All Forum Posts by: William Bannister

Its like water off a ducks back just attempt to have her sent paperwork to address that she is not on lease and your notifying her in writing that she is to vacate immediately. Your eviction since its already started will affect anyone he moves in after papers are started. Also in the future use a little add on the end of names I have on my 3 day pay or vacates or my 5 day pay or vacate forms. I use the words Etal.. its a latin term means "and others". Its a great way legally to say hey Im evicting everyone on the planet out of this apt!
I know its hard to be patient but make sure your condition report is in
order and just let the sheriff handle them. Im sure they have something in mind so make sure you cross your t's and dot all your i's in this eviction. I call them professional tenants and have learned a great deal about them in 20 years having over 100 units.
Get expert at evictions and your guaranteeing your apts to have less turn over time.

Well more is better then less but why not instead put money in based on how much u make every month and adjust up if u have a good month or ect? Either way 300k is pretty speculative unless u have done this in the past. I am not trying to reduce your projection just trying to let you know unless you have a ton of capital in place already the last thing I would worry about is how much to set aside. If this is really an issue do an online search on your tax bracket for your state taxes and for fed and its available. A guy makes 300k a year doesnt care if they have to write a check for 3k or 5k;) That is chump change.
Just set aside or pay in the money monthly and you will be good to go. If you really think 300k is going to be the target income you hit plan on at least 40% getting set aside. If you really think you will make this much I would do some deals inside a self directed IRA if you have any cash to do that with. Also if you have kids plowing money into a 529 is a good idea. Other tax reduction areas exist in buying medical and using it as a deduction but normal business expenses like office and vehicle and tools of the trade like internet and phone services used as well as utilities in your office are all deductible.

Im not a attorney that does asset protection nor am I a tax professional but let me tell where my answer comes from. I studied large landlords that owned hundred of properties and watched how they titles property. I also have a friend that is an attorney that we discussed the matter of liability and corp structure for the matter of asset protection and personal liability as a result of owning such assets.
Being a landlord of over 20 years and have over 100 unit gives me a little personal knowledge on the matter too.
The answer is your llc should not be in any form of your name if you plan to avoid liability which is a big reason why we use llc's to hold real estate. Another trick I learned is to use the name of the address of the property when naming your llc. For example if I own a property on 123 main street. I would call that 123 main llc. Or lets say you own a property on 403 32nd street the llc would be 403 32nd llc. this is what I do and when you get a large business like I have it makes it a lot easier when the file folder has the address and your not trying to figure out what that llc is called when your banker asks for the name and llc ein number over the phone or title company when your trying to sell to an end customer. It also makes your secretary happier when managing your affairs if you get to that point.
Good luck, thats my 2 cents on the matter..

I see your from WI I am originally from Wi myself and did some dealing in Milwaukee years back. Is it still dangerous to collect in hoods down town? That could be another issue to worry about if you are running around like I did with 10k in cash in your pocket. I remember coming from one of my apt buildings once in Columbus Ohio had like 5k or so in pocket and I was walking back to my car and saw a group of dudes not that far away eyeing my up like I was fresh meat. Make sure your aware of your surroundings when your walking with cash in hand. I had nothing to fear I was packing heat and I do if I am in a city working on a big rehab or doing some management work in what I call sketchy hoods. Im glad I got outta WI. The weather is just too cold to be out doing deals in Jan and Feb. Stay warm and go Packers.

Cash is always king that is until you have your properties under professional management. Having cash can avoid trips to bank to pay bills or pick up building materials when you do improvements.
Once you dont manage your property then its unnecessary to insist upon getting check or money orders to avoid embezzlement. Another trick that larger landlords and people in business make sure is the guy renting apts isnt the same guy doing collection. Separation of duties reduces embezzlement. Its just simple accounting practices being followed here.
In the early days I liked getting cash because it just made more sense to have the money in pocket to pay bills right away now who knows. I still have to make trips downtown to pay water since they wont do a credit card or debit card over the phone. So having cash is nice. I also like to put away a certain amount of money under the pillow if you know what I mean and cash makes that easy.

To qualify for your 1st mortgage I would attempt to have a down pmt of 10 to 20% in place in addition to some cash reserves for fix and repair or appliances if you need to buy them. Banks like to see cash reserves in place. Get your fico tri score up to at least 680 all three of them from the Experiean,Equifax and Transunion. These 3 big credit companies run the credit business today for personal consumers and borrowers like yourself. eventually if you decide to go into business and do commercial real estate you might want a Dun and Bradstreet score as well. You can pull your credit once per year free. I do it on my fico.com. I might not have the exact url there you might have to search.
In the old days when I borrowed money I learned that the C's to borrowing are what banks look for. Credit,Character,Capacity. Focus on getting cash saved up and getting credit scores above 680 to 720 range.
I like your plan to buy a duplex and live in one half it makes economic sense when your first starting out!
Personally I am not one to borrow money I prefer to save cash and pay 5k for a junker or 50k for a nice house in a decent hood but then again Im not like the rest of the crowd and its not easy to save when your first starting out if you have a family to support or are fresh outta college.
Getting approved would not be a bad idea. Find a local portfolio banker to establish a relationship with where you plan to move. Also having a job or syable source of income for at least 12 months is a must to get a loan...probably 24 months on the job would be better but 12 months is minimum.
If you are self employed like me you need to show bank statements showing regular deposits as income and 2 years of tax returns filed that can be verified with the irs to get loans. Again I dont borrow because I have always believed not to be a slave to a lender but to be the lender.
Right now real estate is cheap so I understand if you want to take a risk and borrow on deals but be careful about borrowing my rule of thumb for borrowing was not to pay over 24 months rent for a property. For example if I can get 900 a month rent for a home I would be willing to pay up to 21600 for the property if its rented out and in good shape without needing a long list of repairs. 900x24=21600.
Many will argue with me on these numbers but unless I am buying beach front or office towers in Manhattan this is my strategy and its worked for me to make my 1st million. The 1st million is the most difficult after that its just a matter of putting in some time and effort;)
I also focus on cashflow. Flipping has never been a big thing for me even though I do it to make extra money when the opportunity presents itself. Every month give me my cash flow. A portfolio of several cash flowing duplexes will allow you to get a nice loc from your local banker so you can do flipping and wholesaling faster!

Larry Loftis writes a book on the matter of tax deed and lien investing you might like. He is an attorney and does investing in a lot of states.
I also enjoyed John Becks educational materials but he pushes to hard to get you to spend more money. His 40 dollars course is all you need to get started if you self educate in the matter of doing title searches.

I find it interesting when such trends are made public to almost shock to public awake saying hey everyone not its time to get back into real estate. when I read things like this I am just reminded of the sheep mentality of following the crowd into every investment like before the sub prime blow up back in 07. This just reminds me of the Tulip Mania story that is history we all understand and can apply to any market place.
Its hard to say if Google was just used less in favor of other search engines or whether Google searches changed how they categorized searches but one thing is clear. The real estate market has been pretty slow since 2007. Its turned around a bit but for the most part whats kept people away is a lack of easy money at the main street level. While those with good credit and cash can participate the criteria for lending is stringent.
The days of cdo's being packaged and sold and debt swaps and deals to short such sub prime may gone but this was all new so. As the data compiled is sorted through by research teams that work for the trading giants like Bear Sterns and Goldman and JP and ect. Once the risk management understand all of what happened, this credit cycle will come roaring back. Bond traders have already used the failures in 2006 to 2009 to create new models that rate bonds with more transparency and less risk. Not any time soon though, our fiscal cliff will put a damper on that as the Fed crowds everyone out for borrowed money and interest rates climb.
Every cycle we go through has all these new things we create as humans. Imagine who ever thought, lets create credit default swaps on these sub prime mortgages so we can short this crap they are dumping on our desks in Wall street. Or so we can cover the losses that we created in the first place.
What I am trying to get at is the next real estate boom will be new and different like the last was. The market place has started to turn but its certainly going to be a slow battle for it to recover when in our global environment we are fighting the world for good jobs.
The deals are so easy to come by where I am that I dont even have to go to the internet. I just wait till i have a little money and every 6 months they have an auction selling 250 homes and I go hand pick a few properties to bid on and buy em. I hope the market stays crappy for just a few more years.
My crystal ball says higher inflation from QE then borrowing costs go up since capital is hard to come by and you have a sluggish market for some time. So you have to shift gears and build your portfolio now. The rental market has never been better;)
Cant wait for the future, I mean when I started in this game we didnt have yardi software and cell phones imagine having to develop pics to get condition reports lol. The future is bright! even with an economy that flat lines my personal economy has never been better.

I agree that lien and deed auctions must be well researched and the value there can be better the other areas in real estate if you are after lots and lower end housing and here and there some forgotten developments and or property that never properly went into an estate or just got forgotten about which happens a lot. The title work is important when you go to auction to buy. Learning how to do title work is the key so you arent buying property you havent researched. You dont want to get stuck with an irs lien that might not go away after auction! Also buying homes scheduled to be torn down.
Each area is different with right to redemption and interest paid. The quiet title done after auction and other details are the challenge. Attend auctions before you dive in. The last auction I went to I had done title research on about 20 of the 260 properties they sold at auction. It was a deed sale and you got deed to property in 2 weeks! The homes scheduled for demo also where made public at auction so it saved you that research. The county commissioner had a private auctioneer do the auctioning.
I bought a rehab it was a 2500+ sqft craftsman bungalow for 1220 dollars and an empty lot for 220. I had to pay 20 on each for deed fees.
120+ homes and 140 lots sold in 5 hours. The properties at auction all sold between 20 dollars for empty lots in older hoods that would make great building lots or gardens to 14000 for a car lot at the high end.
The home I bought had a one car garage and a fireplace and it was 2 story with full basement and brick foundation w hardwood floors through out and was in an average historic neighborhood. It had an arv of 80k and needed about 10k in fox and repair. Most of the homes sold between 3k and 10k and the lots averaged 200 to 1000. this is Evansville In we are talking about so its Ohio river valley KY border.
I also do deals in TX and WVA cause they pay high interest and have deed sales.
I dont often go back to mls for deals when I can get homes for 15% to 20% on the dollar. If you are new and this seems like your type of thing my advise is work for free for a title co part time to learn how to do a title search. Or just ask at the court house.
Then go get some deals. In WVA I have bought land lots for 87 dollars and sold them on ebay for 750 dollars. I like doing rentals so thats my focus apts but if you want extra cash it is a nice sideline. I like land because I use it for agricultural pursuits so its different for me. 200 dollar lots . I plant with pear trees and apple trees it is a hobby for me;) Organic gardens and extra space for the ever increasing stuff I acquire.
Good luck