area and how much of a profit margin these sellers are looking to get. I think you would want to show what staging does to your sellers, quote them, and negotiate on a case by case basis. Staging generally effects DOM more than the purchase price this is what you would want to show (by finding homes that sold with lower DOM because they looked the part)

Definitely offer "the furniture stays" with the house for a set fee / percentage. I think you are going to have trouble selling individual pieces though because new home buyers want new. That said you can collect furniture on craigslist or by partnering with trash-out servicemen. They are underpaid and most would be happy to deliver their good stuff to you for a certain amount of cash. You wouldn't believe the stuff people leave behind (worked this angle in Seattle).

This is a way to save on food :

http://www.restaurant.com

They sell certificates $10 for $25

enter zip 80202 for Denver convention center

or click

http://www.restaurant.com/rdc_site2.net/listings.aspx?StateID=&zip=80202&x=60&y=11&

They then have you choose restaurants --> choose a second denomination and discount --> print a coupon which you present to management (usually this one) or waiter. It works best when you buy an expensive denomination and bring lots of company to split the bill. There may be a small gratuity / they require you to eat in it's in the fine print ... also menus are online for some

Break down - $10 for $25 certificate ->

option 1 for you
choose a coupon for $50 pay $25 in
option 2 better with friends
choose a coupon for $100 pay $40 in certificates (you need to buy 2)

Now I know this looks complicated but I have used several times and it does save quite a bit if you use it right. I used it to get Chinese food in college - by getting it delivered and at a 65% discount you can afford to give some out for free and make friends.

If you have a hybrid / electric car :

FREE Hybrid and Electric Parking:

The Colorado Convention Center Parking Garage has designated reserved parking stalls for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles for up to 8 hours of FREE parking. These free "Green" stalls are offered and when available are located on level P1. Thank you for partnering with the Colorado Convention Center to reduce our impact on the environment and our valuable natural resources.

I apologize if the links need to be removed did not mean to offend.

Does anyone have any good pointers for someone on the verge of moving to Austin? My fiancee has a school on 6th street (by the university) she already attends online. They give the option of coming in person or living off continent. This is one of the things that gives me the impression Texas is progressive. We are ready to jump but first we are looking at where would be the best place for a home base not necessarily in the city proper. Is it a good chance that houses outside the city (say Leander and Round Rock, the surrounding ones) are going to see great appreciation? This is based on the assumption that the sprawl will keep expanding would like to hear opinions on that.

What we are looking for - what area does this best :
good equity potential
rehab (we want to redo the walls so extreme rehab)
lot size over 1 acre
In Austin? Easily changed if there's an up and coming town. Also looking at Dallas equity in next 5 years is the goal
overriding factor : Does anyone here need an extremely motivated intern? I'd like to learn the ropes by doing.

The answer is you can (the article mentions one). Finding that lender may be difficult if you are bound to your area. This would be a great idea if you could find a way to actually get it to work I think it's going to be difficult to do so because we aren't hearing more about this but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

Also thank you for the warning about HELOCs - I would not be getting a variable rate but locking for 5 to 7 years.

Yes go with that on the back. Seriously you are over thinking it - it's your card if it gets people to contact you that's it's job. Now to go beyond that you make an impression in character with what you do and what you want to be perceived as. If you are the kind of person who would clearly say what they do (buy, sell, hold etc) then just think of the card as another way you could say that. Just make it you.

Also one card works unless you have a good reason like a specific niche and you want to look like you specialize.

This is not a reason not to pay. Absolute incompetence may be. For theoretical situations where it makes no sense to pay the agent i.e they didn't show, etc is there any way of doing that legally? Does the option to purchase work is what I'm wondering... wouldn't that fall in the agent's 6 months contract? It would have been signed while the contact was in effect so I think you'd still be on the hook for a commission, correct? Just want to know.