All Forum Posts by: Brian W.

I thought I'd update this thread with my experience of my first REI meeting.

The people there were great. Each person had their paradigm of investing in real estate and it was very interesting and educational to hear about each of those paradigms. Every single person there was very nice as well as humble, no matter their level of success.

With respect to learning about real estate investing from BiggerPockets vs. the meeting, the overall pace of the meeting for me was too slow since each person can really only ask one question per meeting. Understandably, if each person asked as many questions as they wanted to, the meeting would never end. So, as a new investor with so many questions, I still find BiggerPockets to be a more valuable and much more efficient source of education for me.

Will I go back? Probably. But, I won't have the same expectations I did of coming away having learned as much as I would have if I were to spend the equivalent amount of time here on BiggerPockets. Instead, I will go in with the expectation of meeting more of the people and seeing how we might do business together.

Should I tell tenants that it behooves them to notify me of a water leak immediately as it costs them money too? From what I've experienced and observed, water is the biggest source of damage to a home. I would like to prevent water damage as much and as soon as possible.

Should I consider giving flowers or some other welcome gift to new tenants?

Am I responsible in any way for tenants dealing drugs or growing marijuana in one of my properties?

Is it a good idea to ask the mailman and/or code enforcement officer to let me know of any houses they know of that are vacant, for sale by owner, or otherwise potentially a good deal that is practically unknown to other investors?

What are some ideas that can help encourage the tenant to leave the place in good shape and to prevent or minimize damage done by a disgruntled tenant who is getting evicted?

Should I remind tenants of their security deposit before they move out (either voluntary or eviction) so they leave place in good shape?

I was thinking about reminding them of the exact dollar amount of their security deposit by saying something like, "Upon moving out, pending there are no damages, you'll get your $1000 deposit back." I would do this for both voluntary move-outs and evictions: 1. To get the tenants in good standing who are voluntarily moving out to leave the place in good shape, and 2. To discourage damage resulting from anger over an eviction.

What are you guys' thoughts?

Any other ideas?

These two posts are some of the very best advice I've received in my time here at BP.

Thank you very much Ned and David.

Great advice Brian and Jerry. Thanks a lot.

Fantastic advice Troy. Thanks.

I'm not sure. It's at the IHOP in Fayetteville on the third Thursday of every month.

Great information guys - thank you very much.

Here's a situation that I see in my head that I'm wondering about: It's Christmas Day. I'm at a family member's house with my entire family enjoying all things Christmas. My phone is on vibrate and I'm not even thinking about a possible phone call. However, later that night at 10:00PM when I leave their house to head back to mine, I get a voicemail from earlier in the day about a water or heating "emergency". Do I return the call and call a repairman immediately or do I wait until the next morning to handle everything or do I simply text the tenant and tell them I'll contact them in the morning?

I may be making this a bigger deal than it is or worrying too much about this, but when I'm with my family, I'll often take my phone out of my pocket, put it on vibrate or silent, and put it on a counter somewhere until much later that night. Must I be "on call" 24 hours a day?

I already read through that entire thread a couple of weeks ago. There's a lot of great information in there.

I agree, I think the "lost everything" situation is very rare.

With that said, to everyone here, is having a one or two million dollar umbrella policy enough that I can rest easy or should I have a sub-LLC for each property I own?

P.S. I don't own any right now and my goal as of right now is to have about 3 - 4 that I will personally manage and, hopefully, personally own to avoid the added costs and effort of holding each property in its own sub-LLC. I currently own a business that is an LLC so I'm very familiar with what goes into establishing and maintaining one.