All Forum Posts by: Jeff G.

Hello BP Family,

First, I know that the fiduciary is often a lawyer. Those of you who work probate leads a lot, do you expect your mailings get blown off and tossed in the trash before the next of kin actually sees it?

Second, is calling the fiduciary directly (next of kin or lawyer) bad form?

Third, is it worth the expense of mailing the next of kin directly, if I can find their actual home address AND the lawyer as well?

Fourth, I'm sure there are several answers to this but for those of you who have been doing this for a while is there anything that you find is a fairly optimal follow-up sequence with direct mail?

~Jeff

Basically, yes. I wasn't even intentionally "driving for dollars" I was just paying attention to my surroundings as I drove and happened to notice the FSBO sign in front of a light industrial building.

I am just not sure what extra due diligence I need to do in order to make it presentable to a wholesaler. 

Hello BP Family,

I periodically bird dog in my area for SFR and Multifamily homes. I was out driving around and spotted a light industrial building with a FSBO sign. I was surprised. It never occurred to me that this would be a thing.

From the perspective of a bird dog to wholesaler relationship what sort of information should I gather before passing it on as a potential lead above and beyond what's already typical for residential leads? Also, if my current network can't use it because they're strongly tied to residential for example, how would I find someone to handle this deal with and get a bird dog fee? 

Is bird dogging commercial real estate even really a thing?

 Sorry Brian, I just posted enough information for everyone to get the gist of what happened so that they can pass along advice. It's bad form to speak ill of someone so publicly behind their back such that they can't speak up in their own defense.

 I'm sure this will make someone else think twice about knowingly hiring an unlicensed contractor. In my case, I was under the impression he was licensed. Second, I know from experience in other fields that "licensed" or "certified" means "I passed a standardized test" and by no means implies actual competence. I'm sure we've all met medical doctors or lawyers (extreme examples of a licensed professions) who were idiots. If you haven't met one yet, you're probably young, be assured you will.

Personally, my takeaway is (1) voluntary private insurance is a wonderful thing and (2) although I tried to vet the guy ahead of the outcome clearly indicates I could have done a better job. 

Besides gross incompetence, I'm more upset that he failed to file the necessary paperwork with the city, that might be additional money out of my pocket.

 Asking all cash in and of itself I don't find suspicious or noteworthy. However, that in combination with no written business record (work order, invoice, receipt) raises a ton of red flags. Based on that combination of factors, you appear to be thinking what I'm thinking, this guy has substantial untaxed income.

Yeah, the HOA has insurance and there actions to date suggest they know they may be on the hook to some degree because their guy so strongly recommended him to us. It wasn't a casual recommendation of several options, it was a strong push.

As for the "plumber" sub, yeah, the "contractor's" insurance is surely on the hook for the other guys' shenanigans.

 Actually, the texts are damned specific. Although I'm not a lawyer and I don't even play one on TV and I don't have a crystal ball I suspect that the texts are more likely than not to hold up, particularly in small claims court.

My credit is excellent, and I keep it that way by not opening new lines of credit and paying off revolving credit (credit cards) roughly weekly which keeps my average daily balance on my cards below 10%. My credit cards are for revolving (regular) expenses like gas, food, etc. and my (cash) savings is for unexpected emergencies. Even big ticket items (e.g., cars) are bought in cash or (rarely) 90 day terms.

Yes, @Mike Reynolds that's mind mindbogglingly stupid not putting nail plates in. Dear Darwin, you missed one buddy.

Okay, so we may or may not end up on the hook for some permit fees and or fines. I'm sure every municipality is different but is there a way for me to look up ahead of time what that might be? I just want to know what to expect.

Howdy BP Family,

I'm in a not-fun situation. My GF and I are in the process of remodeling our condo. We plan to sell it and BRRR from there.

A few months ago our downstairs condo neighbor informed us that we were "raining" in his bathroom every time we took a shower. So, we contacted our then condo maintenance guy and had him put us in touch with someone who could address the problem. As it turns out the tile in the surround wasn't water tight anymore and no amount of caulk was going to fix it. Once they got inside the walls it was clear that some plumbing issues were also present causing less severe leaks, etc. We hired a guy to do it for "5k, cash." Before hiring him I Googled him and didn't spot any lawsuits or anything in his history so we hired him. We also made a list of other renovations that need to happen before we sell this place and got an idea from him as to the cost. That was several months ago....

Fast forward to a few nights ago and... we could hear the sound of running water, persistently, in our bathroom and could not localize the source. At first we thought it was the neighbor on the other-side of the wall taking a shower. Nope, not with our luck.

After a few hours of investigating, the new maintenance guy figures out that we were flooding our downstairs neighbor (again, only worse) and it also flooded part of the condo basement.

Needless to say, we're not the happiest campers in the world. I calmed my girlfriend down (lest blood spurt out of here eyes) and reminded her, "this is why we have insurance. The downstairs neighbor has insurance, the contractor has insurance, the condo association has insurance. We'll be fine."

We filed a claim on our homeowners, the condo association has gotten involved. They have been consummate professionals up to this point and very helpful.

Buuuuuuut....

It turns out our "contractor" isn't licensed in CT in so far as we can tell. He does have insurance (thank God) but he subbed the plumbing out to some other individual who in all likelihood isn't licensed either because no competent plumber would drive a nail into a stud with a pipe behind it (and thus the nail into the pipe) as he did without a nail plate... not once, not twice, but three times! It's a minor miracle it took this long for the flood to start.

Our contractor appears to lack an actual corporate entity. I found evidence after the fact that he's been sued at least once before (the settled out of court) and those records show he's just a DBA. That's... that's... nothing. As part of the follow-up for the insurance claim one of us had to run down to city hall to see if this "rocket scientist" opened an actual work permit for his work. Nope, nadda. We checked our records and he never gave us a written estimate / invoice either. We have text messages that show he did perform the work though, so we have evidence to support our claim.

At this point the insurance companies have started talking to each other and that process is rolling.

My questions are:

• We're documenting everything we can and providing it to the insurance company as they ask for it. What else should we be doing?
• What sort of other things could happen here that might need to be prepared to handle?
• I'm sure we're going to be out or insurance deductible, do we take him to small claims court to recover that?
• Is there someone to report him to for not being licensed and should I even do it?

Any advice would be most appreciated.