All Forum Posts by: Ralph Justiz

@Michael Barry I've found that networking has completely changed my life. I was and still am the guy that hates to leave the house and talk to new people. I cannot stress how uncomfortable it was for me at first but now It has impacted me in such a way that I make an effort to network at least twice throughout the work week and once on the weekends. I've found a mentor, contractors, wholesalers, CPAs, clients, friends, etc.. just from plugging into the local community. It is still hard for me to talk to new people but in the end I know it will benefit me tremendously. Seriously, if your not going to local meetups you're doing yourself a disservice. 

Heck yeah if you can handle it! My wife and I closed on our first two investments within a week of each other. I can't say it was fun but I don't regret it at all.

After a quick search on meetup.com I was able to find 9 meetups happening in the metro just today.

If such a law exists check out your local landlord-tenant act. If what @Kenneth Garrett is right then it sounds like those type of laws might not even be enforceable if tenants are found to be in violation of them. 

@Vijaianand Thirunageswaram my biggest obstacle right now is financing. Since leaving W2 life and going full time into real estate banks have decided they do not like me anymore. I am a buy and hold investor and I feel as if commercial notes and hard money is often too expensive for the properties I am looking at. Again that is just my opinion. I struggle with the idea of not pursuing further investments because of my current situation versus sucking it up and just picking up deals that cash flow less because some cash flow is better than none. 

@Dylan B. do you have any thoughts on this? Maybe you can shed some light on how your partnership works? How do you keep a partnership successful?

I'm a little bias but it's a great place to invest in relative to the coasts! 

When I am screening for tenants I always ask for at least two previous landlord references and I call them both. If they are a first time renter I require a cosigner or a double deposit. 

In my experience larger property management companies know the drill but smaller mom and pop landlords do not. 

I wouldn't worry about what is considered normal. Tenant is screening is the most important aspect that you need to get right if you want to be a successful landlord. It's your first line of difference to protect your ASSets. 

There is little difference really. Most transactions will occur online anyway. The difference in interest rate might amount to $50 extra bucks at the end of the year.

My wife and I opened up an account with the local bank that we used for our lending. We had an established relationship with them already and felt comfortable using them to manage our business accounts. We are happy with their service and have transferred over most of our accounts with them just to make it easier to manage our funds since they are all (mostly) in the same place. One issue that we've ran into twice is that our limit on mobile deposits is $2,500, we have had two checks that were bigger than that amount and had to go to a physical location to deposit them. I'm sure online banks have figured a way around that issue or have different regulations were it isn't an issue.

@Kenny Shiozaki Most of the clients I work with will visit their out of state property maybe once if ever. Some people fly in either in to check out the area they are investing in or after they have a property under contract to walk through it. After closing I turn the house keys over to a property manager or contractor and my clients don't really have a need to come back.