All Forum Posts by: Robert Steele

Recap of this ancient thread.

After 4 months on market as soon as I show any interest it goes under contract and at a higher price than I was going to offer.

I seem to have a knack for that. Bidding on properties that no one wants until I want it.

I should charge people a fee to help them sell their house by just having me consider purchasing it.

There will be no hyper-inflation here in our life times. That only happens to revolutionary governments. Our government will tax us all to death first before it kills the goose that lays the golden egg and burns all the bond holders with hyper-inflation.

As to having a good plan. Is that a trick question? Forgive me for displaying what must be my ignorance but I thought that was simple. Tangible assets and what better tangible asset than RE. 

 Yes - to do everything including hardware and painting them. I've done that once before in my youth and it is a time consuming fiddly job.

Sole proprietor. Spend what you save on liability insurance. 

I'd say you've got it all figured out.

And just to get back on topic. 

Here is a way to get more cash flow:

* Buy newer properties with no deferred maintenance and cut that 10% in half or more.

* Buy homes in desirable neighborhoods to attract good tenants and treat them well so you have a vacancy rate of 4 or 2%.

* Manage it yourself. With a good system in place that trains your tenants, having tenants that can pay on time, long periods of time between repairs and only having to re-lease every 2 to 4 years it will almost manage itself.

Apologies in advance for going off topic but I keep seeing this advice popping up from time to time and I just don't get it. Why on earth would you do this?

Is it to reduce expenses today at the cost of deferring that maintenance until tomorrow? Is it another form of income?

I know a lot of landlords run their rentals this way but I think you are taking a huge risk. You are effectively disincentivizing your tenants from reporting problems with your property!

Problems that, if left unattended, could result in significantly more cost down the road than you gain from the tenants who do fork over the $250 to get that leaking laundry drain repaired that is cultivating mold in your walls.

Please - educate me.

Otherwise if you don't trust their job I can put you in touch with a good structural engineer in the area. He has done half a dozen for me. PM me.

I am not sure what you are trying to do here? I assume you want to know who did the foundation repair so you can get the warranty.

If so have you tried pulling the work permit from the City? It should have the name of the foundation company that did the work. 

Yeah pretty much what Jeff said. You can pay a couple thousand for new cabinets or a couple hundred to redo the old. As long as they are not crazy dated they can still look good in a modern kitchen.

I've done it both ways.

On one rehab I even took the middle road. I bought cheap Home Depot cabinets to replace rotting ones and used the old doors on it. Looked great.

One problem to watch out for when replacing hardware - don't let your contractor lose your doors! It happened to me. He lost one so I had to find a replacement. Do you know how hard it is to match 40 year old cabinets? After hunting around the Internet I order one from an online cabinet manufacturer that was close but not exact. I told them not to route the edges. I found a local wood working club and they got me in touch with a guy who routed the edges to match the old ones. Talk about saving the day.