All Forum Posts by: Chris Bounds

Houston BPers. Do you have any referrals for good property management companies in the area? I have a 29-unit apartment complex I am in the process of acquiring. I self-manage my SF homes, but I'm going Pro for the apartment.

Once I get things locked in I'll share the numbers for anyone to critique. If it goes through this will be my first multi-family purchase.

Bryce, you can get a foundation inspector (different than a repairman) to check it out. They cost around $200-300, but they will give you an unbiased engineers report of the foundation condition. If work needs to be done they will let you know what specifically. They will come back to inspect the completed work and sign off on it for a small fee.

If you are looking to flip the property then the foundation report will be useful to have for the end buyer's bank conditions.

That being said, I have a few loose tiles in my personal home that make a hollow sound and I'm certain I do not have foundation problems.

Bruce, you can try offering owners financing for 12-18 months. That gives you time to refi with a conventional commercial loan. You'll want to have a conventional lender review the numbers for pre-approval first, of course. Otherwise, if it is cheap, cheap and the cashflow allows for it you can use private/hard money for the acquisition and then refi in 12 months or after it is fully performing. Or do a combination of both!

I'll see how this first bandit sign campaign works with my direct mail, just in other locations. I don't fault city workers for doing their jobs. Then again, every weekend I see countless bandit signs for all kinds of other businesses, whether on poles or staked in the ground. I guess We Buy Houses is less pleasing to the community than Tax Refunds Fast signs.

In better news, my first probate mailer went out today. I'm interested to see how many angry calls I'll get back from them.

Joshua Dorkin. My primary marketing strategy is direct mail, thanks to advice on BP. I didn't use bandit signs until recently when I read the blog site of one of BP's contributors. It was one of their top advertising strategies so I decided to give it a try. That being said I'm definitely not going to put any more signs up in areas where they aren't wanted. My question was more related to how much I should worry about signs I already put up.

Also, I use my VOIP line to give me a local number, to allow for multiple extensions & to capture the phone number of inbound calls. Nothing shady, just has benefits over my out of area cell phone.

No hard feelings. Always appreciate the suggestions and advice!

Wayne Brooks ouch, that's brutal. I already get that from political donations. I save those numbers in my phone as solicitor so I know not to pick up. What if you set their number on a Robo call list too just for payback! ;-) j/k

Chris F. I'm definitely not going to be putting any more bandit signs in that area, but I'll take my chances on the ones that are already there. I'm just going to be very careful with calls over the next week or so. Like Ricky Roland said, one warning is enough for me.

But again, unless you actually fall for a staged meeting what can they really do? I don't even live in that city.

So, I've read about the infamous Bandit Sign Police. I have not had a problem with them until today, although I haven't put out too many signs either.

Question: How can they actually fine you without meeting you in person to hand you a citation? I use an VOIP messing service that forwards calls to my cell phone, but takes messages for me if I do not answer. I do not have any company information on my messages. It doesn't seem like they can do much other than complain, but am I wrong?

I do have to return calls from my cell phone though. Any suggestions on a way to return calls with VOIP or to call spoof my cell number?

Count me in!

Joshua Dorkin & Brandon Turner - great work on the podcasts! Love them! Also, it may be on your idea list already, but a smartphone App would also be a good tool for the site.

I'll certainly be using a good title company. I've purchased a couple properties before that involved heirs and the title company made sure things were taken care of properly.