All Forum Posts by: Alan F.

Just spoke to a developer in Northern Nevada, and he made a comment that was pretty shocking to hear first hand. 

Apparently, local jurisdictions here are saying they want more affordable housing, but in the same sentence will also say that there will be more regulations, more environmental protections, and more hoops to jump through to develop starter homes. 

This will simply causes prices to be even higher, and continue to constrict demand... 

The Reno MSA already has natural topographical land constraints, and there have been studies about land "running out" here in less than 10 years. 

With people continually migrating from CA, more jobs moving here (Tesla Semitruck factory being built as I type this), I don't know how this gets solved. 

Explore detailed population growth statistics at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Releasing Federal Land for private sale? 

I know this is also a National issue, especially in land constricted markets. What do you see out there? 

Curious to get everyones take. 

I’m currently renovating a rental property and exploring ways to manage costs without compromising on quality. I recently watched a video where Troy Kearns mentioned he could source a high-quality quartz slab for $100 from China, which got me thinking about exploring similar options.

Has anyone here ever imported materials like hardwood floors, countertops, or tiles from China for a project? If so, I’d love to hear about your experience!

Specifically:

• How did you find a reliable supplier?
• What was the quality like compared to local options?
• Were there any challenges with shipping, customs, or delivery?
• Any tips or advice for getting started?

Thanks in advance for sharing your insights!

First house, we are living in it while flipping. It’s a pretty big project but great opportunity. Having a hard time keeping insurance on the house though. USAA is saying that my insurance is going to expire in a few months and cannot be renewed unless renovations are completed. Really not sure what do to. No chance I can be finished with the house by then. Is there a better company to go with or am i missing USAA’s definition of “renovations”? Anyone else have experience with this?

I find them almost unreadable now. Finding a good post to respond to takes me close to ten minutes. There is so much AI, reverse trolling, and one-line posts that the moderators can't keep up. And I know because I was a moderator for a couple of months, but I quit.

Being a moderator on the site is thankless. There are no benefits, no pay. Whenever you remove a post, you have a 10-20 percent chance that the poster will email you to complain. It's not fun, but it helps the site a lot. However, there aren't enough moderators to do the job against technology and spammers now. This is part of why the forums are pretty vapid, significantly more so than they used to be. When you give the benefit of the doubt to garbage posts, it creates a pile of trash, making it harder to find the collectibles.

The company's target audience is new investors. Old investors like me only invest in the subscription for pro; we don't buy courses or books (actually, I own probably 20 of their books) regularly. So, the focus on new investors creates allowable concessions in favor of new people, but that doesn't improve the forums. "We all had to start somewhere" is true, but the forums used to be more fun when people weren't as fragile as they are now. When you tell someone their strategy isn't brilliant, they melt into an offended state and fry themselves in their forum.

Are the forums here getting worse, or is it just me? Maybe I am just getting too old to wade through AI posts to try to help someone. I can't even look at the Facebook group because it is the forums x 10. I still want to help, but the time to find something interesting is getting too long for me.

Thoughts?

Quote from @Alan F.:

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

Quote from @Alan F.:

Quote from @JD Martin:

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

Quote from @Mike Hurney:

@V.G Jason

"PS before you dismiss this as liberal, communist, socialist talk."

Dismissed, actually more like Marxism!

I'd like to see back up of some of your assertions, Not hearsay, Not the Liberal Press.

i.e. Called my main guy this spring for some work. He showed with a young guy, We worked our butts off for 3 days. I picked up lunch, drinks etc. I went to pay them, couple of days work I'll pay with a check (1099) and cash it for them.

Hey Tony, I've got all O's info what's yours?

"Just Tony." Ok, some ID?

"No necessito." Whaaa, lets see some papers!

"No necessito!" Whaaa, empty your pockets!

"See, Nada, only new phone."

How do you buy anything or stay somewhere?

In very broken English:

"No necessito, US has free food! EBT! Section 8, nice housing! good medical at emergency! new clothes! etc."

:-0

Hey O, is this true? What's going on? You've been calling me a lot for work, and I've been referring you. What's up with this?

"Mike, 15 years ago I arrived in Mass, I was the only Guatemalan in Mass. Good people gave me work, I learned more skill, more money, worked hard! Now, recently, there are probably 1000 more Guatemalans like Tony, all undercutting each other!! I can do a roof for $300/Sq, they underbid me down like $99/Sq."

Yes, I've seen them, **** work and they're falling off roofs, not safe. I don't care if they're free, I don't need that!

"Mike, that's unusual!"

I could go on.

1. I see it as more like 50 million Undocumented (Illegally entered the USA) aliens.

2. I'm optimistic bad ones will be deported.

3. I'd like to see folks that are chosen to remain are vetted and documented.

Soooo Don't bother arguing with me about what I see and know. Actual experience I'll listen to.

@Jay Hinrichs I agree with your wife on the make up of subs! I'm seeing the same, Thanks

One thing I know about our hispanic work force on the left coast they are not stupid they know the value of their sub trades your not going to get some massive discount from them.. Even the day laborers at home depot know the going rate :) .. In my mind what you get is hard working do a very nice job generally speaking and will work when many born and breed americans simply wont.  the one situation we do face is sometimes they just leave and go home with no notice..

 That mirrors my experience too - our Hispanic contractors know exactly what the market rates are and they may be a touch below but not considerable - what you are getting these days is a faster, tighter job, not huge cost savings. 

 What we're getting here in CA is unpermitted, non warranties work. While licensed contractors pay payroll taxes, workers comp and a litany of other financial burdens.

perspective is everything.

Alan unpermitted non warranty work is how have the mid west rust belt gets their rehabs done.. just is what it is.. and some are not citizens and some are

 Fair point, doesn't make it right though. It's also why we see customers get burned.

Illegal or not, unlicensed contractors here in CA undermine the industry. We can't compete with people not paying payroll taxes,comp, pioneer etc.

I mentioned to Bruce on another post that there are barely 210k active licenses left here. What happens when we cant pay our overhead because of the underground economy?

Why even have licenses?, maybe REA and brokers shouldn't have licenses?

I am not condoning the practive just stating what reality is.. I have been funding rehab flippers in those markets since 2002.. Permits are basically only pulled for electrical and plumbing of if they get caught.. its the only way to make the rental houses cash flow in many of those markets.

On top of that licened contractors many times simply wont work on those type of properties there is no money in it for them..

WHY have licenses thats my exact thought with unlicensed wholesalers :)

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

Quote from @Alan F.:

Quote from @JD Martin:

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

Quote from @Mike Hurney:

@V.G Jason

"PS before you dismiss this as liberal, communist, socialist talk."

Dismissed, actually more like Marxism!

I'd like to see back up of some of your assertions, Not hearsay, Not the Liberal Press.

i.e. Called my main guy this spring for some work. He showed with a young guy, We worked our butts off for 3 days. I picked up lunch, drinks etc. I went to pay them, couple of days work I'll pay with a check (1099) and cash it for them.

Hey Tony, I've got all O's info what's yours?

"Just Tony." Ok, some ID?

"No necessito." Whaaa, lets see some papers!

"No necessito!" Whaaa, empty your pockets!

"See, Nada, only new phone."

How do you buy anything or stay somewhere?

In very broken English:

"No necessito, US has free food! EBT! Section 8, nice housing! good medical at emergency! new clothes! etc."

:-0

Hey O, is this true? What's going on? You've been calling me a lot for work, and I've been referring you. What's up with this?

"Mike, 15 years ago I arrived in Mass, I was the only Guatemalan in Mass. Good people gave me work, I learned more skill, more money, worked hard! Now, recently, there are probably 1000 more Guatemalans like Tony, all undercutting each other!! I can do a roof for $300/Sq, they underbid me down like $99/Sq."

Yes, I've seen them, **** work and they're falling off roofs, not safe. I don't care if they're free, I don't need that!

"Mike, that's unusual!"

I could go on.

1. I see it as more like 50 million Undocumented (Illegally entered the USA) aliens.

2. I'm optimistic bad ones will be deported.

3. I'd like to see folks that are chosen to remain are vetted and documented.

Soooo Don't bother arguing with me about what I see and know. Actual experience I'll listen to.

@Jay Hinrichs I agree with your wife on the make up of subs! I'm seeing the same, Thanks

One thing I know about our hispanic work force on the left coast they are not stupid they know the value of their sub trades your not going to get some massive discount from them.. Even the day laborers at home depot know the going rate :) .. In my mind what you get is hard working do a very nice job generally speaking and will work when many born and breed americans simply wont.  the one situation we do face is sometimes they just leave and go home with no notice..

 That mirrors my experience too - our Hispanic contractors know exactly what the market rates are and they may be a touch below but not considerable - what you are getting these days is a faster, tighter job, not huge cost savings. 

 What we're getting here in CA is unpermitted, non warranties work. While licensed contractors pay payroll taxes, workers comp and a litany of other financial burdens.

perspective is everything.

Alan unpermitted non warranty work is how have the mid west rust belt gets their rehabs done.. just is what it is.. and some are not citizens and some are

 Fair point, doesn't make it right though. It's also why we see customers get burned.

Illegal or not, unlicensed contractors here in CA undermine the industry. We can't compete with people not paying payroll taxes,comp, pioneer etc.

I mentioned to Bruce on another post that there are barely 210k active licenses left here. What happens when we cant pay our overhead because of the underground economy?

Why even have licenses?, maybe REA and brokers shouldn't have licenses?

Quote from @Alan F.:

Quote from @JD Martin:

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

Quote from @Mike Hurney:

@V.G Jason

"PS before you dismiss this as liberal, communist, socialist talk."

Dismissed, actually more like Marxism!

I'd like to see back up of some of your assertions, Not hearsay, Not the Liberal Press.

i.e. Called my main guy this spring for some work. He showed with a young guy, We worked our butts off for 3 days. I picked up lunch, drinks etc. I went to pay them, couple of days work I'll pay with a check (1099) and cash it for them.

Hey Tony, I've got all O's info what's yours?

"Just Tony." Ok, some ID?

"No necessito." Whaaa, lets see some papers!

"No necessito!" Whaaa, empty your pockets!

"See, Nada, only new phone."

How do you buy anything or stay somewhere?

In very broken English:

"No necessito, US has free food! EBT! Section 8, nice housing! good medical at emergency! new clothes! etc."

:-0

Hey O, is this true? What's going on? You've been calling me a lot for work, and I've been referring you. What's up with this?

"Mike, 15 years ago I arrived in Mass, I was the only Guatemalan in Mass. Good people gave me work, I learned more skill, more money, worked hard! Now, recently, there are probably 1000 more Guatemalans like Tony, all undercutting each other!! I can do a roof for $300/Sq, they underbid me down like $99/Sq."

Yes, I've seen them, **** work and they're falling off roofs, not safe. I don't care if they're free, I don't need that!

"Mike, that's unusual!"

I could go on.

1. I see it as more like 50 million Undocumented (Illegally entered the USA) aliens.

2. I'm optimistic bad ones will be deported.

3. I'd like to see folks that are chosen to remain are vetted and documented.

Soooo Don't bother arguing with me about what I see and know. Actual experience I'll listen to.

@Jay Hinrichs I agree with your wife on the make up of subs! I'm seeing the same, Thanks

One thing I know about our hispanic work force on the left coast they are not stupid they know the value of their sub trades your not going to get some massive discount from them.. Even the day laborers at home depot know the going rate :) .. In my mind what you get is hard working do a very nice job generally speaking and will work when many born and breed americans simply wont.  the one situation we do face is sometimes they just leave and go home with no notice..

 That mirrors my experience too - our Hispanic contractors know exactly what the market rates are and they may be a touch below but not considerable - what you are getting these days is a faster, tighter job, not huge cost savings. 

 What we're getting here in CA is unpermitted, non warranties work. While licensed contractors pay payroll taxes, workers comp and a litany of other financial burdens.

perspective is everything.

Alan unpermitted non warranty work is how have the mid west rust belt gets their rehabs done.. just is what it is.. and some are not citizens and some are

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

Quote from @Mike Hurney:

@V.G Jason

"PS before you dismiss this as liberal, communist, socialist talk."

Dismissed, actually more like Marxism!

I'd like to see back up of some of your assertions, Not hearsay, Not the Liberal Press.

i.e. Called my main guy this spring for some work. He showed with a young guy, We worked our butts off for 3 days. I picked up lunch, drinks etc. I went to pay them, couple of days work I'll pay with a check (1099) and cash it for them.

Hey Tony, I've got all O's info what's yours?

"Just Tony." Ok, some ID?

"No necessito." Whaaa, lets see some papers!

"No necessito!" Whaaa, empty your pockets!

"See, Nada, only new phone."

How do you buy anything or stay somewhere?

In very broken English:

"No necessito, US has free food! EBT! Section 8, nice housing! good medical at emergency! new clothes! etc."

:-0

Hey O, is this true? What's going on? You've been calling me a lot for work, and I've been referring you. What's up with this?

"Mike, 15 years ago I arrived in Mass, I was the only Guatemalan in Mass. Good people gave me work, I learned more skill, more money, worked hard! Now, recently, there are probably 1000 more Guatemalans like Tony, all undercutting each other!! I can do a roof for $300/Sq, they underbid me down like $99/Sq."

Yes, I've seen them, **** work and they're falling off roofs, not safe. I don't care if they're free, I don't need that!

"Mike, that's unusual!"

I could go on.

1. I see it as more like 50 million Undocumented (Illegally entered the USA) aliens.

2. I'm optimistic bad ones will be deported.

3. I'd like to see folks that are chosen to remain are vetted and documented.

Soooo Don't bother arguing with me about what I see and know. Actual experience I'll listen to.

@Jay Hinrichs I agree with your wife on the make up of subs! I'm seeing the same, Thanks

One thing I know about our hispanic work force on the left coast they are not stupid they know the value of their sub trades your not going to get some massive discount from them.. Even the day laborers at home depot know the going rate :) .. In my mind what you get is hard working do a very nice job generally speaking and will work when many born and breed americans simply wont.  the one situation we do face is sometimes they just leave and go home with no notice..

 That mirrors my experience too - our Hispanic contractors know exactly what the market rates are and they may be a touch below but not considerable - what you are getting these days is a faster, tighter job, not huge cost savings.