All Forum Posts by: Daniel Gutowski

I have a client that has numerous investment properties of which 9 have mortgages. The properties all have plenty of equity. He is free and clear on a property in IN and wants to get his 10th mortgage to pay off some higher interest debt. Please call if you have a lender and have had success with this senario recently. Credit score is over 730. What are the options these days?
Dan

Seth: You never finished your thought.....

I had to look that one up in the rules for use of Craigslist. Here is what it states:

Can I post my ad on more than one craigslist site?
Please choose just ONE craigslist site for which your ad is most relevant - this should generally be the site closest to where you are located. If your ad is equally relevant to all locations, your ad does not belong on local craigslist sites at all, please find another service.

Posting the same ad to multiple locations is considered spamming, and is prohibited.

How often can I post?
You may post to one category and in one city, no more often than about every 48 hours.

If you are submitting a post that is similar to another currently active post of yours on the site, you will get a blocked message. Removing the active post will allow you to post the new ad, unless the active post is less than 48 hours old.

I purchased and used his system which is pretty innovative yet basic. His system is based around getting lines of credit, credit cards, to fund business ventures. He advocates doing draws on the credit cards, depositing it in your bank account to season the money, and to make payments just over the min. so the lines can be increased every 6 months. After 3 to 4 month you pay off the credit cards with the seasoned funds. The more credit you have that is exercised wisely will allow you to raise your credit score. He does not mention this but I personally love my personal Home Depot credit card. On purchases over $300 you are not charged interest for 6 to 12 months and only have to do min payments which go direcly to the principle. Just make sure to pay the balance before the interest free period expires. It is a nice way to finance light fixers as long as you can get a decent credit line. You can still purchase the program but this is it in a nut shell.

I invest a lot in Indianapolis for cash flowing properties. One strategy that I do since I'm an out of town investor is to call the local police department to pull the police reports for the last 6 months. Neighborhoods can change within a couple blocks. Some crime is ok but areas with aggrivated assult crimes and breakins I try to stay away from them. The Indianapolis police department use to maintain a web site with all the crime statistics but they stopped updating it 6 months ago. Here is a good resource: http://www.focusindy.com. This web site lists all the redevelopment areas of the CDC. Investing in the redevelopment areas can give you a nice return as long as the area is also being revitilized with private funds. If you are looking for multiunits I can suggest one apartment on 38th street along the corridor where the City invested 28 million and a lot of rehabbing is currently taking place.

Try listing them on loopnet.com. You should get a decent amount of traffic.

You will have to create a new add for each city where you wish to post. This is technically not spamming which since each add is different. It is time consuming.

I recommend that you have the owner get a Home Depot personal credit card for the max amount they can obtain. Any purchase over $300 is interest free for 6 to 12 months. This should help in getting interest free funds available for materials. I have even done whole jobs on the Home Depot credit card for up to 15K and only had to do the minimum payments until the properties were sold or refinanced. If at all possible do not install copper again. I used PEX on my last job and liked the results. Just make sure to have home runs installed so it will reduce the possible leaks. As Wheatie said get multiple bids. It does not pay to do slow work as it will give people time to break into the property again. Invest in steal frame door jambs and install motion sensing lights on the front and rear of the property. Start with the easiest unit, rent it and then start on the next unit. Good luck!

If the tile is nice why spend the money to lay hard wood flooring. It seems that this would burn money that could be put elsewhere. If it is broken try and fix it before spending time and money to replacing it..

Here is a funny one for you from Craigslist from a renter that inquired about one properties that was available. He said he was a medical student and his email name came through as Deep Kum. I called him a scammer and he was rather offended. When we meet him at the property it turns out he was indeed a medical student from India and his email name was short for Deepak Kumar.