All Forum Posts by: Ross Denman

PM me and I can recommend a commercial realtor with tons of experience if need be. We don't do much commercial, but I have several clients who do quite a bit and she comes highly recommended.

Indiana requires at least a 30 day notice and the notice will start from the date that it is given. We actually notify them via phone, email, and mail to ensure that they know as quickly as possible to give them ample time to find a new place. Check your lease though, I don't imagine that they are on a lease that requires more notice from you, but I have seen many leases where the tenants are required to give a 60 day notice to vacate.

If you guys are interested in Indianapolis, send me a PM and I'd be happy to answer some questions and give you some insight regarding the local market. I can also put you in touch with a variety of local professionals to help you build your power team here as well

@Mike Cumbie while this is not a common occurrence, our office receives the security deposit at the lease signing. If the tenant were to not move in for whatever reason, we would attempt to leverage the tenant by letting them know that they had signed a legal contract and that they were obligated to honor their lease. If things were to escalate to where it would become a legal matter though, we would release tenant from the contract and return the SD then we would immediately put the home back on the market and reconnect with any other prospect who had previously expressed interest or applied for the home.

I can't speak for any other PM's, but I would hope that they would not keep the SD. If they did, I would hope that they would split that with the owner for the lost time by taking the home off of the market.

I would reach out to the wholesalers and ask to get on their buyers list. When they ask you about your buying criteria, let them know that you are networked with other investors who may be interested in the deals that they put together and ask if they offer any referral fees.

Finding wholesalers aren't that hard. Google "We buy houses". Call bandit signs. Attend local REIA's. Ask other investors.

Ownership shouldn't affect these things. The tenants are already looking before you closed on the property. The judge has already mandated a date to return possession regardless of who the owner is. You shouldn't have to refile. Who owns the property and the sale of the property has no bearing on the tenants obligation and violation of a contract. Ownership and tenancy are separated in these matters. Just like having to honor a lease if you purchase a leased property. 

@Gaege Root, it sounds like daisy chaining, which most of us hate. Most wholesalers who have deals have already established relationships with buyers. What I have done instead of daisy chaining deals (marking up someone else's deal) is establish relationships with wholesalers and ask if they offer referral fees. I don't wholesale, but I have lots of clients/investors/buyers that I work with that are purchasing properties throughout the year. They use me to vet the deal and do some deal analysis for them. I follow several wholesalers and most all of them pay me $500-1000/deal when I bring them a property or a buyer.

If you get caught remarketing someone else's deal at a higher price, people will get a sour taste in their mouth and not be very interested in working with you. I have found properties listed in 3 or 4 places at different prices. I have seen investors email wholesalers and tell them to only send deals that are direct to the seller or to take them off of their lists. Many wholesalers are already taking considerable amount of meat off of the bone, when someone else comes along and adds another few thousand dollars to the deal and someone else comes along and adds even more... it's no longer a deal. Getting a piece of the original assignment allows the buyer to still get a deal.

Wholesalers have been getting a bad name for years. I won't work with the ones that I consider to be "predatory." I just turned down a deal that I found out that they offered the homeowner $34k and was marketing the home at $79k. That's a $45k assignment. It's a complete gut and rehab deal (around $100k rehab) that will likely sell at $220k+ after the fact, but the wholesaler is making more money than both the homeowner and the investor that they would be selling to. Personally, if that deal ran across my table, I would find the money to rehab it myself and make the $70k+ (after financing and holding costs.)

I have a little bit of personal familiarity with Fortune Builders, so I will put my two cents in. Personally, I think that it is a great system and one of the best systems that I have seen out there. I have purchased a couple of courses from them that did help me streamline my start, but I didn't jump out the window at the then $30k mastery student enrollment. I would recommend against it for most people. If you have that kind of money to throw around, don't want to put the work in to learn yourself, and be spoonfed... then do it, but I don't believe that is the norm.

On the flip side, I am networked with Fortune Builders employees, investors, and students and know their systems pretty well. It does work. I have seen a lot of them move rapidly into being successful investors. I have read Than and Paul's books. I subscribe to their newsletters. I stay on top of what they are doing and visit their "teaser" workshop most of the times they come through town. Most of us that have any sort of success have invested in some form of education or resource during our journey, even if it's just a pro-membership at BP or picking up a couple of books from the store. The most that I have ever spent on a single resource was $4,000 and honestly, I regret it. It had no new ideas or education. Any resources that it provided, I had already acquired elsewhere. I would have been better putting that money into a mailing campaign.

BP is a great way to get educated. The PodCasts are amazing. The Blogs are wonderful. The networking opportunities are awesome.The recommended reading is fabulous as well. There are guru's that really do work (regardless of what the community thinks)... but at what costs. They are great at what they do, but they are not just investing in real estate anymore. Now they are farming... they are increasing a network of buyers, sellers, wholesalers, cheerleaders, and they are charging you for it. Sounds scandalous... which is why the community feels the way that they do.

Best of luck. Spend your money wisely. There is no holy grail... so never pay thousands of dollars to anyone who tells you otherwise. There is only networking, creativity, education, experience and hard work.

@Matthew T. I would recommend identifying a couple of different markets that will meet your needs. While most of our clients live in CA, I don't know if I would want to be more than a 6-8 hour drive from the LD market that I was working in at first just so I would be able to oversee anything if necessary. 

After you identify some target markets, I would reach out to realtors and PM's to begin building a network. I would also ask for recommendations here on BP. Getting plugged in to the right team is vital as I have seen groups here locally that I consider predatory, especially to out of state and out of country investors. 

I don't really care for the turn-key outfits as I think that having multiple players keeps checks and balances in play. When everybody giving you information works for the same group, you may be getting fed a line of garbage and not even be aware of it.

I wouldn't worry about touching the deposit. Honestly, the longer a tenant is in the home, the more reasonable acceptable wear and tear becomes. If I have a tenant for 7+ years, I don't charge them anything unless I have to remove personal items or trash out of the property or do excessive cleaning. Typically, we are having to change carpets and paint the entire home after 7 years whether it's had 4 tenants or 1. The fact that the tenant is saving you the costs to refurb the unit, vacancy time, tenant placement fees, etc. is well worth it... no since in worrying about a few bucks. They are probably saving you thousands.