All Forum Posts by: Christie Gahan

Quote from @Engelo Rumora:

Quote from @Christie Gahan:

I've had this discussion with my son.  On the one hand, floating rate loans are "normal" in this space.

On the other hand, when rates are at a 50 year low ... where the heck do you think they are going to go?  

The "Smart Money" got the lowest rate possible ( floating) and everybody's Grandma got a fixed rate.  Now, who are the smart people ?   

Maybe, the "Smart Money" was smart because they got their payday when they sold to the individual investors?  

Yes indeed mate.

I probably would have fixed the rate also but "underwritten" the deal from a worst case rate scenario like I would do with SFH if financing.

I'm not versed in large multifamily deals and would love to learn more.

I think I could really do some "damage" in the field because I own and run a property management company and we run a tight ship that's very well optimized from an automation aspect and affiliate fee structure standpoint.

So my bottom line for example buying a 50 or 100 unit would be much safer/higher due to in-house PM and "working" the margin.

Yes, please.  Can we locate it with in driving distance of the new Intel plant ?  Techs start at $63k plus full benefits.  If you get bored with that, there is also storage units.... Cuz the town is going to get bigger.  

Quote from @Lisa Martin:

Thank you all for the helpful replies. Tenant has been given an eviction notice.  I hope I can figure out who to call and that the property manager shares more detail.  I will be moving this property to my other manager as soon as I can!  I had to do that last month with another property that they were managing poorly   :-(  

 Lisa, You seem like a nice, reasonable lady.  Let me tell you something.  Those traits are not gonna help you in this situation.  You hope the property manager shares more details ?  Hope?  ( My head exploded when I read that.)  Hope ?  No.  She works for you.  You are the boss.  

  You have two options.  1.  Be Effective and make money   or   2. Don't be effective and lose money.   This is very simple.  Tenant pays you or they leave.  Prop manager does her job well or she leaves.  If you have never had to crack the whip it can be uncomfortable.  It gets easier.  Everybody is busy and if you aren't the squeaky wheel nothing gets done.

  See if you can get CC's in on every email from the Section  8 office and the lawyers office.

Everyday, call your PM and ask what she has done for you lately.  Everyday call other PMs until you find a better one.  Your PM should have prevented this situation, imho.  

Talk to somebody at the Section 8 Office and make sure they know that there is new ownership and that you want to correct the problems.  

On paper, the plan here is that you get some rent from Section 8 directly and some from the tenant.

Are you still getting any rent from section 8 ?   Or, did failing the inspection cause them to stop paying the rent?  Has the property passed inspection yet?  

Sorry to tell you,  I don't think I've ever met a section 8 Landlord that actually got all the rent money.  I remember someone telling me that if I wanted to get in that game to make all the numbers work on the Section 8 check.  You can not count on that money.  There are some folks that pay it but many don't.   Some don't even think they really owe it.  

Did your current property manager place this tenant?  If they did, start looking for a new one.

Good Luck.  Lessons Learned.  

While you are making these plans, read "Retire Secure" by James Lange.  You should be able to convert some of your retirement funds to "Roth" funds.  

You really need to find an accountant that loves tax strategy.  You need to look at your income to know if you could benefit from tax strategy there. 

I don't like the expensive house because the remodel is done.  For tax purposes, you might get a big tax advantage to buying a house and doing the remodel and a Cost Segregation Study. 

Also, the property you could pay cash for.... maybe not the best idea either.  If your income is high, a lot of cash flow / income just goes to Uncle Sam.  It might be better to put a large down payment so the property will cash flow enough.  At retirement, you can think about paying it off and living in it.

G.Brian Davis:  How do you handle funds that due a cost seg study?

Are there any serial numbers ?  Brand name?  Take a photo and run it thru Google pics looking for a match.  Might work.  

Quote from @James Wise:

Quote from @Jeremiah Dunakin:

I would fix it. As soon as possible. Let that kid hurt themselves. If the tenant pushes it in today’s culture you could be in trouble. Also I don’t think it’s a terrible request. I got kids and believe in letting them experience life. That said it is thier kid and they can parent how they want.not an unreasonable request. Spend the 50$ and save a lawsuit 

 I'm guessing you've never been involved in a lawsuit before. If you try suing someone you are dropping $10k-$30k just to get to discovery. This tenant ain't doing all that for a cut finger.

 Plenty of lawyers will take a case on contigency.  Pictures of a cute bloody kid crying to show a jury and an owner with deep pockets ????  I'm not gonna bet they can't get a lawyer.  If they do file, the owner has to hire a lawyer to answer the law suit.  Now, you spent $300, min for the first hour of their time.  

What price point are you at?  $20k on 1,000,000 is nothing.  $20k on $100k is a problem.

Getting a comp or appraisal on a suburban development is easy.  They only build like 4 floor plans so you have an easier time getting a comp.  Is there something unusual about this house or lot that makes it hard to find a comp.?  For example, I looked at a house on an acre lot but all of the other big lots had already been split and developed.  There is an issue there.  A residential appraiser will not put as much value on the land as a commercial appraiser or builder might.  But, as it is a personal residence, the bank will want a residential appraiser.  

No shame in backing out of a deal.  Happens all the time.  Do what is best for you.

Quote from @Matt McCurdy:

Quote from @Marcus Auerbach:

@Matt McCurdy the one-on-one coaching was like a college education: reading assignment, homework, write summary to coach. The "coach" was a trained call center person going through a script. It covered every strategy known to investors from nuts to soup at least the theory. Mostly irrelevant for what I wanted to do, but you can make the case for a solid base education. 

It is not easy to provide good coaching, I have tried. 

One of our local Milwaukee REIA groups offers a-la-carte coaching. Simple concept: instead of teaching a class you ask any questions that are relevant to you and get coaching on this specific issue, we even come out to your project. Select a coach that has the specific skillset you want and then pick their brain. I know every coach on the program, they are all very experienced local investors and a legitimate expert in their field and they genuinly want to help: from IRA investing to wholesaling, to flips etc. I liked it and agreed to help covering the BRRRR strategy, help people analyze a deal, walk a job, help them deal with construction issues etc.

I think the approach is genius, the concept offers a huge value, because you can read a book on BRRRR and understand the theory, but still struggle with implementation. It worked really well, but I would have expected a lot more people take advantage of it.

What we found was that people still wanted to spend $10,000 or $35,000 on a course that promised them to become an top investor rather than paying an expert for a hour of their time to help them with specific issues.

The psychology of this is facinating. People want to be guru coached! But they want to spend the money in exchnage for the promise that they will become someone they are not (yet). 

Motivation always comes from inside, you can't make people feel motivated.

I'm not trying to be rude, so I'll say this in the most delicate way possible...

I'm sure you've spent plenty of time working on your coaching offering. Unfortunately, it sounds like your approach needs more refining to it's audience if the coaching offering wasn't successful.  Instead of blaming "people" who just want gurus, you need to first understand what makes them motivated (yes, anyone can be motivated by another person) to choose a "guru" class as you call it vs. a team of coaching experts.  Something is getting lost in translation. Motivation is all around us.

I've seen successful 1-on-1 coaching programs, successful community based learning approaches, AND successful conferences/classes. All are valuable to helping real estate investors (REI's) grow as people and grow in their investing. I'm partial to 1-on-1 coaching as it allows me to create a personal and lasting connection, but the other two programs are great options for REI's as well. It's all about meeting the person where they are at in their journey. Sometimes 1-on-1 coaching isn't the right fit for them currently. Does that mean your program isn't valuable? Absolutely not! Warm wishes.

It sounds like some people want to day dream about the perfect life of abundance they are going to have regardless of the class or the coach. I guess that is okay. To change your life or try something radicaly new, you have to be able to "see" it. I don't know that someone is very coachable at this point but it's probably easy to rip them off. ( 6 videos at $8k each) When someone has specific questions, " I have an IRA. How do I get it to be a Roth."?" Do I really need primer'. ? At this stage, they are coachable. They are focused and taking action.