All Forum Posts by: Sharon Vornholt

Scott -

I owned and operated a successful home inspection company for 17 years, so I will chime in here.

The condition of the house is just that - the condition of the house. The inspector is just there to write down what is present; nothing more, nothing less. He is there to comment on the structural components, the mechanicals, the safety and the habitability of the home. He is not there to report on cosmetics.

He is also not there to cover anything up or "look the other way". It's ridiculous to even suggest that your "hot wife" would make them not report the condition of the house. Since that inspector is going to get the call when he "lets something slide" and the buyer moves in, why on earth would you suppose he would do that?

I never had any "fat slobs" smoking cigars working for me; I had professional home inspectors that were required to be licensed and keep up their continuing ed. They were also required to wear professional attire; no jeans, no tennis shoes and no smoking.

Investors that have done good quality rehabs, don't have to worry about inspectors coming in and doing their job.

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Karen-

I tried doing a blog on BP along with my blog, and it is just too much work. Your blog should be about what you do; what you know and love. You can do "themed" posts that you break up into parts like part 1, part 2 etc. You can also do random posts. I often look here on the forum to see what folks have questions about, and I will get an idea from those questions and write a post.

I would look at it like this; "What do I do, and what do I know that I could teach other"s? Just write short articles about the components of your business. I don't know what platform your site is build on, but can you add a blog component to your existing site? You showcase what you do there so a blog component would work very good.

If you can't do that, set up a self hosted wordpress blog and link your blog posts back to your site. That will work very well too. You can call me sometime and we can talk about this if you want to.

In a perfect world you would be ahead a couple of weeks on your posts, but when you have a business it's hard to maintain. I would just strive to do at least 2 posts a week when you are beginning. 3 would be better, but at least two.

Sharon

Wholesalers will choose the cash buyer every time. Now I have some folks that have private money etc. that can close quickly. They buy from me multiple times each year. These guys are just like cash buyers, and that is perfectly fine with me. But I know, they will close; I am secure in the fact that they won't back out of the deal.

If you have cash, close the deal with your cash and then get financing to cash yourself out.

In KY, only the PR or Executor has to sign.

You live and die by your reputation in this business. Don't do it; experienced investors will know.

@Josh Dorkin and @Rachel H. This topic came alon right as I was trying to figure out what to write about today. I did an article on my site linking back to the original BP article.

Sharon

Rachel H. I am happy to respond. Joshua Dorkin it's always good to have your input.

I agree with Braden C. and Nathan Paisley that it seems to be primarily a "newbie" problem.

The real problem is that they don't know what a good deal looks like. They see a property, don't understand that it is already priced correctly (ie not underpriced), then they put it under contract at a higher price and try to sell it.

There is nothing but experience and possibly a stern conversation with a seasoned investor that will cure this problem. Unfortunately, it makes the rest of us look bad. I'm not sure there is a solution to this problem.

Rachel H. Thanks for sharing. It can be hard to get those tough odors out of rental property.

Congrats James. You will be a perfect fit. And congrats to all of you as well.

Josh -

I'm sure you know that I love BP. I wouldn't still be involved as a weekly contributor if I didn't feel that way. But I have to say that I never really understood why it was set up to have the feeling of a "contest" with the person posting the most often having a higher number of influence; a percieved better standing within the community.

I believe that removing this system will encourage people that wouldn't normally post to begin to get involved, as they will feel that even though they weren't "influential" they are still valued and their opinion is valued.

Sharon