All Forum Posts by: Gene Livingston

You could at least allow cats. Cats are more clean than humans generally.

 Guess I fail IQ test.

You're not over-thinking it. One thing I'll throw out there, since you might not know about it, and it could be different in my state, but you might want to research "Series LLC", not just LLC. Series LLC's allow you to hold many properties under one umbrella LLC....used when building a rental portfolio. BTW, you have a great skillset, I think you will do very well in this business.

You are right about this of course. I think just about everybody has no idea what they're doing for the first couple of deals. They will always ignore helpful advice and learn the hard way. That's just how it is. HML's WILL lend money to noobs tho, but they will be careful and offer higher interest rates. And those relationships are built over time, which a noob will obviously not have. '

I get the feeling that real estate course hawkers sell the idea of contract flipping as a way to overcome the objection of having no money to start. Actually DOING it is probably vary daunting for somebody who doesn't even understand a standard sales contract.

 I have an idea for you...buy a powerwashing rig. Charge $300 for house, and then have add-ons for driveway, carports, patios (maybe an extra $100 for each of those). Research detergent additives, as these make a big difference.

Powerwash rigs come in various configurations. You can start with the smaller ones, on wheels; then when you can drive, buy a truck and build your own powerwashing rig on a trailer. Buy the trailer cheap from Craigslist, but buy new washing equipment.

Market with flyers, door-knocking, real estate investor meetups, etc. Powerwashing a house is much quicker and cheaper than repainting, and often gives great results.

Hmm I see now "apartments only"... then maybe powerwash cars, buildings, etc.

The hard thing about a response to this question is that condos in one location are really different from condos in other places. For instance, in Florida resort areas (I assume) condos would perform well, I'm not in the Florida market. In my area (Dallas/Ft Worth/Waco/Austin) I dont generally like condos. The association fees are too high, and the appreciation is non-existent. With condos you REALLY have to understand how they behave in your area.

The cash flow game: In some places, investors own properties and intentionally have negative cash flow (california)..they are playing for the appreciation. In other areas, they play for cash flow and expect little to no appreciation. 

Starting out tho, and in general, I'd still say go for it...that's how I got started; I bought a condo package and lived in 1 unit for awhile. It's not a bad way to start, just don't expect great performance.

 I like the granite, but I like the BORING granite...not too much pattern, light in color as possible. Some of these crazy patterns I see I can't but think they'll be out of fashion earlier than desirable. I like Quartz, but in my experience they stain surprisingly easily. Heavy scrubbing does seem to remove the stain tho. If you like to cook Indian food like I do...Turmeric and Quartz do not mix well.

 Preach it brother. People LOVE to buy at the top...thankfully, because that's when I'm selling.