All Forum Posts by: Scott R.

Good Luck!

Probablly not going to be as many posted as you think. Id say theres probablly 20 properties posted the few times ive seen our board, and of those, most of them are owned by the same people, maybe 10-12 different landlords. In my little experience with section 8, section 8 tenants will find you, you dont really need to search for them, if the property is in an area that qualifys for section 8 tenants (price wise). In my area ALL I generally do for my rentals is put a sign up, and the calls come in by the tons, about 25% asking about section 8. Most landlords around here will put "section 8 approved" or something like that on the sign/window/flyer.

I'd start out by telling them your a landlord and looking to start renting to section 8 tenants, I did this when I first went down there and they gave me a brochure or two, told me a tad bit of information. I then asked how I advertise to section 8 tenants and thats when I was told about "the board" I was writing down stuff for different reasons then you, I wanted to compare my rental prices, as most landlords seem to up the price for section 8 tenants, something I didnt know.

IDK if all of the HUD offices have the same board or not. Our office is set up where you walk in and talk to the receptionist and theres a waiting area, then you have to walk to the back to the offices where they do all the paperwork ect. Theres 2 or 3 chairs outside the offices and thats where the board is, so only way you'd ever see it or know it was there is to be in the offices. When people are applying/filling out section 8 paperwork they generally look over the board out of boredom. When I filled out my paperwork I saw several people look over the board. Although I have not advertised there, seems like a good cheap place for landlords to advertise.

I'm 23, and when I walked in there the first few times they wernt real helpful, desk lady was kinda rude, ect. Once they found out I was a landlord they were alot nicer/helpful. Just make them think your a landlord! :)

Also the cheaper the newspaper the cheaper the rentals generally. I wont pay $60 to advertise my low income rental in the local news paper, but I will pay $15 to place it in the thrifty nickel, alot of those adds specify section 8 or not, where as the higher dollar ones do not.

My goal, obtain 1 more long term rental, and pay down on the ones I have!
-Scott

Not much info here, probablly going to need alot more to get good answers.

1. Why would you be buying these properties? wholesale, flip, rentals?

2. Why not obtain traditional mortgages?

3. Where are these properties located? $100,000 for a house in Amarillo Tx, or $100,000 for a house in Beverly Hills? Big difference, some areas $100k will be pretty high, others super cheap.

Basically it sounds like your looking for some type of private or hard money, probablly for a longer term as you didnt specify. Actually I think $100k hard money long term is easier to obtain then $15 or 20k hard money, as theres no enough profit for the lender in the smaller amounts.
Please give some more details as what you will be purchasing, where and what for.
-Scott

Knob and Tube sucks and is extremely expensive to rewire a entire house.

First, in my area atleast, theres generally an area or two or three of town that has alot of section 8 tenants, not war zones, but lower class areas, drive these areas, get numbers and flyers for for rent properties.

My local section 8 office has a bullitin board where you are allowed to post your properties for rent, You have to go to the office, but you can check out some of the properties, I just tell them im there to post one and they allow me to go to where it is.

Atleast here, theres no special "listings" for section 8 tenants, local news paper, thrifty nickel and such may say they allow section 8, but theres no section 8 specific listings, just there board that anyone can tack a flyer to.

-Scott

Any thoughts on the stadium that sold and was referenced above, I guess that like most commercial properties the stadium is only worth the income in brings in, and not bringing any income in kills the value, but seems to be the biggest depreciation I've ever seen,
34 years, then sells for just 1% of orignal cost to build, and that was to build it in the 70's!

Sorry about above. I wrote in the middle of the quoted part! lol this what i wrote:
This is why craigslist is basically useless in most areas, cause half if not more of the post are fake or people "testing" stuff.. I reply to several adds everyday in 3 different craigslist areas, almost never do they turn out to be legit. What a waste.
-Scott

Sage,
Like mentioned above there are TONS of post about obtaining a real estate license. I think there are several questions to ask yourself.
Do you WANT to be a Realtor?
or are you doing it just as a stepping stone to becoming a Investor? Im not real farmiliar with Newton Mass, but my experience with my real estate license in AZ is it cost alot more then you realize. all kinds of Fee's and requirements to obtain it and ends up costing alot more then I orignally realized. I could see it being worth it if I wanted to sale real estate full time, as a realtor. But as far as it helping me investing? almost none. Public access is allowed for most MLS's and they dont show quite everything but most info. One thing that you cant access is actual sales, but I dont think it's worth the money unless your investing a ton. Personally I'm at the beginning in investing and purchase a house every 5 or 6 months. A $20,000 house every 5 months doesnt make sense to obtain a license. The savings for me personally doesnt add up for me to obtain my license in Texas where I currently am. 3% comission (or 1.5 after broker split) on a 20k house just isnt worth it. Plus most real deals, wholesale deals, dont offer comission! so actually on the last 3 or 4 I've purchased none of them would of provided any comission. Now if i was investing in 200k houses, maybe it'd be worth it for the $6k Comission. REO's generally have good comission. My area also has very good public access to the MLS, unsure if it's like that in all areas.
I also do not sale my properties, never have. Might make a difference if your looking to flip properties, you would possibly be able to save some comission. Need to find a broker ok with that. I would research more locally before I went too much further.
Is there a pay per month/sale type broker in your area? (ex. $50 month desk fee and like $350 per sold deal. )
Dont forget you'd still have to offer the other realtor a comission, so at most your saving maybe 3%. If you become a Realtor you have to disclose every time you attempt to purchase or sale real estate.
-Scott

Personally I think the best thing to do is catch them. I personally cant stand mice and would pay the money to hire someone to catch them instead of doing them myself, but i've heard of unsure if its true but of people poisioning mice, then them dieing like inbetween the walls and the odor is awful? I think it might take alot of traps but you should be able to catch them with some peanut butter!!!
-Scott