All Forum Posts by: Cat Woodman

This is such a sweet idea. Very generous. I would love to be there, but as an out of town newbie in CA - I won't be able to make it. I'd be curious about any advice, tips or tricks that come up. I am still putting together a team and in the process of calling agents and potential financing partners. Any advice or suggestion or ways I can participate would be welcome. Heading to twitter now. Thanks!

$279 per quarter. After reaching out again with an email and another voicemail, someone finally reached back and cancelled my account that I wasn't able to cancel online myself. So the recent response has been nice, but I'm not sure what happened to those 3 voicemails left over the summer. Luck of the draw I

Hi Lovely BiggerPockets Folks,

Just a warning to anyone considering using MashVisor. I signed up for a subscription earlier this year and decided to cancel. I went online and cancelled my subscription. They charged me anyway. I called no fewer than 5 times never reaching a human being and left 3-4 message stating the issue and requesting a confirmation that my account was cancelled and a refund. I never got a response. I finally filed a dispute with my credit card company. And now it's 3 months later and like clockwork they've charged me again. I've already left another message. We'll see if there is any response this go around. The only time you might reach a person is to sign up or get a demo. Otherwise their business philosophy appears to be ghosting customers for a steady income stream. I so regret ever signing up and you might too.

Thank you all so much! Much appreciated!

Hi Bigger Picket Folks,

My business partner convinced me last year to go in on a Work/live space in San Diego. It's in a great neighborhood. The upstairs is residential and downstairs is storefront office with a separate room in the back. I liked that it was versatile and we could rent out different areas. At the time I said, "Well, as long as it can get near positive cashflow." And just kind of trusted him and didn't do more research. Duh. 

So the total cost is probably around $5k per month. We purchased the property for $765k. We do need office space in San Diego for our business, but we let go of our full time employee there and now have staff in other states working from home. And my business partner has taken over a business in another state as well AND is now planning on moving out of the area, just returning as needed to service clients there. So he'll need office space when he's there 4 months out of the year (at the most).

He says he hopes he could rent out the top for $2k and the bottom front for $1k per month, which leaves a $2k per month negative cash flow not including things like vacancies and upkeep. I have said that $2k per month for an office (really just the back room of an office) used 1/3 of the year doesn't seem like a great use of $$ and I've asked him to buy me out or sell. So on the business side, we could use an office at a coworking space for $650 per month and have use of all the conference room. He's argued that the space will help close more deals and makes us (him) look good. And that we have to be spending money on an office anyway so why not pay ourselves to own real estate. So he's pushing back saying I should stay invested and that in 10-30 years I'll be sitting on a $2m property and really happy about it.

(Oh, and he makes fun of the ways I'm frugal - which is a whole other story.)

So my question is...am I missing something? Is this really a great deal that I'm just not appreciating because of my risk aversion or should I push him to buy me out even though he doesn't want to and use the proceeds to purchase positive cash flow properties - likely in other states?

And in terms of my goals, I would like to retire in the next 5-8 years. I don't want to work for 30 more years. Hence the FI/RE penny pinching and frugality that he finds silly.  

Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

Catherine

Cool! I will take a look. Thanks! Catherine

I am considering a househack. I could try to make one happen where I live (Bay Area) but would need to be in a good school system for daughter. We are in a bubble so I don't know how the numbers and financing would work. (Multi family properties not necessarily in good school systems seem to start at 1.2m, SFR rent for $4k in my town.) But I wouldn't risk my business in the Bay Area with that scenario. OR I could do a househack in Chicago near family, but I may risk slowing down my Bay Area business by not being as physically present, and I would have to leave daughter with family during the school year to come back to service the business which I'm not sure how I feel about.

Ideas? Thoughts?

Thanks!