All Forum Posts by: Dave Bingham

I thought something looked funny about the hoa/insurance. I thought it was low but felt like there was something else I couldn't put my finger on. Guess I was tired and didn't catch it wasn't annualized. Thanks @Jesse O.  and @Patrick L. 

@Kyle D. 

I think I'd bump up my insurance/ hoa as well another $50 a month. It's hard to say since I'm not privy to the details of the deal or the types of coverage you're seeking.

@Kyle D.

I'd put maintenance at 10%.  I'd also do some research of the board members. Try to figure out when the next election is going to be, who the candidates are and what their disposition is towards fees and landlords, and how long their term last.

Also keep in mind when you buy it will most likely trigger an assessment by the county and raise your prop. taxes.

@Arthur Pujols 

Hi Arthur. of course you guys are welcome. I'll p.m. you the details.

@Walter Pape 

Yeah, that is an accurate summary. I don't look at a picture of the property initially though. I just find ones that match my intangible within a mile or so. 

This particular one was easy. I just looked at the map and got the addresses from Google by following the canal east and northwest.

I then input the addresses into the county records searching for recently sold. This is what takes the longest. Sometimes the county site will have a button that says similar sales. If you're really lucky they actually will be comparable with the subject property and very close. These make great supplemental comps and may end of being what you use if the others you picked out visually bust out.

After I have my list I try to make sure they have the same bedroom count, within 10% of the sf^2 and within 5 years of age of the subject. 

I put your comps and those that are for sale around them in realtor.com or zillow's pictures to get a better handle on qualitative differences such as floor type, countertop type, appliance quality, etc...

Once you identify what's different you can then see what a particular difference translates into in the form of a raw dollar amount. To determine this you don't even need to include your subject or even your comps as you're only quantifying what dollar value a particular feature brings in that market.

Once you have that all done simply make your adjustments and as long as you did everything objectively as possible with the data supporting it you got a great starting place to determine your subject's value.

It can take up to 2 hours to do this but it gets easier and sometimes the appraiser/assessor offices online is just stellar and really reduces how much time is needed. It's onerous but if it will keep you from making a $10,000 mistake I'd say it's worth it. Good luck and see you the 28th!

@Walter Pape 

Hi Walter. Many times there is something that is actually comparable. I actually just had a friend buy a house on a canal out in NPR and the neighborhood was dead with recently sold and the house types were very different regarding quality, size, year built, etc...

Using Google maps I found 5 within 1.5 miles that captured my intangible (the canal) that were sold in the last 4 months. Try using Google maps. It works very well for accounting for intangibles that are sometimes hard to quantify when assigning value.

@Clark Winkler 

Thanks for the insight Clark. I'll pass it along.

@Brandon Hicks 

Initially I felt the same way Brandon. I think Grant's main value, for me personally, is his attitude and paradigm about problems and life in general. Some parts of his podcast I cringed through because I think it would be safe to say we not only didn't see eye to eye but were polar opposites. That's ok though, who wants a world full of clones? Overall I'd say I really like him though.

Not to sound sycophantic but I think deciding to supplement the podcasts by introducing different content such as mindsets along with advanced theory is spot on. I'd agree that guests like Grant fit very nicely into that.

The great part about real estate is there are so many right ways to do it.  I think all someone can do is share their story of how they did it along with their preferences as to why they did it that way. I think if we are going to analyze the efficacy of something, in this case the process Grant acquired the real estate, then it's fair to see what that individual's goals or restrictions are.

To be fair I have not read his book but I think human behavior dictates that once you reach a certain level of comfort with a task, efficiency takes a back seat to other concerns such as convenience or other issues. In this case plopping down the 25% he has instead of spending a great deal more time doing things creatively. Grant strikes me as the "Here's X dollars, let's do this" kind of guy instead of the "Hi there, let's make a deal" kind of guy.

Ben Leybovich made a similar argument to yours in an article he wrote. I agree with the two of you and this makes sense from our prospective but if you, Ben or myself were in Grant's shoes would it still make sense? I think I would be doing something similar to what Grant is doing. While I'm confident that yield is important to Grant, I'd imagine what to do with his money is a larger issue and as such supersede other concerns.

Hey guys!

I have friend that is renovating a house he bought. He just discovered this last week that the outside walls are infested. His contractor told him that they could erect a temporary wall, knock down the bad material and rebuild it. This is something that will have to be done to all the outside walls.

Is this something anyone on here has done? Does it work?

The other issue is to get an engineering study will take around 3 months and another 2-3 for the permits. Should he go forward with the project without waiting and the rebuilt walls are up to code what sort of penalty can the county assess if they find out he has gone forward without permitting the work?

We were discussing this and I think it would be odd that they would make him tear it down if it were up to code. They may hit them with a stiff fine but if it's good, why would they have him tear it down? He recalled a story where an old neighbor of his had done something w/o pulling the permit and it "looked up to code" from a layman's perspective anyway and that individual had to tear it down and rebuild.

So we were wondering, has this happened frequently in your markets, where work if it meets code but was not permitted is ordered to be demolished?

Are there any other options he has to expedite the process, cross t's and dot i's, and still get it done in a reasonable time frame?

@Mark J. 

Can't wait to see it Sunday! Congratulations again!