All Forum Posts by: Alexander Merritt

I would think about adding additional 3 way switches so you can turn off lights from different doorways without having to walk across the room to turn on/off the lights.

Also there are a ton of lighting ideas on www.instructables.com. I would also start thinking about exterior lighting. If the property has a deck, there are some cool ideas on this website.

http://www.instructables.com/howto/lighting/

You are correct. I was merely saying that it would be an incentive to vacate the property for a better showing. I would think most people would be less inclined to see a house with tenants living in it.

Also, it depends on how long the LL is requesting me to vacate for? 1 hour? sure. that's a $50/hr pay check. 2 hours... possibly, that's $25/hr paycheck. It would also depend on the tenant. If they are usually out of the house during the weekend doing "stuff" anyways, then they would be paid for essentially doing what they would be doing anyways. I'm not saying that's always the case, but it could be.

I view this as no different than "cash for keys" that some LL's do to incentivise a tenant to leave the property. Yes it's a completely different scenario. I already know that. I'm just saying it's an incentive. The tenant has every right to refuse and that's their option. But they may also accept it.

I don't know about this one.... Would it be considered fraud? What if later on it is discovered that this deal was made specificlly to "lower his income level" so that he doesn't loose his benefits. Would there be any criminal or civil charges? Jail time? I'd be very careful here. I understand he is not in the best situation and you are trying to help him out, but I would never put myself in a situation that could have the chance to harm myself. I'd definitely talk to an attorney but I would think you can structure a deal any way you want as long as both parties agree. I've seen people swap "pink slips" for cars straight up, even when one car is worth significantly more than the other. No other cash is involved. It just depends on peoples needs at the time.

I think also people might be confusing Social Security, with Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Both programs are administred by the SSA but they are different programs. Land would not disqualify him from getting his montly Social Security payment, however SSI is a different program and has different sets of rules. Keep in mind it's "SUPPLEMENTAL" income.

@Roy Vereen

Just search for this on BP. This has been discussed on here at length probably hundreds of times. It's basically a trade off between asset protection vs easy of financing. A lot of BP'ers will tell you that LLC's when you first start off aren't worth the hasle if you are a single investment and don't actually provide you with any real Asset Protection because any compentent lawyer will be able to "pierce the corporate veil" and then you will be personally liable for any lawsuits that result from your business. I don't necessiarly agree with that because LLCs were designed to give you that protection provided you run the LLC exactly to the letter of the law.

As @Brandon Hall mentioned, having and LLC will make it more difficult and expensive to get financing because the LLC has no real assets to go after in case of default or bankruptcy.

I was thinking of this same thing, but does a whole day's rent justify the inconvenience of only a few hours open house? It's not like the tenant is being asked to vacate the property for an entire day and sleep in a motel or anything. They just need to go out for a "long lunch" for a few hours and then come back. So, maybe $50 a day. I think that's reasonable.

Or, you don't pay for what is legally allowed in CA, but then tell the tenant you would pay them $100/day for any extra showings or open houses that fall outside of CA law. That's probably how I would do it.

@Travis Fisher

Just curious. Why would you want a basement rental unit instead of going with a traditional side-by-side duplex option? The reason I ask is because IMHO basement apartments limit the scope of potential renters. There are some renters that won't even consider a basement unit just because it's "in the basement"; not matter how nice it is. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I'm just saying that your pool of potentials goes down.

So, you're saying that the HOA can just vote on it and they expect the condo owner to just fork over a $55+k chunk of money or they take your house? That seems pretty outrageous.

Do they have to give you advanced notice? Do they have to invite everyone in the building to the meeting to discuss/vote on it? I would read through your HOA agreement/rights and see if there is anything in there that might help you. Possibly talk to an attorney?

I would go with the 30yr fixed. This gives you the flexibility to pay it off as if it were a 15yr by simply making extra payments and having them applied to the principal balance. Most owner occupied mortgages do not have a pre-payment penalty, so it won't hurt you to make extra payments. It also gives you a some security in the sense that if you are ever laid off or your income stream is reduced for some reason, you can always just stop the extra optional payments.

So let's say your 30yr fixed is $1k/month. You could simply pay $1k/month for your mandatory payment and then pay an extra $1k for a total of $2k payment / month to pay it off faster. But, if you loose your job or you want to divert funds to something else, you simply just go back to your $1k mandatory payment and there's no problem.

For an exmple, when you're first starting off investing, you may want to just pay your $1k payment and save everything else for investing. Now let's say 10years later, your investmetns are really paying off and generating a nice income stream for you and you can afford to make additional payments on your mortgage to really pay it off faster and save on that interesting financing. It's a win-win in my book.

If you go with the 15yr, yes you will pay it off faster, but you are stuck at the 15yr high payment no matter what happens and that could come back to haunt you if something drastic happens and you have huge medical expenses or something like that.

How much are you personally putting into this deal? I'm assuming this is a flip, right?

@Eddie Talley

1) Who are you trying to get people to look at it; investors, contractors, flippers, etc...?
2) Per number 1, are you marketing specifically to that group? So let's say you are trying to get a partnership together to do this deal. How are you looking for/approaching other investors? Do you have an investment package put together with spreadsheets, photos, comps, financials, rehab scope of work/costs....? This is something that I've found is really important. You want people to take you seriously and build instant trust with them by being completely prepared. If you can answer all (if not 95%) of their questions, then that will show them you know what you are doing and you've done your homework on the property and area. This portrays you as a professional who is serious about it and puts people at ease and builds trust real fast. Anyone can say "hey I have a great deal on this apartment complex. It's only 50% occuipied now but if we rehab it then we can get it filled and the make some real money." But, how can you prove that? Do you see what i'm getting at?