All Forum Posts by: Christopher Keivit

Hi Jacob and welcome to this exciting world of investing! I have to agree with Kyle that making offers without the intention of carrying them through could cause a lot of legal problems - not to mention the damage to your reputation! I admire your attitude of jumping right in! I wish I could do that!!!! Just be very careful with the legal issues.

There is a ton of info on the BP forums about owner financing; maybe try a joint venture option too (although I am not real familiar with those). Good luck and let's have fun!!!

Anthony - are you starting one, or looking for one for your properties? If starting one, then think about after-hours service calls (how to handle), what size properties to take on, think of things that you can grow into as the business becomes more successful.

In my "real world" job, we manage distressed properties. For good tenants, we will actually give them a list of options to choose from when it comes time to renew - carpet cleaning throughout, new paint in one or two rooms, new blinds, etc. That is easier to do when you have a 40 or more unit property. But, if the tenants are good, why not? Just indicate that this is a one time deal when they sign the renewal!

Josh - I used Weebly to build mine (but it isn't active yet...) and I think there is a drag and drop that you can use to insert a file. Check on the "Multimedia" tab - there is an "Embedded Document" choice.

Hi Chris - the girl that moved out is probably still responsible for her portion of the lease. On a sublease, she is still responsible if the boyfriend quits paying. I would try to get the girl that moved out to sign a lease termination, and then try to get the first girl and her boyfriend to sign a new 1 year lease - give them some sort of incentive. Then you have tenants in for basically another 6 months! If they are good tenants, then you want to keep them. Check with an attorney in your area, but as I say, the second girl is probably still on the hook.

Since B of A announced their new $5.00 fee on debit cards, their site has been unavailable or unreliable. We are moving all 5 of our accounts out of there this week!

Welcome Diego from another newbie! There is so much info on this site that I can hardly get work done during my normal job! I would encourage you to post often in some of the general boards, as some of the more specific boards require a set number before you can post or reply.

I would say just read as much as you can on here, take advantage of the more senior investors and have fun with it!!

Hi NQ - welcome to what will be an exciting venture! I too am a newbie, and one of the best things that I have done is created a business plan before I did anything else. You can google search for business plan templates and find one that works. You may read a lot that you don't need one, or they are a waste of time. I firmly believe this is not true! I had a general idea of what I wanted to focus on, but then as I was writing my plan, the focus shifted slightly. The plan will help youfigure out where you want to go, and will help you get there. It is important to remeber that the plan is a living document, so it needs to be reviewed frequently (every 2 or 3 months at first).

As for getting your girlfriend involved, I would make sure that you have a solid agreement as to how things get divided out. Much like a pre-nup, you need a plan on what to do if the two of you ever go your separate ways. You can find many stories on the BP boards about partnerships that went south!

Keep active in your REI club - they can be great avenues to learn. Good luck to you!

There is a website at www.travelersjoy.com that you can set up an account and everyone can make donations through that. It basically becomes a "bank account" and then Josh can download the funds and use them as he sees fit. We used it for our honeymoon instead of a traditional gift registry - paid for 10 days in Italy!!!!

Hi all - I'm a newbie to both investing and BP and have found a ton of great info here so far! I am working on the "Objectives" section of my business plan and would like some thoughts. Here is what I have: "...main objective is to create investment opportunities in the target neighborhoods and support specific community organizations within those neighborhoods. As a result of these investment opportunities, the Company will realize a profit margin large enough to increase target market involvement, while allowing Company ownership to focus on full time real estate investing."

How does that sound? I don't want to say "the Owner wants to make enough money to quit his job" but that is the goal here!