All Forum Posts by: Ron Harris

Carpet Depot and JMar for flooring.

Builders Warehouse for cabinets and some flooring and/or backsplash tile.

Anthony's appliances in Midwest City for stove, refirg, dishwasher. 

Always tell Carpet Depot, JMar and Anthoy's that you are an investor. Tell Builders you want contractor pricing.

I agree with Rhett. I would rather use the 2 most popular attorneys in OKC for eviction. One does so many in bulk that it's cheaper to use him vs you paying all the court costs. From my understanding, he has many work outs for the $199 fee. If I recall, you still have to send the 5 day notice yourself and then turn it in to him. 

But...I was smart and outsourced all that to my property manager wife! ha ha.

I would agree with Don. The more experienced the private lender the higher cost, though no where near expensive as a hard money lender. I call them "medium money", ha.

A regular private lender is anywhere from 6-10% with/without points. It all depends on their experience and what you negotiate. 

And, of course, the terms and % also depends on your own experience as an investors, rehabber, landlord, reputation, and/or more.

At least in OKC, it's usually rare for the private lender to have both a % APR and % of the profit. It all depends on the experience of the borrower and negotiated terms. Sometimes for the new investors it is a 50/50 profit split.

We are a pretty small community here in OKC and almost every experienced investor knows each other. Plug in to the local REIA's as there is private lenders there.

Hope that helps!

Welcome to BiggerPockets Johnathan!

As Roland said, I recommend you join the local Real Estate Investors Association (REIA) & free Meetups to be around like-minded individuals.

In Oklahoma City, we are a tight group of investors and colleagues. Many of us become close friends and like a family!

What I have seen over the years, since 2006, is that we can tell the success level of new investors by how often they show up. It's amazing what it will do for your motivation and momentum when around your peers.

For real estate investors in Oklahoma City, we have:

1st Wednesday of every month "Coffee with Real Estate Investors" www.coffeewithrealestateinvestors.com

1st Thursday of every month Millionaire Possabilities MPREIA www.meetup.com/MPREIA

3rd Wednesday of every month Landlord Meetup www.meetup.com/Landlord-Oklahoma-City-Real-Estate-Investing-Meetup

3rd Saturday of every month Real Estate Wholesalers Breakfast www.meetup.com/Real-Estate-Wholesaler-Breakfast

4th Tuesday of every month OKC Real Estate Wholesalers Network www.meetup.com/Real-Estate-Wholesalers-Network

For entrepreneurship & business in Oklahoma City, we have:

Every Wednesday morning 1 Million Cups OKCwww.1millioncups.com/okc

2nd Wednesday of every month "Coffee with Entrepreneurs" www.okceg.com/pages/Coffee_with_Entrepreneurs

4th Thursday of every month OKC Entrepreneur Group www.OKCEntrepreneurGroup.com

Misc

Multiple times per month"The Meeting After The Meeting" - Dinner with Entrepreneurs & Real Estate Investors www.meetingafterthemeeting.com

I am a local real estate mentor and business coach so if you ever need guidance and accountability I might be a resource to you. I am always open for a cup of coffee!

No matter what you do, you MUST plug in to all the local resources and build relationships! It will be invaluable to your real estate success.

Enjoy the day,

Ron Harris

The Renascent Entrepreneur

Originally posted by @Michael Gansberg:

@Bret Weigel, 

I agree with the posters on improving your attic insulation, but nobody has mentioned heat sources from within the home. Quite often, people's air conditioning systems end up warring with people's lighting systems. For example, if you're using incandescent and/or halogen bulbs(most people do,) while in operation, ten 75 to 100 watt bulbs function as a small space heater would. Compact fluorescent bulbs are better, but they are not as good as the best solution- LED bulbs. 

If your tenants have the cheap incandescent bulbs in their fixtures, I'd recommend swapping them out at your own expense- I won't link these, as I don't think BP likes links to outside pages, but I'd recommend Vivid Lighting's 60 watt replacement bulb, 2700 Kelvin, they're about $3.50 each on Amazon and use only 8 watts, or GE Lighting's 13909 bulb(replaces a 100 watt incandescent while only using 16 watts.) Stick to 2700 K on that one too- anything higher might appear too industrial/white. Hyperikon also makes pretty sweet bulbs, stay between 2700K and 3000K there as well. Any of these are easily searchable on Amazon.

If your tenants pay their electric bill, they'll thank you- the bulbs last for decades and will immediately reduce their electric bill- in summers, there's a double benefit as the air conditioning will not need to run as often. And if you swap these out- spending very little money and not much time, either- your tenants will really think you care, which is more valuable than anything I've written above. And guess what? They'll be right.

Michael

(if you have any special bulbs- like R7s 78mm or 118mm halogens, or T8, etc, please respond to this post and I'll give you some solutions for those)

Don't forget that "HUMANS" produce heat too. 
And... how many of your Section 8 Tenants have un-listed/live-in boyfriends that are not supposed to be there. I remember our trusted HVAC guy said about the "heat issues we were having" was probably the extra 4 people living there that we did not know about, ha!

• Based on a 2,000-calorie diet, the human body generates about 330 BTUs per hour of heat. The same diet also inputs 7,900 BTUs of energy into the human body through food consumption. Because most of this energy is used by the human metabolic system, the heat that is radiated, conducted or convected away from the body can be measured as generated BTUs. (From https://www.reference.com/science/many-btus-human-...)

Originally posted by @Geoffrey Schnake:

I have found residents who have large utility bills tend to use the bill as an excuse to not pay rent on time. Also, blown in insulation is pretty inexpensive. Just do it and you won't have to do it again.

Which means they still need to pay rent on time, ha. We cover this types of events in our "Rent Talk" before they actually rent the property and we hand over the keys. 

Agree on insulation, it's pretty cheap and it does make a little difference.

Ron
Renascent Mastermind

Originally posted by @Jay Hinrichs:

@Ron Harris  funny I am at the SKirvin this weekend checking out your market.

the RE team I am meeting with is very investment driven.. And they are of course brokers and movers and shakers.

Looks like lots of meeting to go to.. thats for sure.

 Ha ha. Too many meetings is the bane of my existence, ha. Why I avoid them as much as possible though I seem to run a lot of meetups to help others. Maybe time to let others run them, grin.

How did the meeting go with the investment group? 

Any key points that stuck out to you about Oklahoma City?

@jay hinrichs 

Originally posted by @Alexander Moses:

@Ron Harris I want to work for or with you! I should be done with my real estate classes in 10 weeks maybe sooner.

Sorry for delay. I only check my email once a month and check other social media (etc) occasionally. I'm on an "Information Diet" as Tim Ferriss says via 4 Hour Work Week. 

I sent my contact info to you though Meetup messages via OKC Entrepreneur Group. Hopefully, I can shed some light on the minefields to avoid as an investor and agent. 

Have you started to go to the REIA's and other Meetup real estate meetings?

@Alexander Moses 

Originally posted by @Jay Hinrichs:

@Alexander Moses best thing if you actually want to be in the industry is to simply get a RE licnes and go work for a brokerage that specializes in what interest you.. IE SFR Multi Commerical Leasing etc.

I would agree as long as you find a RE brokerage that actually understand the investment side. Most RE brokerages don't know much on the investment side (some look down at it) since they focus on the retail side and growing the brokerage for retail agents. I actually own a investor friendly real estate brokerage and going against the grain a little bit with our structure and purpose. 

However, you don't need a RE license to be a extremely successful investor. It helps, but not necessary. Sometimes, we have to help real estate agents unlearn things when they want to cross over into the investment side. 

Guess the % of real estate agents that actually own real estate investments. It just might surprise you.

Enjoy,

Ron

I would probably run from Renatus. The focus on recruitment over real estate education may be a distraction to your actual growth of investment assets.

Finding a local mentor would be more valuable (it normally isn't free for a good mentor but it also isn't expensive). Sometimes you just need accountability.

I recommend you join the local Real Estate Investors Association (REIA) & free Meetups to be around like-minded individuals.

In Oklahoma City, we are a tight group of investors and collogues. Many of us become close friends and like a family!

What I have seen over the years, since 2006, is that we can tell the success level of new investors by how often they show up. It's amazing what it will do for your motivation and momentum when around your peers.

For real estate investors in Oklahoma City, we have:

1st Wednesday of every month "Coffee with Real Estate Investors"www.coffeewithrealestateinvestors.com

1st Thursday of every month Millionaire Possabilities MPREIA www.meetup.com/MPREIA

3rd Wednesday of every month Landlord Meetup www.meetup.com/Landlord-Oklahoma-City-Real-Estate-Investing-Meetup

3rd Saturday of every month Real Estate Wholesalers Breakfast www.meetup.com/Real-Estate-Wholesaler-Breakfast

4th Tuesday of every month OKC Real Estate Wholesalers Network www.meetup.com/Real-Estate-Wholesalers-Network

For entrepreneurship & business in Oklahoma City, we have:

Every Wednesday morning1 Million Cups OKC www.1millioncups.com/okc

2nd Wednesday of every month "Coffee with Entrepreneurs" www.okceg.com/pages/Coffee_with_Entrepreneurs

4th Thursday of every month OKC Entrepreneur Group www.OKCEntrepreneurGroup.com

Misc

Multiple times per month "The Meeting After The Meeting" - Dinner with Entrepreneurs & Real Estate Investors www.meetingafterthemeeting.com

I am a local real estate mentor and business coach so if you ever need guidance and accountability I might be a resource to you. I am always open for a cup of coffee!

No matter what you do, you MUST plug in to all the local resources and build relationships! It will be invaluable to your real estate success.

Enjoy the day,

Ron Harris

The Renascent Entrepreneur