All Forum Posts by: Tim Czarkowski

Eddie P. That article was great, it's always someone else fault. The fact is, at least up here, a few of these sales are people who don't know what there doing but the majority of the buyers know exactly what there doing and are making good money at it. The article and the attorney in the article miss that completely.

Anyone who feels sorry for these people should sign up for an account, put is a test bid, and look at the amount of disclosures that you have to ignore. Not just that but anyone who would just start bidding at these auctions with no research at all is clearly going to lose their money one way or the other.

I just read through this whole thread and I am glad to hear you were able to get out from under this condo. What a read!

I think Joel Owens nailed it on the first page of the thread, the condo was over priced, probably over-improved, and acquisition cost was too high.

On top of that the money in the condo was a sunk cost and any note created should stand on it's own. If the money could be invested elsewhere at a higher return that should have been the goal, which it sounds like you have decided to do. I wish you luck in the money business but be careful, you don't want to make the same mistake again. I know it's funny to look at the returns on short term treasuries but your partner would have done better with them in this instance.

Please keep us updated with how the lending goes.

Will Barnard and Marc Faulkner Did anyone ever do any business with Dion DePaoli? I assume not but would love to hear what he had to say.

I personally have stuck with 4 unit buildings and under because you can get 30 year fixed rate debt. I have no idea what rates will be 5 or 10 years from now and I don't want to have to worry about balloon payments. Financing just seems much more favorably under 5 units.

I would love to see the floor plan of this place ;)

Where is the property located in Florida? I can send you the lease I use that my wife put together by combining the lease from the previous landlord of one of our properties with one I downloaded from an attorney here. I believe it conforms to all Florida laws but I am not an attorney. You can download a bunch of different forms put together by a Florida law firm focused on evictions at evict.com. They also have a bunch of legal articles and a FAQ. It's great for anyone investing in Florida.

I mostly work in residential real estate as both an investor and as an agent but have worked on a few commercial deals for family. A couple days ago I had a doctor that works with my wife call me who is interested in buying commercial property. He had originally told me he was interested in purchasing raw land but being that he doesn't seem to know a lot about real estate and the investment is apparently for his mother, I didn't think that was the best choice for him. We went back and forth by e-mail and it seems his goal is to make 10% on his money. I have sent him some single tenant NNN listings but didn't get a response at all so I called him and setup a buyer consultation with him on Thursday. Since he is busy and inexperienced doing a build out from raw land seems to be a bit much, particularly in this economy, and with a little leverage could hit his goal with much less risk and time with a NNN property. This being my first real commercial buyer consultation I was hoping you all could give me some advice how to prepare for the meeting, questions to ask, etc. Wish me luck, this sale could be equal what I used to make at my job before I went full time into investing.

One thing to note is that yes leverage certainly amplifies your return but it works both ways. If you put 10% down and the value of your property drops 10% you just had a 100% loss. If that happens you can then be locked into a property even if you expect values to continue to drop. Lots of people we caught by that on the last downturn. If you pay cash or put a decent down payment you have the choice to liquidate if you feel it is necessary. That would have been a good option for a lot of people in 2008 when the market was turning.

On the other hand paying cash can make you a target of lawsuits from unscrupulous people who see deep pockets.

Maybe ... Depends on what you can rent it for. A one bedroom condo is really no different to a one bedroom apartment to a renter. I have several one bedroom apartments and they stay full. I'm sure it varies by market also.

I have begun flipping houses and using the profits to buy rentals for cash. I know that other people do this and I think it is a great way to go. I do carry debt on my home and will likely refinance some properties in the future to fuel the flipping business, but of course that is not necessary. I feel that anyone who really wants to get into flipping should be able to fund the purchase out of pocket. When your new you are more likely to make mistakes and having a loan against a project like that can ruin you quickly. As you get more comfortable and experienced I think you are better able to handle the debt.

Live cheap, save as much of your income as you can, and either work for promotions or look for jobs that pay better and you can get there faster than you might expect. Before I quit my job my wife and I saved approximately 50% of our take home pay. Now between my business and her job we are closer to 75%.

I'd like to say I really like John Reed both for his books and for the guru reviews. He really tells it like it is and is very informative. The only thing I don't like is that he can be negative but I prefer that to the puffy uninformative bull crap most of the gurus push. I highly recommend "Best Practices for the Intelligent Real estate Investor." Once you figure out what niche you like I recommend any of his books on that particular topic. "How to buy Real Estate for at Least 20% Below Value " is good also. When it comes to tax time his book is great.

As far as for rentals "Landlording" by Leigh Robinson is definitive.

I first read these two authors back in the library at UGA while I was in school and since then have been very disappointed by most of the dozens of other books I have read on the subject. There is just no meat to most real estate investment books out there.

Lastly "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham is about the stock market but I think that anyone who invests in anything should read it. I also recommend the letter's to shareholders and annual reports of Berkshire Hathaway. You can see how a true investing genius works from those.