All Forum Posts by: Marcus Auerbach

 A seller would never know. How many banks do you work with, the commercial terms they offered you are really crappy..

I'll take a guess why Mike got an LLC: the lender required it for a commercial loan.

Agree with everything above about ambiguous language and the "should-haves". 

But what's next? I would probably inform the landlord in writing that the 2 bedrooms will be painted in an off-white like SW 7008 Alabaster. And then get to a decision quickly. If your landlord wants more rooms painted, I would tell him to hire a contractor and I pay 3200.

You can roll two rooms in an afternoon and in the end it's only $100 and at least you have someone who seems somewhat flexible. I would not make this a legal matter, but you will have to decide if you want to commit to living with this landlord.

Welcome on board Chris! President of the Universe could take a while, the other thing will take a few years, but is not that hard. 

Take a look a look at the RPAWi. org, which is our local non-profit landlord association located in Milwaukee. We just posted the date for the next landlord BootCamp in April.

Totally agree with your notion @John Underwood. I wanted to find out an asked the question here on BP a year ago if anyone was ever saved by their LLC. 140 replies later, no text book case. But I think there is something to be said about deterring and deflecting.

 https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/926/topics/1151922-than...

Be a good owner, don't give people a reason to hate you. It takes a lot of energy to sue someone. Run a good business, keep you properties in good repair, have good paperwork. Layer insurance, have a corporate and a personal umbrella. 

And if you get named, respond quickly and through a strong law firm. Like Jordan Peterson says, if you are showing your big teeth, you'll like never have to use them.

Yes, but it is frankly too far from Milwaukee for me to take it on. First of all, great move to ask on BP! Here is what I would do.

You want an agent who has done rehabs and knows what it takes - that is critical for negotiations. You want someone who closes more than 20 deals per year. And be blunt and ask about rehab examples they did (addresses) so you can assess their experience.

Our strategy on a property like this is usually to keep it in "delayed" for a week while it is being cleaned out and prepared, this allows for the word to get around. We have professional pictures taken, no different than any nice home and we post ALL of them, not just the pretty ones. You don't want to hide that bad news and then cause disappointment to be the dominating emotion when people see it in person. Disappointed buyers don't write good offers.First two days on the market will be Friday and Saturday, no offers accepted before Monday. This only works if you have it priced correctly, which means you have to run the numbers backwards, like an investor would. A buy & hold buyer will likely be able to pay a little more than a flipper. Ideally you want to generate more than one offer and the best way to do that is to promote it through the back channels as well.

I'll answer your questions pretending it is 2015:

1.) Private money or family money is best to get started. It is easier to get than anything else. Then refi into conventional or commercial loans, probably need a mix of lenders. Commercial portfolio loans will be quicker.

2.) You just buy as many as you can and then figure it out, there is no way to prepare, you just deal with it. You'd be surprised what you can do, if you have no choice.

3.) Local banks. Spend some time talking to investors, asking for names, talk to a lot of banks. Every bank is looking for something different and it changes over time.

However, we are not in a BRRRR market anymore, you'd be sailing upwind.

After more than a decade I have stopped BRRRR-ing a couple of years ago when the market started going nuts. So we are not buying as much anymore, but still growing. I closed two properties last night actually, both move-in ready, fully updated and rented. I was able to negotiate about 10% discount that was purely circumstantial, I'll let time do the appreciating passively instead of running a 6 months construction project with holding cost.

The grass just looks greener. OOS investing is much harder than you think, very few people have succeeded at scale, usually it fizzles out. I tell every Chicago investor who calls me about Milwaukee to stay in Chicago - the economic delta is just not big enough to take on the remote cost and efficiency burden. If you live in Seattle, San Francisco or Bosten it may be worth considering, because the difference is so large.

Funny, your comment brings back memories. RE used to be so foreign to me until I went to a RichDad event I was totally mesmerized by the idea that I could possibly... own RE!

Codie Sanchez will get you motivated, I just ordered her new book Main Street Millionaire, but have not read it yet.

Sail with the wind, not against it. I am a big believer in working with what the market offers you, instead of trying to grow oranges in the winter.

Back in 2010 that was foreclosures, in 2015 it was short sales. With the boomers retiring there are much more opportunities in biz than in RE right now.

Welcome to the realities of OOS investing! In theory, you should be able to manage the job remotely, but there is a reason why I show up at least every other day.

What is in dispute? Did you ask him to correct the issue? 

I usually try to work things out with people, saves a lot of attorney fees and makes for a better life. Just imagine you'd scale this..