All Forum Posts by: Robert Leonard

Hello and welcome to BP @tim

@Tim Nicholas!  We meet on the 4th Monday of the month at 6:00PM in the private meeting room at WalkOn's.  If you join at meetup.com/bplakecharles you will get a notice when the meeting gets announced.  We are still finalizing the details, so the meeting hasn't been announced yet for this month.

Welcome back to BR @eric 

@Eric Ruscitti! @Brandon Johnson is right.  Your question is well-timed.  “The RING” meets next week and you can meet a lot of investors you can connect with then.  See you there!

Hello and welcome to BP @carlos 

@Carlos Zappatos  I like everything you said up to the part about buying a condo.  Ask yourself these questions, would you like to make your investment decisions about a property you own based on your own risk tolerance and understanding your goals?  Would you like to have a committee of people decide what you will do with your investment property or when you will spend money on improvements or repairs? How would you like it if a committee of people make decisions with a pool of money that will change your options of being able to sell or refinance your property?

A condo association can set a limit on the number of units that can be rentals or even not allow any at all!  NO matter what the rules are today, they can and do change them.  Roofs often get discolored just because mildew (or whatever it is scientifically?) grows on it and that committee can decide it’s time to replace it and you will get an assessment that is a bill you have to pay.  In the case of financial mismanagement, a condo association can make a property unfinanceable to you or anyone who might want to buy it from you!

There are way too many third party factors that are out of your control, in my opinion, to buy a condo as an investment.  I’m sure if I found the right deal at the right price (price can solve a lot of problems/reservations) I would buy one, but as long as there are plenty of other options without those added perils, I’m looking for something else.

I recommend you read "The Millionaire Real Estate Agent" by Gary Keller and apply what works for your schedule and time available.  I believe that's what you were looking for in your original post?

Professionalism is a matter of HOW you do something, not HOW MUCH TIME you spend doing it.

PMI is permanent and does not go away when LTV gets below 80% (like they did in the past), on today's FHA loans!

Hey JP, if you come here and buy any rentals, we are experiencing real downward pressure on rental rates.  Expect lower than historical rents for the near term.  We are in a real slump.  As always, you’ll be fine if you buy right.  

Be advised, most people experience sticker shock when they come from TX to LA.  We have much lower property taxes and house prices seem a lot higher, but it when you get to the monthly payments, it all comes out to near the same monthly cost.

Hey JP, if you come here and buy any rentals, we are experiencing real downward pressure on rental rates.  Expect lower than historical rents for the near term.  We are in a real slump.  As always, you’ll be fine if you buy right.  

Be advised, most people experience sticker shock when they come from TX to LA.  We have much lower property taxes and house prices seem a lot higher, but it when you get to the monthly payments, it all comes out to near the same monthly cost.

Jeromy, sometimes it’s a two step process to find the owner’s name on properties.  I’m not familiar with Iberia Parish’s websites, but what I used to do in Lafayette Parish was look up the property address on the assessor’s website.  That would give you the assessment number.  Then using the assessment number, go to the sheriffs tax collector website and lookup the property by that number and it gives you the name and mailing address of the property owner.

Sometimes this information is available by subscription.  Lafayette’s tax assessor used to sell a CD for $20 every year with the most current information including owner names, addresses and most recent sale prices before they came up with their website.

Realtors have access to detailed tax assessor information too.  If you are working with one, you might ask them if you don’t have any luck on your own?

A tool I use for D4$ is Evernote.  It has real good voice recognition and I can just touch the microphone and start dictating the property address or phone numbers for FSBOs and it transcribes it.  I can take a picture and save it all to a note for the property or multiple properties on a single note.  Its free, until you use it a whole lot.  I have the paid plan, because I do use it a whole lot - LOL!

Hello @Colton McDaniel and welcome to BP.  My partner and I have been investing in the Baton Rouge market since before last year’s floods.  If you want to invest in flood damaged properties, I recommend that you get to know the rules that apply to the flood insurance program and understand how flood zones work.  Here are a couple good resources:

http://maps.lsuagcenter.com/floodmaps/

Floodsmart.gov

The "do it yourself" method would be to search for similar properties on CraigsList or other listing sites. Check rentometer.com Or you can contact an agent or broker/property manager who knows the market. Professsionals usually advertise what they specialize in and that will help you know who to call.