All Forum Posts by: Ben Zimmerman

It's rather disingenuous to resurrect a dead post without tagging people, and then jump to conclusions based on a lack of responses from people who weren't even tagged.  Not everyone spends their life surfing the forums making thousands of posts and is actively on the lookout so they can respond to dead threads.

It's also rather silly to bad mouth a guru when you admit that you don't know what topics that he teaches.  Especially when you yourself claim to be a guru with paid classes where you imply your cost is significantly more expensive than Pace's program.  It's especially silly to poo poo on his classes when his own students seem to always be raving about it.

 
For funzies I searched "Pace Morby" in BP and tried to find a single negative comment from one of his students, after scrolling through a dozen or so posts I wasn't able to find a single negative statement.  Which is rather odd considering many people might have buyers remorse from just having spend 10k+

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/61/topics/915846-pace-m...

There are certainly a few members who could better contribute to the community by focusing on quality over quantity.

However, several people in the thread have mentioned things like the search bar, or how they will help people that first help themselves.  I think this is a poor attitude to take.  

BP has a wealth of information for a new investor to absorb, but a fair amount of it is outdated.  I still see people commenting about whether or not the 2% rule still applies.  While the real estate industry is relatively slow moving, it does move, and things like the 2% rule haven't been relevant in many years.  If we are simply telling people to "use the search feature", then we are essentially telling people to be content using old information.  

Maybe that information is still relevant, maybe it's not.  If you don't want to be bothered to answer a question that has already been asked 100 times, then simply don't engage and just move on to the next topic.

The most profitable method is usually a combination of personal knowledge, outside the box thinking, and risk tolerance.

It is easy to make a boatload of money if you are willing to take obscene levels of risk.  But on the flip side it is also easy to lose your entire life savings by making those risky investment decisions.  Just because something will earn you the most money, doesn't mean that it's the best method. 

Before trying to scale to millions of dollars of yearly revenue, I suggest doing one deal and earning a few thousand dollars in yearly revenue first.  

With that said there are only a handful of ways to rapidly scale a business to the enormous size you are wanting. And those are usually things like sub2, or becoming extremely good at raising capital from rich investors. Even things like BRRR take time to scale due to seasoning requirements for a refinance and often carry a fair amount of risk for novice investors who don't understand comps, ARV, rehab costs, and refinance costs.

With an owner financed deal there are really are no rules, its simply a matter of what the two of you can agree on.  

If you both agree that it is amortized then that's exactly what it is.  If you both agree that it is straight 6% interest only followed by a full balloon payment then that's what it is.

Just make sure the contract is clearly worded such that both parties fully understand the terms and conditions.

A few things, people can and do submit offers without seeing the property on a regular basis, and it is relatively common practice when the property is already rented with a tenant in place.  Nobody is going to allow 100 prospective buyers to walk through the property and continually disturb the tenant without a signed offer already in place.  If they want to view the property they will have plenty of opportunity to do so during the inspection phase.

However you missed the point entirely.  The entire point is to get them to stop calling.  So if they stop calling me because they don't like the way I do business then that's FANTASTIC.  However we both know that they aren't going to stop calling me because by this point I've already specifically asked them to stop calling me at least 20 times.

While some of the people are "broke rookies" as you call it, others are part of national chains that bring their lawyers with them to small claims court.  But in the end the result is the always the same.

@Account Closed I'm in the process of moving, so all of my printed documents that I take with me to court are...somewhere buried in the mess.  It's not easy to find niche court cases with a quick google search, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.  I have exact specific court cases printed that specifically involved attempting to call and buy a home that is not for sale and maybe when I unpack I'll respond back with examples...or maybe I won't, because as I mentioned I really don't care if you believe me or not.  

The National Association of Realtors expressly states that "Realtors cannot call people who are on the Do-Not-Call Registry to entice them to buy or sell a home or property."  But I guess you think its perfectly fine if a random investor makes that phone call as long as he's not a registered realtor?https://ameliacountyrealestate...

I'm well aware of the exact wording of the TCPA law that you cited. This is where case law comes into play.

I really don't feel like arguing back and forth with you on this.  I've won tens of thousands of dollars from people wanting to buy my house via small claims court so I don't feel like wasting my time scouring google looking for highly specific niche case laws that have expanded on TCPA rulings.

Quote from @Account Closed:

Don't confuse someone's opinion, with a court order. And quit making things up. ;-) Or, show us the court cases.

Post was updated with a random court case 5 minutes after initially posting the comment because I had a feeling someone would still complain.

Court upheld that a telemarketer attempting to pay people to fill out a survey was governed under TCPA.  It doesn't matter if you are attempting to sell a service, or pay for a service, if it is commercial in nature then it is covered under TCPA.

The case also links to several other prominent TCPA cases such as Optum.  "As we held in Optum, to be an ad, the fax must promote goods or services to be bought or sold, and it should have profit as an aim.”

"After all, a fax attempting to buy goods or services is no less commercial than a fax attempting to sell goods or services to the recipient"

@Grant Vincent  Its fairly easy to do through small claims court

Best practices include putting yourself on the do not call list and waiting a month.  Record phone conversations when possible so that you have proof that you asked them to stop calling you.  (a few states don't allow recording phone calls without expressly telling the other person you are recording as part of wiretap laws, but in many states you can record without their permission).  TCPA allows for $500 per violation, and up to triple damages if the calls are made recklessly (usually this means they call again after you expressly told them not to.)  

Many agencies use google voice phone numbers so that each call they send to you is from a different phone number.  This is also why recording calls is so important so that you can prove that the 10 calls you received from 10 different numbers was actually all from the same person/business.  In cases like this documentation is key, however if they are calling you from the same number each time then it becomes as easy as obtaining your phone call history from your phone service provider.  

The other problem is that many callers don't use their real names, or the real name of their business.  Often if you ask what business they represent they will simply hang up, or give you a generic business name that isn't formally registered with the state.  In this instance you need to know who to actually sue, so after you have documented enough calls to warrant your lawsuit, actually take some time and talk to them the next time they call.  When they ask if you want to sell, just say that you are interested but have tenants in place so viewings will only be available after a signed purchase agreement, tell them you will review their offer and if you like the terms that you will sell, but because you don't like your time being wasted with lowball offers they need to submit a highest and best offer, and that once the offer is submitted they are not to call to follow up on the status of the offer, instead YOU will be the one to reach out if the offer is accepted.  This way you aren't inadvertently giving them permission to contact you in the future because you now have an existing business relationship.   Once they send you a formal offer to purchase your home, it will say the name of the person/business that is actually trying to purchase the home, and that is who you sue.

These cases are usually best settled in small claims court.  The good news is you don't need a lawyer for this, you just need to gather and bring all supporting evidence with you, and preferably a copy of the TCPA law and some supporting documents so that the judge can actually understand what the law is and how to apply it.

The down side about small claims court is that the case must be filed in the same state as the business calling you.  So for example if you live in CA, but own rental properties in Ohio, and you have Ohio wholesalers calling you, then the court case must be filed in the state of Ohio.  The other downside is that small claims courts always have a maximum amount that you can sue for, this number is usually high enough for TCPA violations, for instance in NC the cap is generally 10k.  So if someone has been repeatedly calling you for years you might want to get a real lawyer and go to real court where there is no maximum penalty.  Another factor is that some states you need to first attempt to settle your dispute out of court.  If your state has a rule like this, type out a brief letter explaining that they have violated your rights, along with the times that they called and the total dollar amount that you will sue for if they don't settle.  Most times I demand 50% of what I could get in court and tell them that they have 7 days from receipt of the demand letter to settle before file in court.  Then send the letter via certified mail and keep the receipt to prove that you attempted to settle out of court.

One important thing to note is that its $500 fine per violation, (not per call).  So one phone call can have multiple violations.  If they violate the DNC list, use an autodialer (distinguishable as the 3-4 second pause before they start talking), and use a prerecorded message that would be 3 separate violations all in that 1 phone call. So that 1 phone call would be $1500 in fines, and as stated earlier these fines can triple if you have already told them to stop, so that would bump it up to $4500 in fines for that 1 call.  This means that it is usually pretty easy to max out the dollar amount that small claims courts allow for.  

This has a fairly decent summary of the TCPA law  https://www.fdic.gov/resources...

And for those people out there claiming that the TCPA law doesn't apply because they aren't trying to SELL you something, but rather only to buy something I suggest you do some better research.  The TCPA regulates telephone solicitations, end of story...  District courts have consistently upheld that it doesn't matter if you are trying to buy or sell something, if you are soliciting any type of business then TCPA law apply.  https://www.12news.com/article...

And for anyone still not convinced by 1 attorneys opinion, here is a circuit court ruling.  http://tcpablog.com/wp-content...

The only people that will recommend the insurance route is people who sell insurance. 

Just because a "financial advisor" recommended it doesn't mean anything.  Anyone can use the term financial advisor to describe themselves and many of these advisors are not fiduciaries and instead of recommending products that are in your best interest, they recommend products that give them a large commission.  

The salesman makes it sound so tempting, you get some added life insurance while also earning passive guaranteed tax free income!  The problem of course is that they always fail to mention the fee structure that is hidden on page 157 of the 200 page insurance policy handbook that they give you that describes how the policy operates.  

Lets be realistic, the insurance company is making money or else they wouldn't be in business.  The salesman is obviously making money or he wouldn't sell insurance as a job.  And then they tell you that YOU are also making money, but also getting additional stuff on top of that with your life insurance policy.  Obviously not everyone can simultaneously be profiting, that's just not how the real world operates.  Don't fall for their scams, read the fine print and learn about the fee structure.

I'm probably in the minority, but I haven't changed the amount of cash I am putting down and don't necessarily care about cashflow.

Everyone's finances are different, but I have investments outside of real estate and a stable government job with an upcoming pension.  This financial stability allows me to take calculated risks in other areas of my finances so I don't worry about cashflow, and probably have negative cashflow on some of my recent purchases.

You need enough reserves to survive a downturn, and enough cashflow to pay your bills and live a decent life, but once you reach that point having significant extra cashflow each month doesn't really benefit you that much.  Instead of cashflow the primary focus then shifts to net worth.  With interest rates where they are, cashflow is near impossible without a significant DP.  However housing is a basic commodity and is by default roughly pegged to overall inflation rates.  Once interest rates subside, housing prices will begin to skyrocket.  In my areas SFRs are down about 50-60k from a year ago.  With a decent starter home currently being around 300k, this means that a year ago it was probably 360, and with 10% YOY inflation it would probably be worth 400k or more if interest rates had not spiked.  That's a 100k equity spread.

I don't know how long interest rates will remain high, maybe 1 year, maybe 5 years, but nobody believes these rates are going to be permanent.  It takes 41.6 years worth of cashflowing $200/mo to generate 100k in profits.  I would rather take a calculated risk and make my 100k profit in 1-5 years by betting that we are near the peak of interest rate increases and that an eventual rate reversal in a few years will lead to sudden price growth.  And when rates drop a simple refinance can allow me to start generating cashflow.