All Forum Posts by: Uwe K.

Not sure if I understand correctly what the real question is:
But looking back I think most my showings are during the week. But I have never tracked it and put metrics on, and my gut feel could be influenced by the fact that there 5 vs. 2 days...
In reality, it may also depends on your clientele. Low income, many have plenty of time during the day.
Also, many work early first or a second shift and have time during the day, others come after office hours. others have to work weekends.

I know for me scheduled showings like open houses do not work. People call when they want and see the ad, and then expect an appointment within the next few days. I try to bunch them together, but also always have every one call me half an hour before to confirm, otherwise I won't bother going. More than half will never call.

These warranties are not worth a penny in my opinion. And it doesn't matter if it's lifetime or 3 lifetimes, or five years or ten years.
I've never had a claim, at least I've never tried. And I've never read the brochures you could get after the first paragraph. "Could get" because they are not offered voluntarily, and once I found one by accident in the store (Lowes), I read a but about the stain warranty, and there is always a loophole for them (even with cut pile carpet.... :)
Stain warranty for example, you have to professionally clean it (not renting, but getting Stanley etc. in ) once a year AND once the stain occurs. And then they only replace the value of the life left I think (of 7 years or so).
All that cleaning and the miniscule value of replacement makes it pretty useless in my eyes.

I only use those numbers to gauge the "wearabiilty". Longer warranty, it may last a bit longer. But then we're talking about renters, and all the common sense is thrown out.

The reason why you haven't heard from the neighbor is probably that the he got crushed under the tree...

Anyway, maybe now there is no real danger of falling anymore now that the top weight is gone?

I agree with Sharon, no money down looks good.
Of course, it depends on the numbers, I am assuming here that a VA loan is not more expensive than a standard mortgage. Run the numbers and look at your payments and compare the two resulting cash flows. Should be easy since only one number changes, the rest is the same.

I would think it is legal, but check your local laws, there might be quirky clauses (like here, I am not allowed to set the water heater above a certain temperature....).
I actually having something like that in my lease. Water is included for my duplexes, but I have a clause if the consumption goes over some dollar amount per month or quarter, it will be billed to the tenant.
I don't even know the exact clause anymore, since I think I will never ever be able to enforce it properly. It's never separately metered, so you don't know who was doing laundry 10 times a day or who showers for 2 hours. Same with garbage in the backyard or the stolen light bulb from the basement.

A robot that answers tenants' and prospectives' calls, goes out and does the showings and fixes the plumbing leak, and then brings back the rent checks.
It doesn't need to be able to deposit the checks, I enjoy doing that myself :)

Wow, 0.75%. At that rate, I would take the loan first and then think about if I need it :)
But more seriously, if you have the loan and decide against real estate, you can always out the money in a boring, but save CD. That should easily give you a higher interest rate than you're paying.

Consider all the various real estate options and figure out which way you would like to pursue. You don't have to stay on that path and can transition into other areas, but start somewhere where you think you're comfy. Like landlording, that you already ruled out. However, if you mainly rule it our because it is too much work, you may want to reconsider the whole RE thing. Because unless one wins the lottery or inherits daddy's millions, it mostly takes hard work to make money. Like others said, quite to the contrary of the late night infomercials.

Why doesn't everybody do it?
- People like the relative security and stability of a paycheck
- it takes some money to get started, not everybody has it
- You will technically be a business owner, that's for sure not everybody's cup of tea
- scared, like Rob said; not knowing enough or not interested in investing the time to learn enough
- If people have money to invest, they like to diversify and not put all the eggs into one basket/house. For many, getting onto RE would maybe mean just that, so they're not willing to do it. Plus, a bunch of CDs and stocks is easier to understand and oversee for them.

Steve, you mean paying $1000 in interest?
In my last paragraph above I am just comparing the 2 investments and their ROIs, assuming no other investment is available or considered.
I think my post was a bit confusing, admittedly. I mixed the two things with too little explanation.

If someone has the cash just under the pillow and don't use it otherwise, of course paying off the mortgage makes sense, because the pillow has negative returns due to inflation.
But if you have the cash and have other investment opportunities, you may get a better return than paying off a 3.2% mortgage, such as the stock market with a much higher avg. return in the long run. Sure, risk, all that, agreed. But there are also products with certain guaranteed min. returns, for example.

So no, I wouldn't pay the bank $1000 (in interest, I assume) just to save $280. That's like the local grocery store advertising "Buy more and save more"...
But I would pay the bank $1000 in interest if the $31,000 borrowed money (or here not yet paid back money at 3.2%) can be invested in RE, for example, that gives me more than $1000 in NOI for the same time period. Anything above that I am better off. In fact, taking the $280 in your example int o account, I am better off at a NOI of greater than $720 already.

Ed and Dave, just wondering how these appeal pros get paid. Flat fee, hourly (for the pain the but municipalities), or maybe contingency based with a percentage of the savings?

I would refi as well at these bargain basement rates, it makes more financial sense.
On another note: Everybody is so eager to pay off their mortgages. While I can understand to have the happy feeling of not writing that check to the bank every month, consider this decision approach:

Look at the available investments.
- Refi the mortgage has a return of about 4.6% (less refi fees)
- Paying off the mortgage has 7.8%, but not really, because he could refi and only pay 3.2%, so the return is 3.2%. Plus no more mortgage interest deduction that saves taxes.