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All Forum Posts by: Dominic Mazzarella

Dominic Mazzarella has started 7 posts and replied 267 times.

Quote from @Emily Carter:

Hello everyone,

I recently inherited a home from a relative, and I'm grateful, but also feeling a little overwhelmed. The property needs some work, and I don't live nearby - managing repairs and listings isn't ideal for me right now.

Has anyone here gone through the process of selling an inherited home quickly and easily? Especially without a lengthy traditional selling process or lots of paperwork?

I’ve been researching a few options, and I came across this site: https://www.xlncexotic.com/sell-my-house-fast-san-diego

They help people in situations like mine - inherited property, probate, even houses in need of repairs. I just want to know if anyone has used such services and how it went.

Appreciate any tips or experiences shared. 🙏


In California, inherited properties often have to go through probate unless there’s a trust in place, so a big factor is whether title has already been legally transferred to your name. If it hasn’t, you may need to go through a simplified probate process (there’s a small estate affidavit option in CA if the property is under a certain value).

If you’re looking to avoid traditional showings and repairs, working with a local investor or cash buyer can definitely speed things up, but always verify they’re legit, some services are better than others. A real estate attorney or a probate-specialized agent in San Diego could also help make sure you’re protected and that the process goes smoothly without dragging on or getting legally messy. 

Post: Only Getting 30–40% Pickup on Warm Leads — Is That Normal?

Dominic MazzarellaPosted
  • Investor
  • Hendersonville, NC
  • Posts 280
  • Votes 183
Quote from @George Punnen:

Hey folks — I recently got into wholesaling and have been doing a bunch of cold calling over the past few months. I’ve been tracking some basic metrics across my operation and I wanted to sanity-check something with the community.

I’ve read a bunch of posts and research on cold calling, and it seems like a 3–6% pickup rate on cold leads is fairly standard. That aligns with what I’m seeing, so no surprises there — but curious if anyone’s cracked that number.

What I’m more curious about is warm lead pickup rates — specifically, when a seller replies to a text message campaign saying they’re interested in an offer, and then I try calling them. I’m currently seeing a 30–40% answer rate on those calls.

Is that in line with what others are seeing? Or am I doing something wrong?


Honestly, 30–40% pickup on warm leads isn’t bad at all, especially in today’s market where people are bombarded with spam calls and texts constantly. That’s actually about in line with what I’ve seen and heard from others who are running SMS → phone call funnels

One thing that might help is tweaking your follow-up timing. Try calling within a few minutes of their response while the interest is still fresh, sometimes that alone bumps it closer to 50–60%. You could also test double-tapping (calling twice in a row) or leaving a voicemail + follow-up text if they don’t answer.

At the end of the day, not every warm lead is truly warm. Some folks get cold feet or were just curious. But your numbers aren’t out of the ordinary from what I’ve seen. 



Post: Background check found something

Dominic MazzarellaPosted
  • Investor
  • Hendersonville, NC
  • Posts 280
  • Votes 183
Quote from @Rachel Seymour-Newton:

Hi everyone,

So I just got my first application from a couple with a kid for my rental and the background check shows that the male that applied has a felony from 2021 (stealing a firearm). At the time he would have been 20 and he now has a child and a wife. Everything else on the application looked great and I met them in person and liked them a lot. Would you accept their application and let them live in your rental or wait for someone else?


Without knowing them I’d say be cautious and pass. But it is nice to help someone who’s turning things around too. What are their credit scores? Full time jobs, etc?

Post: Wife and I are very close to purchasing our first STR!

Dominic MazzarellaPosted
  • Investor
  • Hendersonville, NC
  • Posts 280
  • Votes 183
Quote from @Collin Perry:

Hi everyone!

My wife and I have built up some significant savings and are highly interested and excited to purchase our first STR in the near future.
We enjoy the pan-handle of Florida as well as the Southwest coast (Cape Coral, Ft Myers, Naples).  We would be open to other East coast beach destinations as well.

Our goal is to be able to visit the property a few weeks and rent it out other parts of the year.

We have a few criteria that would be preferred:

- Single family home

- within a golf cart drive to the beach

- private pool

- $350-500k

It would be great to build some relationships in this community to learn about some opportunities in the market!


Thanks,
Collin 


I come from that area and know how expensive things can be. Are you finding a lot of properties that meet your criteria within your price range? A golf cart ride to the beach for 500k seems like a stretch. 

Post: Rental Management Company Refuses To Pay Rental Proceeds

Dominic MazzarellaPosted
  • Investor
  • Hendersonville, NC
  • Posts 280
  • Votes 183
Quote from @Will Dyer:

While living abroad for several years, I contracted with a large vacation rental management company to manage my rental property. As I was living out of the country, I set up 'auto-pay' for regular bills, and alerts on bank accounts to keep abreast of any excessive dips in balances or unusual activity in general. After a while I grew to trust this company and began paying less attention to rental income summaries than I should have. I began getting alerts for balances below my established limit and notices of 'insufficient funds' on various monthly service bills. A more thorough look through the annual performance summaries ultimately revealed that, despite the appearance of all things being 'business as usual' - it was NOT.

Under all the usual categories of occupancy, unit activity, net rent, expenses, beginning balance, ending balances, etc., etc., everything on earnings statements appeared normal, as usual. Under the long overlooked category of 'payments' (the category where it displays payment/s ACTUALLY deposited in the designated, mutually-agreed-upon account), I discovered a prolonged period with 'payments' of $0.00. Moreover, I was blown away to find that - with no announcement or explanation whatsoever - this has been taking place from the start of fiscal year 2024 until present ALL rental proceeds earned have been withheld by this company. Meanwhile, bookings well into the busy season continue to be made.

I have NO IDEA how to play this 'game'. I'm hoping for any savvy legal minds out there to help with ideas as to what my next move should be. Ideally, it could be possible to resolve by way of a well worded warning of legal and/or monetary repercussion(?). Thank you!


Everything you said sounds like this is all based on what you saw. Have the asked the company about this? What did they say? This is a pretty important piece of the puzzle.

Post: Private lend analysis

Dominic MazzarellaPosted
  • Investor
  • Hendersonville, NC
  • Posts 280
  • Votes 183
Quote from @Sean Osborne:

@Dominic Mazzarella  I think so as well. My only concern is the borrower has no skin in the game 


 Would be nice for the cross collateral on the first one. A personal guarantee is also pretty powerful. I don't ever give them because they're a really big deal. Also, my wife would kill me.

Post: Special tenants for higher rent

Dominic MazzarellaPosted
  • Investor
  • Hendersonville, NC
  • Posts 280
  • Votes 183
Quote from @Rick Im:

I have a 4-bed, 3-bath single-family home available for rent. One prospective applicant is a professional caregiver responsible for three adults with intellectual disabilities. During the showing, she mentioned that her contract prohibits her from disclosing personal information about her clients, including their names and Social Security numbers.

I'm considering accepting her application but charging higher rent—for instance, an additional $200 per client—to account for the additional risk and lack of standard tenant screening information.

I'd appreciate input from the community on a few questions:

  1. Fair Housing & Rent Adjustment: My understanding is that adjusting the rent in this case is not considered discriminatory, since the applicant cannot provide essential screening information and I would be assuming greater risk as a landlord. Is this interpretation correct?

  2. Legal Risk & Liability: Since the three clients would not be listed on the lease, what legal risks or liabilities might I face if I allow them to reside in the home? Are there ways to mitigate these by adding special clause to the lease?

  3. Tenant Selection Strategy: Would you proceed with this arrangement, or would you prefer to wait for a more conventional applicant to avoid the complexities?

Thanks in advance for your insights.

Rick


You should absolutely talk to a local attorney about this one. What your suggesting sounds like it could be illegal, but you’ll want professional advice before doing anything Iike that. 

Post: Private lend analysis

Dominic MazzarellaPosted
  • Investor
  • Hendersonville, NC
  • Posts 280
  • Votes 183
Quote from @Sean Osborne:

Hey guys, need some insight.

I’ve got two private loan deals on the table. The first is for a property in Hamilton being purchased for $254K—he’s asking for a $250K first mortgage. He’s a broker with other properties in the area valued around $340K and the current owner had a $330K appraisal last year on the subject property. I have a conservative appraiser from Schindler going in who does appraisals for the banks. If the value holds, I’ll likely do the loan at 11–11.5% interest with a 2–2.5% lender fee. The property is held in his corp, but I’ll get a personal guarantee, and if appraisal value is lower than expected , I’ll ask for cross-collateral or reduce amount loaned out. I also think to myself with this deal Worst case, I’d foreclose and offer to buy the property back at my loan amount for 250k. Since I’m about 600k liquid right now. Then I could just hold it until it appreciates.

The second deal is with my real estate broker—he’s asking for $300K as a second mortgage on a construction property in Pickering that’s about 70% complete. RBC holds the $1M first mortgage, and comps are around $2.5M. I told him I’d only consider it if he adds cross-collateral as the market is a bit risky and the property is u see construction. He hesitantly offered another property that just closed for $1.3M with 20% down that he uses for his office. If he allows me to use both properties, I’d lend at 11% annual interest with a 3% renewal fee after one year. His exit strategy is to refinance next year and pay my 300k back.

Which deal makes more sense?

The other person is my personal broker

From what you’ve shared, the first deal sounds more solid to me, better equity cushion based on comps and appraisal history, plus a fallback plan you seem comfortable with (foreclose/buy and hold). I like that you’re getting a personal guarantee and being cautious with valuation.

The second one feels shakier, especially with the construction risk and that $1M first. Even with cross-collateral, your exposure is higher if anything stalls or values dip. If you move forward on that, I’d definitely want the other property fully locked in as collateral and make sure that office-use piece isn’t overvalued.


Post: Should I purchase a non cash flowing duplex?

Dominic MazzarellaPosted
  • Investor
  • Hendersonville, NC
  • Posts 280
  • Votes 183
Quote from @Antuan C.:

Hello,

I have been thinking on buying a duplex in putting 5% down, it will be cash flowing -$300-$400/month (negative)

Right now prices are thru the roof and I found a nice duplex for significantly lower than the rest of the market and even so it doesn’t cashflow with the amount of downpayment im giving.

I have been thinking on using the cashflow from the other one to cover it while I wait for interests to come down and refinance.

Even if I didn’t have the other duplex, I could cover the cost out of pocket.

For context, all the other duplexes in the area are going for at least $100k more.

I appreciate your input.


If you’re buying a place that’s well below market and you’re comfortable covering the negative cash flow for a while, either through another property or out of pocket, it could actually be a solid long-term play. Especially if you believe interest rates will come down and you can refinance later to improve your position.

The key thing is having a strong exit or stabilization plan. Make sure you’re not stretching too thin and that you’ve got a decent cash cushion. If you can weather the short-term dip for a good long-term equity play, it might be worth it. Just don’t bank on refinancing alone to save the deal, always good to have backup options too.

One of the most profitable deals I ever took was negative cash flowing for a couple months but I had a solid plan and it all worked it. The thing is, it’s riskier, so I wouldn’t make it a habit to do this very often. 

Post: Finding a duplex to house hack with FHA

Dominic MazzarellaPosted
  • Investor
  • Hendersonville, NC
  • Posts 280
  • Votes 183
Quote from @Benoni Cole:

I am having the hardest time finding a duplex to house hack in the Allentown Lehigh Valley area. I made the decision to get into investing by starting out with a house hack but I only qualify for FHA financing due to having fair, but not bad credit and a higher debt to income ratio. I paid what little remained of my car loan off to help my DTI but it was not enough to move the needle too much and I cannot pay off or down anymore debt. As it stands I qualify about a 275k mortgage and what I am finding is that most of the duplexes in my area are around 300-325k. The ones in my price range either go so fast you don't have time to react (cash deals, hard money investors )or they don't take FHA financing so I'm forced to either try to convince them or sit on the sidelines while it gets sold elsewhere. I've started pitching the fact that I would be willing to do a 203k loan with the financing so the seller doesn't have to worry much about post inspection repairs but that's something new I've started doing. I've also started shifting my focus from just looking MLS to looking for off market deals via real estate groups on facebook and sending "interest to buy" letters people that have purchased a duplex within the last 5 years based on Redfin data I can utilize. Does anyone have any other suggestions or strategies on how to create buying opportunities for a small multi family with FHA financing? I've been at this for about a month and a half. I've only had 1 showing and 1 open house visit.


This market is tough for FHA buyers, so it's not just you. One thing you might try is reaching out directly to landlords or owners who've held for a while but may be tired of managing. Even if they're not listed for sale, sometimes a well written letter or a genuine conversation can create an opportunity. You could also consider small multi-family owners who may be looking to 1031 into something else. Stay persistent, deals do happen, but they usually go to the ones who outwork everyone else.