All Forum Posts by: Chris Seveney

 Yes both states have licensing requirements for contractors and subcontractors which can be found with a simple google search

 This is my personal opinion but nothing he said was negative. There are opinions on these forums and people have a right to them and people may take it as criticism. real estate is not a business where everyone is friendly and just as you have shown from whoever was trying to scam you and has nothing to do with doing your best, its about being educated before moving forward. 

His comment was to get a better process and do not rely on others. They are 100% correct.

The downside sometimes to forums is people have a superman complex and get the impression real estate is easy as they think everyone is doing it and just jump in without the knowledge or expertise. That never ends well.

Is there such a thing as "good class c"?

If you are going to invest in class C I strongly recommend you physically go visit the property and the area with your own two eyes.

Think of a syndicate as investing that much money in a property and all the due diligence you will do. There are sites out there like passive pockets as well as this site where you can find out a lot from people who have invested with that fund. There are also others who assist in teaching you DD.

Another route is to find a broker-dealer who invests in alternative investments like real estate funds as they will have done a lot of DD on the sponsor as well. 

The old adage is true in real estate as other aspects of life - if it seems to good to be true it probably is. 

For example we saw a competitor offer 15-20% returns doing what we do. Every other fund is between 8-12%.  That should set off alarm bells. That fund offering 15-20% is now close to insolvency and investors most likley will not get those returns but lose most of their investment as well.

 you do not want software its too expensive - you will want to use a third party loan servicer. For example we are lenders and buy notes and we use madison management out of nevada. Other companies people use are SNSC, FCI, Landhome, Homekey and others.

That would be your best bet. The lender is the one who sets this up as they are the ones who typically pay since its them who is to provide this as well as keep track of the loan, but only be a borrower if they use a servicer.

 Basement square footage and room count are typically not counted on public record but in some states agents list it or are allowed to list it. 

Is this a concern? Possibly if the house is 3,000sf with the basement and the comps are 3,000sf above grade. 

For your agent to say you should not be concerned, again the answer is it depends.

There are many who preach this program but the reality is if you run the actual numbers I would argue that is NOT the case. For example, lets say your mortgage is 4% and you take out a HELOC at 7% and draw $100k. They tell you to pay down your first mortgage then have your paycheck go into the HELOC and then draw against it for your bills.

Ask them to show you a spreadsheet on why this makes sense. The amount of work and effort to get this accomplished and what it really saves you is not what you think it will be. Of ourse there is a cult following for some of these programs who swear by it, but again, its simple math and show the numbers. 

 I think it depends on the individual and opportunity. I would not buy something right now just to buy something. Now of course there are still deals to be had out there, I am not saying that, but its a lot harder to find those deals today than five years ago when everything was a deal due to low interest rates.

We are always buying but this is my business, so we have a team etc. to manage it. The person who comes into money but not a lot of experience in real estate should be a little more cautious right now.

So overall, I am not saying - do not buy, I am saying be careful. For example I know many who are now just lending because they are getting 10-12% short term which is far better than any cap rate on real estate. you do not have the equity upside as you do real estate but its a way to play the short game to see what happens over the next 12-24 months and decide when you want to buy.

before I had a PM I have one account and use quickbooks and just classify each tenants deposit as a class. It was a savings account that had not ATM card etc. 

Also reality is the only time you will get nailed for not managing deposits properly is if you use that money. Be smart. 

 I was at the airport this past week flying to visit family and in TSA precheck line they scan your license in a machine and take a photo of you. for some reason mine was not working and it basically had like an alert on it. they ask me if I have another form of ID on me. I replied I had credit cards but no photo id. I have it on my phone (passport). They said that does not work. I said, well I have had to have my fingerprints done multiple times, had to send in affidavits of who I am, fill out a fincen report for my company so I think you already have plenty of information on me already... What do you want to know about me that you already do not know?