All Forum Posts by: Steve Vaughan

I took the RE agency license classes. They mostly teach some laws to keep yourself out of trouble, the exact sqft of an acre and how to obtain listings. I would imagine the biggest advantage is access to the MLS. You can see listed property as soon as hits, find expired's and pull comps. With the license comes the requirement of full disclosure when dealing with sellers and costs to hang your license on someone's wall. More education though is never a bad thing!

Well done reducing your debts!  Having a plan is the big, crucial step.  I would pay on my lowest balance as mentioned many times above.  You can split hairs with princ/interest if you want, but the big deal here is recognizing the risk of these debts and planning to eliminate them!

Assuming there isn't an existing mortgage on the property, it would be easy to set up the note and deed of trust / mortgage (not a contract for deed/land contract ever!) that runs through a community bank's contract collection area.  They would receive the pmts electronically from the buyer's acct.  The terms could state an early payoff penalty satisfactory to the seller. @Drew Wiard , title companies here will have an attorney draft the financing docs for a nominal fee of about $300.00.  I would check with title co's to avoid endless hours on the phone with random RE attorneys.  

Good ideas above! I would also check for soft floors in the kitchen and baths, then hang out a little at night if possible to check the unfamiliar neighborhood in a different 'light'. 

Make sure your gutters and downspouts are in place and getting water away from the foundation.  If you don't have any gutters, I would seriously consider installing some!

Ahah!  Herein lies a little conflict of interest in my view.  They are rewarded financially (twice) for each turnover.  At the move-out for work they do, then a nice little placement of new tenant bonus.  One month sounds really high.  I charge myself (thru my own little mgt co) an advertising/placement fee of $150.    I think that's fairly standard for my area.  If you are renting an NYC penthouse apt, 1 month may be the norm.  If I were hiring a property mfgt firm, I would look for one that owns rental property themselves.  My biggest lead source is landlord's tired of being raked over the coals by bad managers.  If the property is in your area, do it yourself a while and learn what to look for in your mgrs!

Multi owners tend to be more open to creative solutions than the average joe homeowner, so take advantage of that fact.  A simple strategy is to ask them to carry back 20% or so.  What are they going to do with that money?  Try and collateralize that with another asset or your strong character and charm!  They know the property so if they believe in it, they may be open to carrying with just a note or a note/agreement that allows them to place a lien against the property a certain time after your financing closes.

I focus my bonuses on the selling agent (buyer's agent).  I offer a 1% (or $500, $1000 or whatever, depending on sales price) bonus to them if under contract in first 30 days.  I do this if I really want to move an outlier from my target market or if facing a seasonal downswing in market (like now!).  Good luck!

Way to be thinking ahead! Do you mean your first home as an investment? I wouldn't bother putting a SFR in an entitiy either way. The state and federal reporting, tax forms, maintaining the corporate veil, refi barriers, etc are all a pain. I have one of each, 1 s-corp and 1 LLC. I did establish my mgt co (just for myself so no RE license needed) right away, but I do not hold assets in it. For the purpose of maintaining anonymity and gaining some liability protection and estate planning advantages, I own my multi's in an LLC and manage them with the S-corp. As a rule for me, I do not own assets in a corp. Shareholder stuff is more difficult to deal with than member stuff, essentially. It can also tends to be more public, who owns how many shares. Try not to get too bogged down in all this. Best of luck!

Of course he is "allowing" you to purchase houses under his LLC. Hopefully he is on the up and up. Are you a member of that LLC? Just a note to be careful, Ross. If you are not a member you have no ownership.