All Forum Posts by: Jeff Rabinowitz

That thought occurred to me also. I don't know if it is more difficult to e-mail than post to youtube but I would think that would be safer.

@Chris Martin and @Kenneth Hynes, I, as the property owner, and the property manager, and/or members of their staff are the intended audience.

@Jerry W. , the home is occupied.

@Matt R. , in the unfortunate event that a fire occurred, couldn't an insurance adjuster or lawyer find a way to access the videos even if access was limited? My understanding is nothing on the interwebs really ever goes away completely.

@Account Closed , that is an aspect I hadn't even considered. What if the tenant were robbed for the nice pictures of his plasma TV and I didn't have permission?

@Chris Martin

I have several rental properties, some I manage myself and some are managed by a property manager. The manager has started a new procedure where he sends an inspector to create a video for the annual inspection and then posts them to youtube. They are labelled with the property address (not the city or state, thankfully). This video showed a property in good condition but with 3 smoke detectors which the tenant removed in lieu of replacing the batteries. This is certainly common but is just as certainly a fire hazard.

I am going to instruct the manager to never use the property address in the title when posting these videos (lest something serious ends up being used in a court of law) but should I go further? Should I instruct him to not post the videos at all unless he does so on an internal (preferably secure) server? Would this be unreasonably cautious?

@Mike Baker , Dodd Frankenstein affects owner occupant loans. If you are not selling your properties to owner occupants or doing lease options you should not be affected.

I would not invest in this deal. If you run into an extended vacancy or only a few unexpected expenses this could turn out to be break even at best--at worst it is an alligator. (It could eat you if you don't feed it cash every month).

I am not sure if you mean issues with the property or the chain of title. If you are concerned with title you should be able to order a lender's title policy. It would be best to check before you purchase the note.

A clause requiring the mortgagor (borrower) to keep hazard insurance in force is probably already in the mortgage and/or the note. If not, I would be hesitant to purchase the note without legal review because I would be concerned about what else was overlooked. A lien holder should be able to purchase hazard insurance on the property themselves if they wished to.

Most of my current business (11 separate deals) is being done with people I met at REIA's. I am going to look at a house tomorrow which was brought to me by a REIA member.

This is most certainly a relationship business. I attend meetings because I want to learn what other people are doing, what is challenging, what is working well, what is new. I go to solidify relationships with people I already partner with or I may like to partner with. I also identify people I would not be likely to get along with. If I am speaking about a current deal with a partner at a REIA I don't mind if you listen in (if there are private aspects my partner and I will move away or discuss those aspects later) but please be respectful. If you barge in and interrupt the conversation you may become the topic of conversation--unless you have great style you don't want that.

REIA meetings are valuable time for me. I will talk to you enough to meet you but I am also there to meet people I don't know, who may help my business. Make your introduction and follow up later. Almost no one follows up. That is how you will get more of my attention at the next meeting. Make a good impression and I will probably introduce you to some of my partners. Make a terrible impression and I will probably warn my partners about you.

Your property manager will charge you to find a tenant and lease the property. That is often one month's rent but since the rent is low it may be a bit more. You don't mention financing so I did a rough calculation assuming you are paying cash. When I figure the numbers (with a bit of a fudge factor--your expense estimates are low) I get ~10% ROI. If your ARV above is correct (where did you get that figure?) you are acquiring $29K of equity. If true it seems like a fairly low risk investment. If the rental numbers don't pan out you should be able to sell the house and pocket a nice profit. If the rentals numbers do pan out you may have a long term hold.

15 years is way too long to plan for. No matter what area of real estate you gravitate toward you will experience 3-6 different cycles in that period. What is important is to do something NOW. Read through the forums, attend your local REIA meeting, decide on an investment and do the deal. Then do it again and again. You can modify as you go but you must actually invest in order to benefit from real estate.

My crystal ball has not been tuned in quite a while but I would think it may be sooner than later. There have been significant run ups in prices in many regions--some driven by new investors entering markets (and paying too much) that they do not understand very well. Dodd-Frank will make it much harder for many first time homeowners to enter the market. Interest rates can't get much lower and will probably rise. If you are buying in an area where the hedge funds have significant holdings I would advise extreme caution. Many of the funds have already learned that there is more to being a successful landlord than buying low. When they bail out prices may fall faster than the last time.