All Forum Posts by: George C.

BTW, yes they do have quick connects with nat gas or use a union, yes you'd have a shut off with it. The size of the line you're tapping off and what other appliances it serves will have to figured to see if it's sufficient. Shouldn't be a big deal.

In a bad enough tornado where several homes in the local area are severely damaged and enough gas lines are ruptured, would you have natural gas pressure to run your generator? I'm not from the area, so I'm curious, but you should know that too before you invest in that. 

  Google or check Youtube for, "wood gas generator". Some pretty neat stuff you can throw together in a pinch to run any gasoline appliance.  

When 1 out of 4 girls & 1 out of 6 boys are sexually assaulted by their 18th birthday, there are a TON more sex offenders out there than what state websites show, because most are never caught & convicted.  Yes, you don't have to rent to known offenders (I wouldn't), but we're kidding ourselves when we think that, that's all we have to worry about, the people on those websites. It's disheartening to think, there's a pretty good chance you know, are friends with or even have as family an offender...They are all over.

  I've had only a couple of applicants ask about, "any sex offenders in the area?", I tell them to check the websites, I also add in the above paragraph...and a watch your kids around everyone.

Jean, " Perk" stands for, percolation test where holes are dug & water is timed as it leaches into the ground. In our area we don't do perk tests anymore, they do "soil logs" where they take measurements of the layers of earth, seasonal high water table and take samples from dug holes. We still call them perk tests for some reason though.

   There is sometimes a diamond in the rough that everyone else thought was unbuildable, that you *can* build on after you get it dirt cheap. I got one like that in 2008, it was worth $125K as buildable, but it was unbuildable as most thought and I got it for $19K, after speaking to the Engineer who got a failed perk 20 years earlier. He told me that there was a chance that a section of the property might perk & it did while I had it under contract.  That one was a home run.

Most likely they are unbuildable due to zoning, too small, sloped too steep, wetlands issues. There is usually a good reason, but worth looking into and learning about.

When I was 18 my boss told me that I'd need credit soon, that I should start by filling out applications for  a store card or two, Visa, M/C & Amex. He told me that I would get turned down by most, but one or two will accept, then the rest will follow with in a year. He was 100% accurate in that. Even when I bought my first new car, I was turned down by two car brands & dealers for not enough credit, as I was leaving the last one feeling down I pasted by a dealership that I didn't notice before that had a sale on leftover new pickups. I walked in there and got a MUCH better deal from them, and I guess that they needed to get rid of those trucks, they made sure I got the loan. They too initially asked for a co-signer, I told them I didn't have anyone who would, they then dropped that and I drove home in a brand new pickup.

  Most important is that once you get credit, do be careful with it, use it wisely or it will bite you in the butt and keep chewing for 7 years.

  BTW, Amex is the first major card that accepted me with 0 credit, I was a 19 y/o walking around with a Amex Gold card back then, that was a rarity back then. I still keep that card.

I wouldn't take an assessors' word for square footage, I've seen some pretty big mistakes in, or lots of blanks in property records. The average house is easily walked off with your own feet, no measuring tape needed for a pretty close estimate of square footage. If your gut is telling you they are lying, I would measure it myself.

I like the idea of using a business name, mostly for anonymity when your dealing with rentals / evictions, even selling new or resale homes. No one needs to know me or about me. You could make up & register something like "Texas Realty Group", it's easy to remember, makes you sound bigger with "group" in the name. I have a last name that people stumble on too. I use a business name and also only give out part of my last name when dealing with people in business, like George Bar, instead of Barrington. I sign leases with that as well, it's like an abbreviation. Using the abbreviation makes it hard for people to find you on line, your personal facebook (which is locked down anyway), or even your posts on sites like here on BP.

You don't have to do anything bad or wrong to get people to have an axe to grind with you. I've evicted plenty of rotten inherited tenants over 20+ years. I've also had a kook come around my personal home taking pictures of my home & things because of a home that I sold them (they altered it and had problems later) as they threatened to sue me which never happened. This happened seven years ago and since then I changed how I deal with being known.

When you start getting successful and have that nice big fancy house, cars maybe a big boat, travel trailer all on your compound, Jealousy can throw people on the fence of rational behavior overboard after they find out you're "rich".

I wouldn't buy it without 100% knowing it was done right with a closed out permit. I've seen leaks where the flow crossed under a street and continued two houses down. They had dug holes at those homes too and you could see oil in the dirt there. I can't even imagine how much that cost to clean up. I hate oil heat all together, possible leaks are just the cherry on top.