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All Forum Posts by: Greg G.

Greg G. has started 5 posts and replied 42 times.

Post: Mortgage Broker & Real Estate Broker recommendations - Michiana

Greg G.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Southwest Michigan
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 43

I'm relocating back to the Michiana area and would love recommendations for a RE savvy Mortgage & Real Estate broker/agent.  Down the road, I'd also welcome contractor recommendations.  I'd also like to connect with anyone doing Airbnb in the area successfully. 

I look forward to hearing from you!

Post: A Urinal

Greg G.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Southwest Michigan
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 43

Mitch, that one got me. Too funny!

wheelhouse - It's kind of reassuring for me as well. After years of using public restrooms with urinals, the lightbulb comes on, I've never seen one in a home before. No issues about the seat being left up, it's all good.

Vikram/Charles - I agree, it actually could work when selling into the right market and it definately would be memorable. Maybe not for all the right reasons.... For instance, 10+ yrs ago while my wife and I were shopping for our first home together, we visited a house that had 3 very memorable traits:

1) The attached garage had been converted to a gigantic living room/man cave with the biggest TV I'd seen at the time, several couches, a pool table, dart board, foosball table, and a huge wood burning fireplace. The owner was laying on one of the couches watching a football game during our showing! :)

2) On the walls going up the stair way to the 2nd floor they had taken broken glass and embedded them into a layer of mortar in the walls. Bizarre and dangerous!

3) The owner had left a big ole #2 in upstairs bathroom.

Like I said, it definately left an impression!

Post: A Urinal

Greg G.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Southwest Michigan
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 43

I should have added a smiley face to let you know I'm mostly joking about the idea of adding a urinal to a rental.

Andy, I'm sure it brought a smile to your face to be in the slums and walk in on a bidet. What were they thinking?!

Mark, you've actually put a urinal in for for someone! That's great. About how much would you guess it would cost for a DIY urinal?

Post: A Urinal

Greg G.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Southwest Michigan
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 43

I always thought it would be cool to install a urinal in my house. Quite the status symbol, I know. I've also thought that a urinal would be a pretty cool signature piece to put in rentals or flips, (though likely targeting the wrong sex). It's the ladies that like the bathrooms and kitchen's, right?

Anyone ever installed one? About how much does it cost?

PS - What's the most unique feature you've seen in house? That you've wanted to put in a house or actually did put in a house?

Please share!

Post: The Chupacabra - Does it exist?

Greg G.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Southwest Michigan
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 43

Bill,

Thanks for the insight. That makes sense.

You mentioned banks start writing down values after 12 in your reply. Are you saying after midnight, lunch time, 12 months? :)

Post: This sucks. We're # 11, or worse.

Greg G.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Southwest Michigan
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 43

Sam, that reminds me of a conversation a friend of mine had with the head of a local school district over lunch earlier this year. They were talking about the bad wrap that the schools get from the community when students do crazy things like Columbine. I thought he made a great point when he said that the last time he checked, none of his schools sold guns, knives, drugs, etc.... Basically parents/communities get outraged and misplace their anger on the schools. The problem is in the home, imo.

I loved the response by an earlier poster who took the next logical step from identifying a problem and is taking action to fix it. Kudo's to you. I try to do my part by mentoring teenage boys at a correctional facility each week.

Post: The Chupacabra - Does it exist?

Greg G.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Southwest Michigan
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 43

Who would know about these types of deals and be a source of leads?

As an add-on to my original post, the investor from BP that mentioned these types of scenario's said that his deals tend to be in smaller metropolitan area's on the outskirts of major metropolitan areas. I suppose the large markets like Houston will get a lot of attention from buyers, where as smaller markets like Beaumont, outside of Houston, will get less attention from buyers.

So are these deals real? Or are they imaginary like the Chupacabra and the Snipe?

Post: Seasoning a Note: Reporting Seller Financed loan to buyers credit

Greg G.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Southwest Michigan
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 43

Randal,

If you want the mortgage payments your buyers make to impact their credit score, you'll have to take the initiative and call one of the 3 credit bureau's and report the payments each month. An alternative is to use a loan servicing company and they'll do that for you.

If you just want proof of payments, make sure your borrower is paying with a check, so that the payments can be verified on bank statements when it's time to refi.

Hope that helps.

Post: This sucks. We're # 11, or worse.

Greg G.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Southwest Michigan
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 43

I'd say we have less of an education problem and more of a lack of parents instilling/modeling a love of learning with their children, along with a government that's determined not to let anything fail.

There's a great book called "Better Late then Early" that goes thru a myriad of data and scientific studies that outline all the damaging effects a child incurs when they are placed in a public school/day care setting at such young ages. As the name of the book suggests, a child will benefit the most when entering these types of social environments at an older age, 12+, then earlier. The author contends and the data supports that a child's top needs during the 1st 12 years of life are a sense of "belonging" to the family and developing a love for learning (figuring things out). When a child is outside of their home and isn't able to follow their individiual interests, you lose the 2 most important elements of childhood for later success. Most parents fear that their child will fall behind other kids, but the stats tell a completely different story. Children will teach themselves, in a household where learning is encouraged, and ultimately outpace those placed in a traditional school setting. But making the decision to keep your kids out of school until later and home with you, generally brings a difficult choice between lifestyle and your childs best interests. We're also marketed into believing that there is an "expert" or "curriculum" out there that will be able to do a better job teaching/raising your kids than you can.

My paradigm on self-taught/home-schooling families was crushed when I moved to Texas from Michigan/Ohio. I thought the home-school kids would be little anti-social weirdo's, turns out quite the opposite!

In short, you can balance budgets a lot easier when you don't have to fund public education/infrastructure and the people/country/economy will be all the better for it.

Post: The Chupacabra - Does it exist?

Greg G.Posted
  • Rental Property Investor
  • Southwest Michigan
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 43

Spoiler Alert!

If you are a boy scout, please don't read any further:

A snipe hunt is a rite of passage for a young man's first camping trip. Basically the older guys equip the newbies with a trash bag and a stick. The young guys are briefed that a snipe is a pretty mean animal that lives in the trees. You hunt snipe by hitting your stick on the side of the tree while holding your garbage bag at the base, so the snipe will run out of the tree and into your bag. The newbies are pretty petrified at this point, (ask me how I know, this was a couple decades ago for me!). The newbies fall in line behind a leader that carries that groups flashlight and leads them deep into the forest. You make it to a tree, put down the bag, start hitting the tree, and the leader cuts out the light, ruffles the garbage bags, yells bloody murder, and runs back to camp.... then you wait to see which newbie makes it back to the camp last. Lots of fun!

Jimmy, keep us posted on details as you walk thru the deal.