All Forum Posts by: Fred Engh

Replace the one window. You may have to special order if it's an oddball size. 

Why fix what isn't broke? I would not replace the other windows with a tenant already in place. 

You say you don't want to replace the window and it not fix the problem (I agree). What else could it be? If the roof leaked, there would be evidence of water coming from the ceiling or on the drywall. 

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I'm guessing it's the obvious though. 

Your solutions suggest they are mutually exclusive. I would start with the police claim and go from there (including the tenant's property). 

Not apples to apples but:

Police chase claim brings mediation

The injury claim involved a man named Derek Guindon.

Guidon was returning home from a weeklong job out of town with a coworker, Jade Thie, on March 1, 2012, when their Midwestern Mechanical van was struck by a Chevy Suburban driven by 19-year-old Kyle Jones.

The chase continued for more than two miles along North Cliff Avenue and reached speeds of up to 80 miles an hour.

Thie was killed when the Suburban struck the van at Cliff’s intersection with 60th Street North.

Guindon was seriously injured. Jones was later sentenced to 50 years in prison for manslaughter and eluding a police officer.

After the incident, Guindon filed a liability claim against the city of Sioux Falls and the Sioux Falls Police Department.

More: Disputes over damage can rage for years

No formal complaint was written, but “it arose out of a high-speed chase, and there were issues about whether it should have been called off,” said Mike Schaffer, the lawyer who represented him.

The city reached a settlement more than two years later that saw a $125,000 payment but saw no acceptance of responsibility for Guindon’s injuries.

Mayor Mike Huether’s signature appears on the previously sealed document, but the city didn’t handle the case directly. Instead, it was handed off to the South Dakota Public Assurance Alliance, which acts an insurer for cities, counties and municipalities.

Sioux Falls lawyer Bill Fuller handled the negotiations. The city did not agree with the allegation that the pursuit was mishandled, Fuller said, but “that was the argument that we considered, along with everything else."

Normally, those injured in the course of a law enforcement action are obliged to collect restitution from the criminal defendant, but the city ultimately agreed that the Guindon claim was different.

“We’ve got a truly innocent victim here who didn’t have the ability to pay,” said Assistant City Attorney Keith Allenstein.

I'll state the obvious: cap rate. 

Then I would look at their CapEx & Vacancy numbers to see if their numbers were accurate.

I'm guessing this occurs less often in a big complex (as opposed to SFH): undermarket rents.

@Jay Hinrichs I'm from Vancouver. I've done the Vancouver to Omak trip more than a few times, I haven't flown out of Omak yet. Wenatchee is 2 hours and Spokane is 3 hours, so you really don't save that much time flying out of those 2 places. 

@Jack B. Some of those remind me of the Buying Alaska show on The Discovery Channel where it's pretty common to have an outhouse and be off the grid. 

I was unsure if you were talking about living in your property or looking for investment property anywhere in Washington. Yes, Aberdeen is a good area to look into as well. 

My thoughts:

http://www.ssdi-search.com/  I just checked. So-so. I don't know how up to date this is, but it is free (they had something in there for paid). 

If you don't have luck there or another free site you may want to contact vital records. Vital records, within the Public Health issues death certificates for Broward County. 

http://broward.floridahealth.gov/certificates/deat...

They charge a fee, but it's money well spent if you think it is a good lead. I always try to find free information first. 

@Aaron Kinney I agree there are costs with running a licensed business, but I disagree that the figure is so astronomical that it should not be considered.

I will throw a figure out for a contractor's license (although I don't know if he'd need a GC license to run in-house projects): $1,000 a month going out the door before you do one job. 

Ballpark for workman's comp on a construction worker: $6 - $8 per hour (this is a guesstimate). Again, if you're paying $25 per hour (out the door) for an employee, your contractor is charging you $50 per hour then my math says you break even if your 40 hour employee is working 20 hours towards a project. After that, you start saving money (assuming he has similar skill competencies). 

If you are doing 2 - 4 projects at a time and you have a project manager to supervisor, the question you should be asking is: why would you not consider hiring your own guys?

@Greg Dickerson I agree he should not be micro managing small projects, but he does have a project manager he could more fully utilize. 

Social security death database lists people who have died. There are a lot of other companies that have the database in their website, but I have had issues with it (it was out of date, I ran tests of people I knew were dead and weren't listed). 

It is not uncommon to leave the house in someone's name and just keep paying the bills.

If there is an estate, it's likely that there is a Personal Representative assigned to handle their affairs. It being about to foreclose, this may not be applicable in your situation.

Have you sent a letter? Are you trying to buy it before it is foreclosed on? Are you close to the property and can you visit? Talk to the neighbors (they're frequently a wealth of information).

I was thinking the same thing  @Greg Lemmon mentioned: plan for longer holding time. 

Details would be helpful. How much do you think he wants for it? How much do you think it's worth? 

Finding help can be difficult in rural areas as well.

They'll probably offer you less than you paid!

*You need to put together a buyer's list (people you can wholesale the property to). 

*Network

*Go to real estate investor clubs to meet other flippers. Start asking them what they're looking for (a flip or a rental). Ask them if you can contact them with an off market deal. If they are an investor, they'll always take you up on the offer to check out a deal. 

*Build credibility with your investors by knowing your numbers. Yes, paint a rosy picture of the scope of work and comps, but be accurate and forthright. They may not buy that deal, but they could buy the next. If you give them unrealistic numbers, they may take you as a joke and not even consider future deals.

I'm not sure how big of a city you're in, but when you start researching properties (I'm in a small town), you start seeing names repeated on different houses. They are active in the real estate market.

One guy bought (I should use the term stole as they were super cheap) 4 houses during the past 2 years. I wrote him a yellow letter to see if he wanted to sell any. I also added I would be interested in talking to him, just to meet another investor in the area that I could potentially network with or flip deals to or from. 

I live in Omak. 

The good: you can buy a $50k house that rents for $600 - $700 (which is, for the most part, better than western Washington on a cap rate or price/rent ratio). There are not a lot of vacancies. 

The bad: higher unemployment. Very small town (5,000 people. 40k in a sprawling county). Harder to price comps so you have to understand differences between properties.