All Forum Posts by: Brian P.

Well, then it is merely relabeling a concept that is over 300 years old. Being born on a farm I would call it secondary harvesting. Ever notice in some orchards there is a row of crops between the trees, the farmers discovered how to make more money by planting something between the trees to harvest besides what came off the trees.

One of the best books I ever read on "Hacking",[ still seems like a stupid name to me but what would I know, my first experience with computers was in 1960 and it took four floors of a high rise in S.F. to do what a laptop can do today} any way it was written by a Walnut Creek Real Estate Broker in California over 40 years ago. Sorry, maybe there is a copy gathering dust in a library somewhere, I can't remember her name but we worked a few of the same areas and I liked her a lot, smart and good looking just like me. That comment was so my wife could have a laugh.

As a broker I have learned to qualify someone wanting to list their house, no real motivation it  is usually a waste of time to take the listing. As an investor I learned the same thing. Qualifying the property first just leads you into maybe becoming a more motivated buyer and being a motivated buyer dealing with a unmotivated seller is again a waste of time and very rarely does a good deal show up. Of course there are exceptions but if you live your life looking for the exceptions I feel sorry for you.

OK you caught me on a old age day, if you have to ask forget it, your not ready yet. What happened to thinking and imagining, relax and sit in a chair and close your eyes and imagine having your new real estate license in your hand.  What does it do for you, what can you do with it?  Got nothing, then forget wasting any time and money getting one.

God it sounds like your just planning to be a retail buyer so I would toss out using the investor title for yourself. Try the buyer title,  using an agent and a bank, just like the average home buyer. The investor title foundation you need at this level is how to be a no money down, no bank loan investor and that info is available here and on other good sites too. 

Start cracking the books and study,study, and study and become a investor which is not really just someone who invests. My investing goal is to double my money every x years using the rule of 72. People who invest their money in a savings account at 1% now days will double their money every 72 years at that rate but they tell me it's good for them because it is safe. These are some of the potential lenders you should be hunting, good for you, good for them.

I'm with Judy what do you call house-hacking. I know it is something that is already been done over and over and is not new because as the old children's book goes there is nothing new under the sun. And in the 60 years I invested that held true, it was done somewhere by somebody before I did it, even the few times I was sure I had invented it.

It appears from your post it is nothing more then occupying a property you own but today it is cool, a term from my generation, to give computer terms to things and sayings So is that all house-hacking is, relabeling?

First of all a pet peeve, there is no such thing as a Realtors license, there is a state real estate license however and you may like one of those. And you can join NAR even though I would like to see it topple over and die and a new association takes its place.

Now the real question about getting a license is will you use it? 98% of people who get a license never make it. The education is useful even if you are a ex-licensee. I don't know what it is now days but at one time over 10% of Californians had or did have a real estate license and that is why many FSBO's were actually ex licensees and were using the opportunity to try and get something out of their license days. That used to be one of the first things I asked a FSBO when dealing with one.

Now having the degree is useful in case you change direction which many of my old classmates did. Many went civil service and the number one requirement was a degree. When I went to work for a fortune 500 company I was 6 units short of my BA but figured I would cover that shortage in 6 months of night classes, Well the job I landed in turned out to be the focal point of the companies new efforts to revamp and I was thrown into 90 hour weeks and barely enough time to see the real prize of my college education, my wife. 

When I had had enough I was first in line for a great position and had many top executives behind me pushing for me to get the position but Corporate had just passed a new thing, BA required for the post. My desired job went to a guy with no real experience, a degree in history from Arizona State and maybe basket weaving. He lasted 6 months, I lasted 3 by giving the demand that they raise my salary to the pay grade my job actually was, or for the right to attend classes in the mornings until I got my degree or really just 6 months of coming in late but not really cutting my day short even though I was exempt management and thus no real scheduled hours. Wow cutting my hours from 90 to 70 on pay based on 40 for 6 months, Really was a horrible thing to ask for. On Friday I told the Vice president I reported to I was going to lunch, He said you don't have to tell me when your going  to lunch and I said I thought I should this time because I'm not coming back. 

So back to real estate investing and getting my real estate license and never having to report to anybody but my bride, who was happy as could be when I told her I was unemployed. Point is it would have been nice to have had my license already when I took my four lovely assistants to my last lunch on the company credit card.

First of all a pet peeve, there is no such thing as a Realtors license, there is a state real estate license however and you may like one of those. And you can join NAR even though I would like to see it topple over and die and a new association takes its place.

Now the real question about getting a license is will you use it? 98% of people who get a license never make it. The education is useful even if you are a ex-licensee. I don't know what it is now days but at one time over 10% of Californians had or did have a real estate license and that is why many FSBO's were actually ex licensees and were using the opportunity to try and get something out of their license days. That used to be one of the first things I asked a FSBO when dealing with one.

Now having the degree is useful in case you change direction which many of my old classmates did. Many went civil service and the number one requirement was a degree. When I went to work for a fortune 500 company I was 6 units short of my BA but figured I would cover that shortage in 6 months of night classes, Well the job I landed in turned out to be the focal point of the companies new efforts to revamp and I was thrown into 90 hour weeks and barely enough time to see the real prize of my college education, my wife. When I had had enough I was first in line for a great position and had many top executives behind me but Corporate had passed a new thing, BA required for the post. My desired job went to a guy with no experience, a degree in history from Arizona State and maybe basket weaving. He lasted 6 months, I lasted 3 by giving the demand that they raise my salary to the pay grade my job actually was or for the right to attend classes in the morning until I got my degree or really 6 months of mornings coming in late even though I was exempt management and thus no real scheduled hours. On Friday I told the Vice president I reported to I was going to lunch, He said you don't have to tell me when your going  to lunch and I said I thought I should this time because I'm not coming back. 

So back to real estate investing and getting my real estate license and never having to report to anybody but my bride. Point is it would have been nice to have had my license already when I took my four lovely assistants to my last lunch on the company credit card.

You have just discovered a clause that should be in your lease. In the states I have had rentals in the tenant is responsible for the rent until the end of the lease and the condition he leaves the unit in. So my leases had a clause to be initialed by the tenant that they are aware of that plus if for some reason it becomes necessary for them to leave or break the lease early they also have a legal obligation mitigate damages by trying to find a new tenant acceptable to the landlord plus it is the policy of the landlord to pursue all monies due until the end of the lease or until the unit is leased again plus costs, interest and attorneys fees if that becomes necessary. If there is a need to leave early the tenant should consult with the landlord to find out if something can be mutually arranged and thus avoid legal problems for themselves.

Well now you know which agent to avoid, if any of my agents had done that they would have had me handing their license back to them and my saying good luck with your next broker.

Well you just got two offers, that is good. Jeff's offer gave me indigestion because the words Mason-Mcduffie  were included and that gave me a bad flashback. They were the oldest and largest at the time and we selected them to sell our first home in Piedmont because the broker we used to buy it retired. We didn't know it when we bought it but that broker found us the deal of the decade. 

But the agents that came out to take the listing just used our purchase price and added the $1,000 a year appreciation that was going on in Piedmont and that matched an article we had just read in the Oakland Tribune. The trouble was that added up to $15,500 but the actual market value was $27,500-$28,500. and guess what one of the agents had a niece looking for the home in the area at that moment and they bought it, never hit the MLS. Seemed great at the time but when my company transferred me back to S.F. a couple of years later and we started looking in the old neighborhood we discovered what had happened to us. We also found Mason-Mcduffie had screwed us on the mortgage side of the deal.

That is when I started taking some real estate classes and begin my march to becoming a broker. And I drove the board nuts because all the listings my office placed on the MLS stated the coop offer does not apply to any Mason- McDuffie agents. Finally that company was being dismantled and the broker that bought some of the real estate sales offices called me and wanted a truce. So we signed a truce and all was well again in the land of Alameda and Contra Costa County. And once again I was happy to deal with them and the new owners really trained their agents and closings and day to day business went smoothly all the time. Ok that was my old age flashback.

Now back to Jeff give him a call, being as your in Oakland I sure you want to do as much as you can locally. Before I left the area to get a heart transplant it was still feasible to do deals in Oakland and the surrounding areas even though I kept getting the go out of state or to the central valley BS all the time. As of January 1st I retired even though I could come back and start an office, my license is still good for 3 more years.

Also call Ashley, investing is one of those fields that you never know who is going to bring you the deal or where the deal is. As a broker I used to tell my investor clients to work with other brokers that may be aware of something not on the MLS even though I did network with a lot of agents that worked with investors or deals that I was not aware of because of my own investing activities, and I didn't feel it would be right for my client to miss a good deal because they thought I would be upset or hurt. And her being based in Danville is old home week to me. That was my base camp for many years even though I did business from Santa Rosa to Gilroy, and from the Pacific Ocean to the Central Valley Rivers.