All Forum Posts by: David Schwalb

Well, just got a new one for the top of the list.

About an hour ago, I got a phone call from a town police department. The officer who logged the complaint said that a hysterical woman came in to the office near tears regarding my letter. He called me and we discussed the letter and it's obviously been taken care of. However, in Massachusetts at least, if you send a "personal" letter, the officer couldn't define what that was, to a person they can request that you stop. If you send another letter, that's a criminal act.

I asked about typical junk mail and he didn't have any answers. In any case, I'm not going to stop my direct mail program, but I am going to try to figure out how to make my letters non-personal. Dear Homeowner...? Speak in the third person?

I've heard that people like to save emails, letters, voice mails etc from angry responders. Unfortunately, my plan is to answer the phone live for as long as I can, but I've got an empty folder on my desktop ready and waiting.

Hi Renee,

Welcome to BP from another new investor. Although I've been in Mass for a while now, I grew up in Candia NH. Good luck with rural investing!

I had my first angry call this morning from a mailing I did. I know I should expect them from time to time, and it's not a big deal, but I did learn something. If I want to learn how to swear, peal the paint off the walls kind of swearing, I need to learn Russian.

An engineer is only necessary if that wall is even structural of course. I've removed 4 walls in my private residences or rehab and since none of them have been structural, no big deal.

I am a new wholesaler as well and my plan was to share my numbers with my buyers. They will know that I'm new and will obviously do their own numbers, but I would hope that they would point out mistakes or things that I've overlooked.

If I've completely overlooked something, they will call me on it and I'll learn something new. It's also in the experienced buyers interest for me to get better because as I improve, they will have a better source of deals.

Hi Cindy and congrats.

I'm new as well, but I'm learning as much as I can possibly absorb by reading the materials here and talking with people at some of the many active REIA's in the Boston area. The next one I know about is next Tuesday the 18th in Shrewsbury, that's organized by @Ann Bellamy .

Hi Christopher,

I lived in Worcester for 8 years during college and grad school and as I'm sure you have already noted, it has a huge variation in quality of neighborhood. I'd be sure to learn about these.

Good luck

The two times I've been told they need to inspect, they knew it was a basement tank. If Shaun has had experience that they don't always inspect, my experiences may have been the exception.

I'm not 100% certain about this, but I don't think oil providers will deliver if they haven't inspected the tank. It's a liability issue stemming from instances when providers filled a basement with hundreds of gallons of fuel oil. That may be a hindrance to your tenants to go rogue.