All Forum Posts by: Dee Schwarts

Thanks for your input.

Recently purchased a house and needed basement done.  Contractor says we owe 6k in addition to the 26k we already paid with cashiers checks for installing a door where an arch was, fixing a shower, fixing a bathtub, wiring a hot tub.  I realize it is arguable the market rate for these things and quite possible that the work is worth 6k (which is more than I would have wanted to pay) We paid the original 26k to have some framing, plumbing, electrical work done, and again it wasn't exactly clear what were paying for.  Yes I already know we are dumbasses you don't have to tell me again.  What I want to know is if the contractor puts a lien on the property if he was crooked could he say we didn't pay the 26k that we paid with cashiers checks plus the 6k?  Now if he does put a lien what recourse do we have being that we don't have any written contracts?  If he isn't licensed and didn't pull permits is there any way we can retaliate by reporting him to the city?  Also he bought some of the materials under his own name, so if we decide to cut him off (which I'd like to do) he could always say "well these are mine" and say we stole them is that correct?  Please advise.  Thanks.

Most people say HELOC, but assuming you can't do that you could try to get cash out on your auto, use secured and unsecured business credit cards. What you do is set up a holding company that is a separate LLC then rather than do cash advances you just do normal transactions. You want to do one that has a low monthly fee and a low fixed fee of under $1 per transaction. If you go with the ones that are 1-3% per transaction thats not really a good deal. There's prob other products out there if you just do some research. I haven't personally done this but Juan Pablo on youtube has used this method to get several units. If you can't get a commercial deal use this method to put 3% down on a residential deal or a 4 plex and do house hacking or vacation rental.

Next you can use the cashflow to get more residential properties. Once you have 4 residential properties you can get up to 100% LTV on equity lines of credit to fund your commerical deals.

Some people recommend selling your deals and doing the 1031 exchange.  Personally I'd rather just get equity out and continue to collect cashflow on the residential deals, pay off the equity lines and continue to get more deals etc.