All Forum Posts by: Steve Babiak

I have to hand it to RIch on his post also (and voted it a plus too). Figuring out how to lower tax burdens is a topic worthy of heavy discussion. Not intending to hijack this thread, but maybe Rich can start another one where he helps to enlighten us on how we can legally lower our tax obligations.

Originally posted by Stephen Hare:

My past work experience is construction so I would do all the work myself counting only for materials. It doesn't really need a lot of work on it. Mostly cosmetic.

...

My plan was to wholesale it based on the discount I'm getting and the fact that I have no cash to finance a property. If I could find a way to finance it and afford my current rent payment I would fix it up and rent it out. But again, I need to build myself up some cash and work on repairing my credit.

My take on those two quoted paragraphs is that they contradict each other. If repair cost is estimated based on the "wholesaler" doing the labor (see first paragraph), then that "wholesaler" had better volunteer for supplying the free labor to the end buyer he wholesales it to.

Can't be doing both of "work on repairing credit to buy" and planning to do work by swinging a hammer (on that house that he can't afford to buy).

More that I just received:

At this price, we're practically giving it away...

100% Iron-Clad, Money-Back GUARANTEE

Here's a blog link where the comments offer some explanations on the guru mindset and operations:
http://realestate.bryanellis.com/1167/why-i-wont-participate-in-product-launches-with-the-gurus/

The "2% rule" says that the purchase price (including repairs into the purchase price) should be less than 50 times the total monthly rent. Sounds like you meet that rule with this one.

MikeOH mentioned children's paintings on the walls, but those are no comparison to the graffitti that is produced by college students in their hazy drunken stupors.

As for how to deal with personal situations that tenants get into, you will have to recognize that your business of rental properties will only be able to house tenants if it continues to receive cash flow. You will learn that the lease is a written set of rules that are to be followed by both landlord and tenant; if the tenant does not follow the rules in the lease, then the landlord must act in accordance with the same set of rules in that lease. No pay = no stay. Simple.

I have the application form request current and PREVIOUS landlords. Then you check with the previous landlord to see what the real story is. The current landlord might be hoping to get rid of this tenant, so getting a good referral from them is nothing useful. The previous landlord is already done with this person, so you can ask if they would be willing to rent to that person once again.

Agreed (and voted a plus on that). I know I try to help the mods by hitting the "report abuse" when a post warrants, and I hope that all would do so as well to help make the moderating task easier.

Often you will find that the pet urine and smells have penetrated into the wood flooring. At my local REIA, a guy recommended using a product called Odor X-it in accordance with the product instructions, and then to apply an oil-based sealer.

If you are in pre-foreclosure contact with the defaulted borrower (where that is legal to do), you may find that offering them suggestions to "help save the house" and "avoid the auction" can get you inside the property to do an inspection.

I was at a training event this past weekend, trainer was a PA licensed real estate attorney, and he told how he has a client who is an exterminator by profession. This exterminator buys at sheriff sale auction (that's the lingo in PA). He gains entry into the property by explaining to the property occupants that he has been called to this neighborhood to handle exterminations, and is willing to give their house a FREE treatment in exchange for placement of his sign on the premises. Trainer said it never fails, and as an exterminator you have to get into all parts of the property, so inspections can be thoroughly done by him. Another attendee commented that he probably only had water in the can rather than chemicals (a little humor helps in these training events).

But it is possible - you just have to be a little creative. And I personally have been inside before auction using the "save your house" approach. But I have also been told by others of their failed attempts to see the inside first, so YMMV.

Josh,

Negative scoring doesn't have to serve to penalize the influence rating of the poster.

I would stipulate that anybody wishing to place a negative rating on a post will be required to provide a written explanation in the form of a post appended to the thread.

As jawsette said in her post, if you do use the negative rating to impact somebody's influence score, then there should be some threshhold of negative votes that must be reached before that occurs.

But my take is this: I'm not out to "punish" some person; I'm more inclined to not see some innocent viewer of a post (that should have a bad rating) get punished by following something that they could have been warned to avoid by the negative rating.

Hope that clarifies and makes sense.

PS. I gave a plus vote to the earlier post from jawsette.