All Forum Posts by: Kenneth LaVoie

Burning now. (PS, I can't imagine how anyone could possibly be "caught" if notes are subpoena'd. Who would know you had them?) But I get the gist (Did I see you wink??)

It does absolutely enrage me when I hear stories like you just mentioned re the Venezuelan. I ALWAYS ask people where they're from when they have an accent because I am learning Spanish so I always look for opportunities to practice. (That would probably be my plausible "out" if I ever was in a similar situation) It's these very laws and penalties that keep us closed off from one another, you know? 

I'm sure you're right. I'm not sure I want to spend the $35 my lawyer would charge to answer the question, so it's probably not important enough to stress over. My only thought was to remind me of a narrative that I used to decide NOT to follow up with a particular prospect, or something like that (ie. noticed he was 12 minutes late to showing, never called to give heads up, sounded like I woke her up when I called at 9, dog barking, eating potato chips while on phone with me, etc.)

My wife is our "leasing agent" and has these very organized notebooks where she takes notes about prospects during phone calls, and to take with her for showings. She just dumped 4 big notebooks on my desk starting in 2014 and asked me to "file them" if need be. How long might we hold onto something like this? I mean the only reason I can think of is that it creates a breadcrumb trail for actions in the event of a discrimination claim. Any thoughts, qualified or not, are welcome!

Winslow Maine here, 7 units in Winslow, 22 in Waterville (5 buildings total) www.sangelproperties.com - 

I'm struggling with the same thing. I can already do some basic carpentry, but gosh I'd love to be able to do plumbing. I'd probably retire 10 years earlier if I could learn plumbing AND heating!  But honestly, I'd say practice on EMPTY apartments or common areas first. If you don't know what you're doing, chances are it will make you SUPER nervous to have someone nearby, and you want to be able to swear and throw a tool once in a while!

I left my band to be a "householder" when I was younger, but now that RE gives me so much free time, I've setup a solo acoustic guitar / singing act. My website: www.kenlavoie.com - not much activity except practice right now, and I don't need the money so I'm trying not to market myself too agressively because the guys that do it REALLY need the $100 they get each night. 

Boy what a lot of great answers. There are so many ways to approach this. I've actually created a file called "Sell or Keep Forever" so that I don't have to rethink everything. 

1. We've gotten rid of all our lesser performing properties, 3 singles and a duplex 

2. We sold an 11 unit for annualized 37% CAGR or IRR per year over 7 years of ownership.

3. We ALMOST sold a 7 unit but it was going to cost around 80K in ACA payback, dep. recapture and cap gain so backed out. Sticking with 5 buildings consisting of 29 units giving us approx 90-120K cash flow per year. 

4. I LOVE the idea of some day seller financing a building or two. ESPECIALLY when we hit 60, we can do a 20 year seller financed 5-10% down and really have a nice annuity payment. 

5. It really does NOT take much time or energy to manage our buildings as we've been managing these same properties since 2010, year after year. Wife does the leasing, I do the paperwork, our contractors do everything maint. related. I do lots of tasky stuff like hedge trimming, bark mulch, pruning, cobweb removal, stuff that I can do without being tied up all day on a place, but still saves a few grand a year. 

Thank you all. Best of luck to you all!

Love to! Actually I was one of the first contributors to BP's first "book" called Real Estate Rewind. I then went on to write a book called Real Estate Rebel - www.re-rebel.com - I'm 54, started 11 years ago. A buy and hold multi family investor. Accumulated 53 units, lived of income from landscaping business putting all RE earnings back in, forced appreciation, started selling off first acquired properties making a 7 year CAGR of 32% yoy, going from 53 units to 29 while keeping cash flow the same due to retiring extra mortgages with each sale (i.e. use profit from sale of building 1 & 2 to pay off mortgages on retained properties 3 & 4). Probably sitting tight and holding the 29 forever. 

@Chris Seveney - Sounds like GREAT advice!

What a great bunch of helpful answers. Keeping my momentum up...Paper Profits on it's way, and I'll take a couple of ganders at the links you've all sent over. Thanks again.