All Forum Posts by: David M.

Scottsdale, AZ

@Steven Asifo

I didn’t see anyone mention Loopnet.com above, which is part of the CoStar family and offers multi family listings.

I’m not a lawyer, but as someone who has had an agreement tested, I’m curious where the fraud lies (no pun intended).

There have been two recurring points in this thread, Morris says contradictory things, so is he lying then or now, and two, the contracts people have seen are terrible with all sorts of blanks.

I’m not a fan of fraudsters and think it is terrible. But also believe 100% caveat emptor. If it sounds too good to be true...

So, working backwards, what is the framework of the obligation and deliverable by Morris? The contract. If the contract is incomplete or missing details, as stated several times above, whose position does that weaken? Think maybe they’re sloppy for a reason? Is Morris liable for a certain house quality if he said it to the camera but the signed doc says nothing? If nothing is written what was the expectation, and why would a buyer sign a contract with blanks? They could have had a lawyer review the docs at execution I’m sure. In the foreclosure crisis, was it the banks’ fault, or borrowers for not reading what they signed?

two, this is a national television personality everyone knows from a decade on air. He is hosting a show still, just on a different platform. He’s not guaranteeing anyone anything. It may sound like it, which is intended, but my guess is there’s probably specific word choice that is ambiguous where it needs to be. I don’t listen to him, but something like, “you can make millions” versus “you will make millions”. Both sound similar when you’re thinking about making millions, but you get my drift.

Remember, even Roger Clemens was found innocent. Just “misremembers”. The question is, how much money did Morris save for a lawyer? Maybe the Empire star’s guy is available since he didn’t get named with Avenatti in the Nike suit.

@Horacio Gutierrez, I discovered mashvisor.com reading through old airbnb posts in the forums just this week.  I tried it out for two properties I am currently evaluating.  All I can say is, I am so excited to have found the application and am curious why I haven't heard of it before.  Never so much as a mention.

On the site, the mls data was correctly pulled in for the subject properties I reviewed, including HOA fees. The property taxes were correctly calculated monthly from the latest county treasurer website amount. My only question on populated data was the long term rents. The air bnb rents matched a comp in the area, however the long term rent looked overstated by as much as 20%. My guess is this is due to rents for all units posted in the community, and not only comparable 1 bd / 1 ba units to my subject.

The only drawback to me was to get the true benefit, it costs at least $300 per year. I would gladly pay $120, but $300 makes it an ROI expense that I have to justify then :(

With a property being deemed a primary residence if owner occupied for 2 of the past five years, and federal income tax capital gains exemptions available for the sale of a primary residence, to me that sounds like the perfect reason to invest.  A primary residence can qualify for as low as 3.5% down versus the typical 20% for investment property.  Once acquired, live in the property for the first two years of ownership, then rent it out if you move.  You will then have three years to decide to rent it or sell it with a capital gain benefit.  If you move out of the metro, find a property manager before you go.  If there is a downturn, you might need to ditch the sell option, but your rents won't go to $0 even if values do.

Home warranty expense. My last experience was a few summers ago. As someone far above posted, I’ll be darned if an A/C unit in Phoenix goes out any other months than July or August.

So the A/C unit on a small 1,200 sq ft house dies. I have a warranty, and get service. Due to the manner of installation, the warranty company will only return $1,100 of the $4,400 cost. I appealed the decision. The inspection at purchase made no mention of any improper A/C installation, of course.

I was pretty angry about feeling taken, and have not/will not pay for one since. Much easier (and better discipline) to keep capex reserves...

I thought everyone was drunk and/or high on here...

@Sinil Kim Real estate is a very data intensive business.  Everyone probably likes something different, but two areas where real estate investors can benefit from information is marketing and financial modeling.

Developing a solution to compile lists of property data and property owner data by market with a bunch of user defined slices and dices would be valuable.  Just look at the question above about an e-mail address.  Hint, many jurisdictions sell their property tax rolls and these lists often include varying amounts of both data...

The other area is financial modeling.  Look at the calculator section of this site.  They have a number of different modeling solutions for readers.  The ability to review market data, comparable data, historical subject data, and model what ifs is also valuable to investors.

My thought would be to see how either of these two disciplines relate to your experience, and which might be something you could develop.

Good luck!

Depends how the turnkey is finished, as well.  We bought one turnkey with higher end finishes, stainless appliances, accent walls, etc.  It was a short term rental for many years and all of the touches really popped in the listing photos.  It's now a long term rental, and rented very quickly thanks to the FaceBook listing.  In the digital age where everything is photos if not video, any attention grabbing photos will help differentiate your property on the listing page vs. every other original and tract property...

@Sean Wilt, it is very frustrating, but keep in mind your low aggregate count.  You're clearly conscientious and probably run a meticulous property.  As such, it was probably bad luck of the draw, and you hit your four star before you had quite as many five stars to buffer.  It's a numbers game so just remember you now have many, many five star reviews in front of you since you got the four star out of the way so early...