All Forum Posts by: Randy Landman

Can you challenge the appraisal? What are the comps in the neighborhood compared to your asking price? Unfortunately if you put granite countertops in a Formica neighborhood you're not likely to get a return on that.

I thought he meant the entire project including the house was $80,000 and they were borrowing 100%. Maybe David could clarify. What are the terms on the loan? Is there a balloon?

I tell them that I am the landlord.  I think tenants treat the owner differently than they would a property manager.  If you are just the property manager then it is your job it fix everything they ask for.  They say jump to see how high you will go.  But if they know they are dealing directly with the owner, then they tend to fix smaller issues themselves or not worry about them at all and only call you for the bigger things.  At least that seems to be the case with me. 

Contact smaller local banks and credit unions and ask if they do commercial loans. It's unlikely they will lend 100% of the purchase, maybe 65 to 80% LTV depending on the bank. But you could explore other options like the sellers carrying a note for the down payment, partnering with someone else, or using equity from another property. There are many creative ways to purchase property.

I know that the topic of LLC or not and dealer vs investor have been done to death, but I still find myself with questions. We currently hold our rentals in our own name. I had planned on moving them to an LLC at some point in the next couple of years. Right now we are in the process of starting a fix and flip business. We formed the LLC for that business and planned on it being completely separate from the rental business. We found a bank to get a line of credit from using our rental properties as collateral. The line of credit will be in the LLC fix and flip businesses name with a personal guarantee by us. I thought that the bank was ok with the collateralized rental property remaining in our name. Maybe I didn't ask them that question correctly. Now that we are getting down to the closing they want us to transfer the properties into the LLC name, since that is the name on the line of credit. That will put our buy and holds and our fix and flips in the same entity, which was not my intention. But I need the line of credit and that's what the bank is requiring. How do you structure it when you are using your rental property equity as collateral to fund the fix and flips?

Well I've received cash, check, money orders, cashiers checks, and electronic debt for rent payments in the past. But today for the first time someone handed me a winning lottery ticket to pay for their rent. It just made me laugh. If you hadn't spent your entire check on lottery tickets, beer, and cigarettes (on payday) then you wouldn't have any trouble paying your $120 rent.

Are you still meeting tonight? I can be there around 7:30.

I have used Zilpy.com in the past.  It used to be free, but now they charge for most of the data including the vacancy rate info.   

I'm going to have this same problem some day.  I have a cast iron pipe under a slab that has some roots in it.  I had them cut out and keep them at bay by using some foaming root killer every 3 months.  It's been over 6 years with no back ups and I haven't had to cabled the line again.  But someday I'm sure it will break.  Has anyone every tried a trenchless pipe repair?  There are different techniques, but it basically creates a new pipe within the existing pipe where the damage is at.  Of course that reduces the diameter of your pipe slightly.  I had a bid done for it once and I think it was around $3,000 for a 15 foot repair.  Much less messy than digging up the slab.  But I've never talked to anyone that had one done to see if they were happy with the job.       

I like the Sterling Vikrell, they are very durable.  They come in a four piece option so you can get them down the stairs and through your narrow doorway.  They hook together with caulkless seems that channel the water down to the shower base.  But I don't think you would want to cut them.  If you have to cut it then you would probably need a basic glue up shower surround which don't always last that long, require frequent caulking, and in my opinion don't look all that great.  I think you would be better off with a shower base and tiling the walls.