All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

There are legal and moral ways to make the transaction work.

There the illegal or immoral ways to do business.

If you get a reputation for being shady do not complain latter.

Every wonder while the public thinks agents cut corners or do things that they should not be involved in? Cash in envelopes? Sounds like the standard business procedure for some other groups.

There is another thread with the graphic already posted.

Jon (Wheatie) and I are discussing some of the details.

Aly,

Just remember the restrictions you have on your activities because you carry a license. Things you can say, things you can do when advertising, etc.

Many investors would rather not have the restrictions.

GW,

I see no reason that an LLC has to be 2 years old.

PA does have a transfer tax. More or less the highest in the US. Few other folks will run into the costs you are facing.

Remember the tax when you vote for PA officials. Maybe they will one day change the transfer tax.

Some states allow an exemption from a transfer tax if the parties are related. I did one transfer from me to a trust where the state and county waives all taxes. Not in PA though.

Check the laws in NY. Depending on exactly who owns the property you might have to get a RE license in the state of NY.

You said you are taking over for family. That is not the same as managing your own property depending on how the ownership has been handled.

Be very careful. If you operate illegally (by choice or by accident) you could end up with no ability to evict, you can be fined and other things.

William,

Get some options in place. An option to buy the 2nd at a specific price and terms. An option to buy the seller's position for what ever you can agree. Start getting things in place so you can then see how will all ad up. The options will cost you next to nothing and should lock up people as they reach agreement with you.

Then see what way to exit with your profit.

Christian,

Bad agents can be an issue.

With some agencies they will not take offers until X days have passed. Or they will collect all offers for X days before any replies to any bidder. They want to make sure that all possible bids are received rather than make a decisions on a First In, First Out (FIFO) basis.

Lets see how it goes.

Fred,

Be careful taking in as fact everything you hear. Most people will tell you that US house prices are crashing while the facts show otherwise.

I use a project manager for most of my rentals. Not one project manager but a number of them. The rentals are spread over 11 time zones so there is no way one manager would work.

I have had some bad ones and I tend to hang on very tightly to the good ones.

It depends on your strategy and what you are good at in terms of REI.

I find that I do better finding and setting up the deals. I am not the best person to manage a property. Not bad, but not the best. More important is the fact that I have limited time. I can make more money putting my time into other things than I can save by being the property manager.

Some PMs are real estate sales agents who are filling in their spare time managing property when sales are slow. My PMs do nothing other than manage rentals.

Jon raises some good points. I also recommend the book cited.

If you are sued and the lawyer chooses to move forward they will ask you a series of questions about the debt vs. the equity and your other assets. You can not lie without facing action from the court (jail time, etc).

Having property without a lot of equity visible will discourage folks from suing you but it will not stop people who want to move forward in any event.

Similar to trust agreements where they reduce the chance of a suit but they do not directly provide protection.

Eli,

Buy and hold for me.

A suggestion.

Some people will not come back to a thread for all sorts of good reasons. If you really want to know more about any specific person try the profile button.

Note that the site made a transition recently so some folks are still setting up their profiles. Some of the time you will get an error. Normally when the person joined before the switch and they have not changed the settings. Otherwise the profile button is a great way to find out more. You can send folks a direct message (a conversation) once you are a colleague.