All Forum Posts by: Ryan Urban

Well, the feeling of FEAR was pretty strong this morning.

My first REI purchase is actually two: A 10-unit and a 7-unit, both at once. We've worked out the details, negotiated on the terms, done the due diligence, etc. etc. They just both happened to come together at the same time. Exactly the same time.

My wife is going to be doing the management on these and future properties. I walked into the kitchen early this morning and said:

"Well, I'm sending the emails to seal the deals - when I hit ENTER, your life is going to change."

So, I hit ENTER and we'll see...

:wowo:

Agree completely, John.

The best advice I can give to ANY small business is "test-fire and quantify".

So give yourself a time frame in which you'll do this, and evenly divide your available marketing budget accordingly. You can do this in one of two ways:

You can try each approach chronologically, one after the other, and keep careful record of the quantity and quality of every lead you get from that source.

Or you can try multiple stategies at one time and "code" them, giving each strategy it's own particular ID. For example, you can use different contact information for each strategy - phone number, contact name (John, Jack, JJ, etc.) - or of course you can just ask where they heard of you.

It's one of the biggest marketing mistakes small business owners make - they don't keep track of which marketing methods are and aren't working, and continue to use buckshot. They never know which methods to stop and which to increase, and waste a lot of money.

Test-fire and quantify!

Well, I wouldn't go that far. You could print it out and...

...use it for bird cage lining
...roll it up and swat flies
...start your barbeque with it
...paper airplanes

As they say in the writing business, "the only people making money in writing are the people who write books about how to make money in writing."

Unfortunately, there is no PhD in "guru". If you have a computer, you too can be a guru.

I'd like to know about this too. I have an approval on two properties, one 10 units and one 9 units. 10% down on each, positive cash flow about $850 on each. But I don't like the terms. Full doc - good income, good credit, low debt.

Where can I find the best terms?

John:

That's my biggest concern, and it's why I'm trying to find a good basic (read: "not too costly") program that I can have on my hard drive. Unfortunately they seem to be few and far between.

Can anyone recommend a basic property management software program for a relatively small, home-based operation? I keep finding programs that seem to be set up for larger apartment buildings and employee-based property management companies. It's just me and my wife.

I checked Amazon, and Quicken received terrible reviews.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

I have an existing S-Corp into which I'm planning to Quit Claim my properties. Will my property insurance company care when I do this? I assume they must be informed about the switch.

I'm also looking at the posts here to determine whether I should be Quit Claiming the properties into LLC's. Looks like the prevailing wisdom is to use LLC's...

Mike:

Funny you would say that. I spoke with my lender just today, and told him I'm going to look at more properties this weekend. If I find a gem, I'll grab it (I already have my eye on a couple of possibilities). If I find two, I may grab them both and tell the bank to cram it!

Thanks for the response.

Ryan

John:

My deposit was $500. I haven't had any indication that a higher deposit would have been more effective, but you may be right. I certainly would have made it higher if I thought it would have expedited the deal.

I can understand that certain people in the process would try to protect themselves, not allowing the bank to take too big a bath on the deal. I wouldn't be surprised if they were just sitting there, hoping for a better offer.

From what I understand, I just missed the perfect timing on the deal. The bank had just taken the property back - a couple of weeks earlier and I would have dealing with just the owner and his agent...