All Forum Posts by: Walt Payne

@Chris Stec Welcome! The best place to get started, is here. If you don't know what you want to do, or how to do it, then take advantage of the great podcasts, blogs and even forum posts. And then ask questions. You have found a great resource, take advantage of it.

@Karen Margrave Ok, you asked for it, now you're stuck looking at it every time I post.

@Jason Rhine so if I don't have my goal statement on my profile correct according to your standards, I won't succeed? Well dang, thanks for letting me know. Wish you had told me that 30 or 40 years ago. Then I wouldn't have turned out to be such a failure. ;)

P.S. yes, I have been called a smart @$$ a few hundred thousand times.

But the fact is that my goals and desires are much more internalized than that, and they have served me well in life. I don't need cheerleaders and others to motivate me. Self motivation is the most effective. Abstract goals may not work for you, but for me they allow flexibility. I grew up, and the concrete part of my long term goals matured, but the abstracts behind them remain the same even today. You are making egocentric assumptions that are not necessarily true about everyone.

@Dan K. that is part of my strategy too. But you might want to talk with @Dmitriy Fomichenko about a solo 401k before you do the refi. The IRA will trigger UDFI wheras a 401k won't. There are other advantages too, such as being able to loan yourself money from the account for deals outside the plan. You also can contribute more, potentially. And it can be after tax, though for some reason a Roth IRA can't be rolled into a 401k.

Do you have any way to be considered self employed? If so a solo 401k may be the way to go.

@Julie Cadman you need to target each group with a mailing that touches on their pain, and offers a solution that motivates them to contact you. Mail about once a month to each, and keep mailing to them for 6 to 8 months.

The best way is to buy mailing lists. Do split mailings at the start, and keep track of what works. Try to only do one thing that is unique per group to help isolate what made that one successful.

Also look at calls vs. closings. A lot of calls that don't close means your message may not be right yet. In an ideal world everyone who calls will be ready to sell to you.

Above all keep at it. Direct marketing is all about exposure. I have heard many times from many people that good advertising all boils down to getting the right message in front of the right people, at the right time. The more often they see see your message the better the odds.

If the job calls for a license to do it legally, make sure the person you hire has one. Otherwise I think you will find good and bad in each category.

@Joe Butcher I don't think all in at 80% is a major indicator, when renting. If I am doing a major rehab on a buy and hold, I am more concerned with the cash flow than ARV. Sure, the potential for appreciation matters, but not current ARV.

In for $96K on a $120K property that rents for $1200 is not nearly as good as in for $48K on a $60k property that rents for $1000 ... under the right circumstances. Some pretty nice neighborhoods are still reeling from the crash and have too many REOs recently sold, and still on the books, to have a high market value. But the rental prices are killer. Those deals are getting more scarce now but they're still there.

@Rick Reed Yes, off MLS is where the deals are. Working with a Realtor can help though. We have a broker who will refer properties he feels won't show well, and tells them why we are their best bet (no commission, etc), and we refer back leads we get on ones that are too nice for us to offer on. But for that to work you need to be doing marketing too. You need to have something to offer in trade.

Do you have your own broker's license, or are you using someone else's? I would look at cross marketing.

@Marlene D'Souza as many here will tell you it is a matter of risk tolerance and also analysis. Some people use and abuse leverage to a point of extreme risk. Others avoid it to the point of decreasing growth. It comes down to your own comfort level, how large your reserves are, and your goals. Find a balance point that doesn't cause you to lose sleep.

@ problems again. @Jay C one part I disagree about is the way the hedge funds are going to screw us. They will not bail. They are in the rental market right now for good reason. They bought in with all cash. They are making sure that whatever the economy does they will come out with at least some profit. And if that means screwing All of us by dropping rents to keep occupancy high, they will do that. That is my take on it, and why they were paying a premium for sfrs in hot markets.