All Forum Posts by: Carl C.

I could see a use for this in my case. I have college kids for renters and receiving rent isn't an issue because their parents pay it however we have had an issue with them not taking the garbage out each week. I've been thinking about sending a text each week to remind them but this might be easier. Thanks for sharing. 

@Chris McDaniel  Very interesting strategy. Took me a little while to get it, It helped reading through all the other posts. I'm also curious about @Tuan Le 's question about the lease. How did you structure it? If left early I could see them wanting any rent back that they didn't use. Did you just say that if you break the lease early you forfeit all the prepaid rent? Thanks for posting all this.

Hi @Ilan L., In my case my partner is actually my girlfriend. We don't have any official contract between us but but we have been together for 11 years and are essentially married. We own our primary residence together as well. If I was doing this with anyone else you better believe there would be a very clear and detailed contract. Since this is our first and only house so far we don't have it under an LLC but that is something I'm trying to learn about for the future. From what I have read, a lot of folks will wait until they have a few houses to put them under an LLC.

It can definitely be inactive but some insurance companies (mine) will require that even inactive knob and tube be completely removed from the house. Nathan's recommendation for the voltage stick is your quickest and cheapest option to check for activity. Good luck!

Thanks @Ryan Billingsley. Did you find that the clubs were legitimate clubs? I'm having a hard time determining if the ones I found via google are worthwhile or just an expensive sales pitch. It looks like a few that I found through google are also listed here so I'll assume I'm not going to end up in a guru's pitch with those. 

Thanks @Brie Schmidt I didn't realize we had a list on BP. That's a huge help!

Hi everyone. Being new to investing I read a lot of recommendations about joining REIAs. I love to get out an network and want to find a few clubs to join but I'm not sure how to find a club that is worthwhile. I have done some googling and found a few on meetup.com but how do I know if these clubs are legitimate? I want something like biggerpockets where there isn't always some pitch to buy a "system" or just a bunch of sharks looking for their next meal. So far every club I have found has red flags in their descriptions and they all seem to require membership to attend. I'd like to be able to check it out before committing money. What did everyone else do to find a reputable organization? Am I just being paranoid about hyped up language that I'm reading? The New Yorker in me is having a hard time not being skeptical about people's intentions. Thanks for any help!

I read that article and thought it was interesting. I agree that for the average person that's the sort of article that makes people fear real estate in NYC. While real estate here is certainly expensive, there are plenty of properties in NYC for less than $750,000. Just like everywhere else, there are lots of factors that come into play with price. For instance the building I live in (in Manhattan) has 2 one bedroom apartments for sale for well under $750,000. The trade off is that we are a co-op and we have relatively high monthly maintenance for the neighborhood. So we have a lower barrier to entry but higher monthly costs. I'm still not able to invest with the big dogs here but an hour or so outside of the city will find you deals. I suspect a lot of small time NY investors like me don't actually invest in the city, especially not to start out. 

I'd say it depends on how quickly you need to close on the property. Hiring an Architect do draw up plans will add a lot of time and $$. What kind of reno are you planning? Just upgrading what is there or gutting and reconfiguring the space? If you are leaving walls in place and just upgrading/painting I don't see the need for an architect and I'd probably lean towards a HELOC then refi into a tradtional mortgage after the reno is complete. I suppose it depends on the details of your deal though.

Hi Harpreet, You may want to look into New Brunswick around Rutgers. That's an area I have been considering and I know there are student rentals but I don't know much more than that. Hopefully someone can help you out.