All Forum Posts by: Ben Skove

I know this will come as a great, great surprise to everyone. /sarcasm

http://www.propublica.org/article/bank-of-america-lied-to-homeowners-and-rewarded-foreclosures

Brian,

You might want to see what resources the city has available for remediation. In Cincinnati, they'll work with investors as well as O/O on both RRP and abatement. A lot has to do with your income, though.

A quick google pulls this up: http://leadsafestlouis.com/services.htm

Steve, I had the same thing in my class - a contractor who found out the hard way.

We're occasional roller rink visitors. I don't have experience on the other side of the counter, but in the same way that a movie theatre is a snack bar that happens to show movies, a skating rink is a snack bar and arcade that happens to also have skating. They definitely pull in multiple streams of income. They make full use of the space for birthday parties, games, etc.

Good luck! I'd love to hear how it goes.

Jeez, Josh, just go ahead and find a way to make me spend more time on my iPad! At least I can call it working, right?

K. Marie Poe I appreciate your response on this topic, as well as an earlier, similar thread. It was particularly useful information, and has probably saved me a significant amount of time.

I'd considered trying to track down the heirs to a property heading towards tax deed foreclosure; given the low worth of the property, it seems to be a better use of my time looking at it again when it makes it to the sheriff's sale.

Michael, another thing that I've found helpful with vacant houses, with or without deceased owners, is asking the neighbors some very generic questions about the owner/house. You may be surprised at just how much information about the owner, relatives, and house they'll volunteer!

Brandon, I had an applicant whose employer mandated going through a third party and paying a fee. It appears that this is becoming more widespread - perhaps to lighten the load on their HR department?

To get around it, I both checked her pay stubs and called her supervisor at work (without forewarning the applicant, and getting the number directly from the employer's website), confirmed her position, and asked to be transferred to her phone. In other words, standard business call procedure.

Steven Hamilton II I didn't give him the opportunity to go into detail how he would structure matters - it didn't seem to jibe with what little I knew about capital gains vs ordinary income, and felt unethical - so I can't answer as to exactly how he was doing it. The little I was able to gather initially was setting up a series of partnerships with various family members (your kids, etc) so as to spread the flipped properties between entities. I appreciate your advice and that of J Scott in regards to it not passing the smell test.

As far as compensation vs. pass-through, I'm choosing to be very conservative at this stage, given the amount and type of work that I'll be doing. I have to admit I was surprised that I was the one advocating for higher compensation, not him.

On a related note, I'm looking for a new CPA.

Good customer service. Take care of your good tenants - keeping them for the long haul means a whole lot less screening, vacancies, etc.

Along with what J Scott and K Marie have said, when I have accepted rent late, or waived a fee, I have always put in writing that the acceptance is a one-time event and doesn't constitute any change to the lease terms, and have had the tenant sign.