All Forum Posts by: Chad Ballard

@Robert Carl

Nothing easy was ever worth it.

They told you it was because you are a foreign national they are increasing the deposit? National Origin is a protected class.

Real estate investing is a lot of grunt work. It will be tough to be sucessful at anything while avoiding the grunt work.

Get a new handyman contracts are only as good as the people who sign them.

@James Vermillion

True or False: The correct answer to this question is ‘False’.

@Sal G. , Leverage can increase your return since you have less of your own money in the deal but I would check out the beginners guide to investing. It has a lot of good info for people looking to get started. Don't forget about things like maintenance, vacancy and I always budget in a property manager even if I manage the unit myself. Also be careful about betting on appreciation didn't fair well for a lot of people a few years ago.

For me you make money four ways with leveraged real estate, cashflow, pay-down of loan principal by tenant, tax saving and appreciation. Weight those benefits against the risk of the investment. There are situations where I would consider (just consider) a property that breaks even or goes a little negative but it would be really really rare. That said $200 + additional maintenance is too rich for my blood to be paying out each month.

With how accessible everything today is online I would probably look at a different market rather than a cashflow negative property. Just too much risk for me and going along with @Mehran K. why settle for a mediocre investment.

How tall is the wall? and how much is it caving in now? I would have an civil engineer look at it right away since it just happened so that you have another party to verify what happened and take tons of pictures.

It is going to cost the contractor time and money to fix it but he should if he caused the damage. Best chance you would have of a fix is while the contractor is still on site next door.

Anyone have a photo editor and can take a few profile pictures and overlay them?

70% is a rule of thumb. Run through all the numbers and be conservative. If it still works out I would consider it but I would also consider that I forgot something and have someone else that I trust take a look.