Christmas Presents From Guru's

[Caroline Gerardo]

HGTV is not reality. Paying for a book, class, seminar is not going to cover real life. Before you fork out money to pay for the dream please read this.

Some examples of what happens in real investing:

Contractors don't show; contractors double the price/ have a heart attack on site and die/; make errors that cost you code violations/delays/empty property/inability to pay the payments.

Inspectors miss expensive fixes: shoddy hidden prior work; foundation crumbling; roof failing; sewer lateral fails; codes change; you get red tagged and fined.

Lenders do not allow wrap arounds. Santa does not still give everyone a 2.5 % loan.

Insurance has to match the title,vesting, and note or you won't get the money when you have a claim.

If a tenant gets ill, falls, is harmed by your lack of knowledge in most states you won't collect rent and they sue.

Partners cheat you, don't be surprised when Uncle the general partner uses the checkbook for his vacation.

An A location can change to a C when a murder happens next door, a natural hazard blows of every roof on the block.

Values are not increasing like in past few years, do not expect valuation to be your exit strategy.

Do not lose your W-2 job and not be able to refinance or cover the costs of problems.

If you do not get title insurance, inspect the septic, fail to check that the water has petroleum coming out the faucet you are stuck.

Any seller who is desperate hides all the problems that he never maintained.

The rents they say are not the real rents they pay. Never close on a property with existing tenants. The reason the seller is

selling ~ is the tenants.

Save your money for the down payment and expenses, you will need every penny.

The local library has thousands of books on all aspects of real estate. You can watch Youtube plumbing videos and get a clue

but that doesn't mean you know how to order the right parts or operate machinery. The devil is in the details. Start learning 

the basic parts:

Construction, codes, how to spot troubles, how to cost repairs, styles of architecture, types of foundation, what does an old failing electric panel look like... You can lookup online codes for any city county. Have the books all over your coffee table and stop watching Netflix or sports make this be your second job. Make notecards and tape them on the bathroom window to memorize all the terms.

Valuation, how to find comparables, how to determine if the comp had a loan or was played with, what square footage counts, how room counts work, how to measure, when is a basement/or room square footage or not... You don't have to buy an app. Start looking at every listing in your target city. Assume the images are touched up but what ones stand out as over priced, what ones look like reasonable then follow when it goes pending, and after what the closed sale really was.

Location, crime stats, employment local, average rents, school ratings. US Census gives this all free. Mine government has ever stat on location all for free.

Once you get that down you need some help from people who have done the tools, who have been licensed to do the parts. Their license needs to be in the state where the property sits.

You need:

In no order ~~ An attorney, a CPA, a lender, a title rep, a contractor, an inspector, a termite guy, a hardware store dude, a Realtor, an insurance agent, a handyman, eventually a property manager, and more. All these people did the homework more than fifteen years, they are experts in the parts. Find people you can trust to take your call when you have a question or a problem. They don't charge for the call they should be business people who care about you. Make your team care about your goals. 

When you have your posse assembled you are ready to shop for property. Let me know if you need team members in all these specialties in the 21 states I'm licensed in. 

I'm not selling a book, maybe when I do I will put it up for free.

Castle For Sale $22,399. Rents are $11000 monthly. Santa's elves rent in the summer. Turn Key!