All Forum Posts by: Ibrahim Yamini

I feel like I just passed the hardest written test of my life, it was excruciating but I'm excited to begin this new chapter of my life.

does anyone have advice on what "REALTOR" organization in AZ I should join? 

And any advice on next steps?

I finally decided that I want to be a real estate appraiser, but I wanted to get my real estate license before anything else. 

Do any of you have recommendations for decent Real Estate Schools in Arizona?

Online classes are preferred but any in person classes would need to be near the Phoenix area.

Any advice would be helpful, thank you

I love rentometer.com but you do have to pay for it.  I personally think it’s worth it but you have to take their price recommendations with a grain of salt.  Also, when making posts like this, don’t forget to include how many rooms and bathrooms!

Me and my wife are having a disagreement.  We currently live in a 4 bedroom 2800 sq ft house and my nephew, who will be 21 this summer lives with us.

After he graduated high school, I told him that he would have to go to work or get a job and he would have to pay rent.

I charged him $300 a month which is waaaaay below market value.

Anyway, he’s studying to be a notary and he wanted to use his brother’s room (he moved out last year) as an office.

I let my nephew know that the room isn’t free and if he wants another space, he’ll have to pay what his brother was paying; $300.  

So $600 a month total, $300 for a new office space and $300 for his current bedroom. 

My wife says I’m being unreasonable, but if he’s trying to build a business using my property, shouldn’t he pay for it?

I know he’s family, but my wife says I keep trying to extort him, but I don’t see it that way.  

Am I in the wrong?

Me and my wife are having a disagreement.  We currently live in a 4 bedroom 2800 sq ft house and my nephew, who will be 21 this summer lives with us.

After he graduated high school, I told him that he would have to go to work or get a job and he would have to pay rent.

I charged him $300 a month which is waaaaay below market value.

Anyway, he’s studying to be a notary and he wanted to use his brother’s room (he moved out last year) as an office.

I let my nephew know that the room isn’t free and if he wants another space, he’ll have to pay what his brother was paying; $300.  

So $600 a month total, $300 for a new office space and $300 for his current bedroom. 

My wife says I’m being unreasonable, but if he’s trying to build a business using my property, shouldn’t he pay for it?

I know he’s family, but my wife says I keep trying to extort him, but I don’t see it that way.  

Am I in the wrong!

@Charles Carillo 

When I'm doing searches on regular sites, such as Redfin or Zillow, I make sure to filter out Condos.  I have no interest in them.

I guess you could classify what I was looking at as a townhouse unit, but it looked like an apartment.  In any case, all fees were about $600 a month with an investment potential of me charging $12 -1400 a month.

My question was more aimed at people who had successes and failures with units that meet this criteria

I keep hearing “start small”, when it comes to real estate.  I’ve also heard that the focus should be Single Family Homes or Duplex’s.

What is your opinion on Apartment units? I saw an affordable one at a decent price and the HOA fees aren't that high. The numbers work for me so far but I'm curious about those who've done it.

Have any of you bought singular apartment units?  

If so, what were the drawbacks?   What were the successes?. Do you think it a wise investment?

I have a colleague at work who does not have to do much for money.  She works simply to get out of the house and interact with people but she has two airbnbs and makes decent cash flow.

I asked her how she got started and she said she stayed in an Airbnb a that was terrible, had trash, no communication etc.

long story short, the owner contacted her (I dont think the owner was running this Airbnb) and she basically said "this should be like this, this should be here, why dont u have...etc."  She ended up cleaning this guy’s airbnbs and prepping them to be ready to rent and accidentally started a business, simply from how bad her experience was.

She has a few OOS owners now that rely on her to manage their properties and they allow her to operate an airbnb business out of their houses.

She has a bunch of OOS contacts now and takes care of multiple properties with new contacts coming in.  It's a thriving business because she hated the airbnb she was in.  She also rents her car on TURO and makes huge sums from that, but thats another story.

My question is, would you, as an OOS Investor, allow a person to run an Airbnb out of your property if that person took care of everything else?  

Would you want a cut of the airbnb profits or would you be content with your normal cashflow?

As I've paid off massive debt, I've noticed extra money in my bank account that I would like to invest. I've been looking to buy a SFH or Townhouse but I have yet to find a piece of property that will yield me the ROI I'm looking for.

After I do my cash-out refinance, I’ll have a decent portion in the bank but I don’t think I’ll find a rental property this year that meets my criteria.   I probably won’t even find it next year either.  I don’t want to buy a property just to buy it, but also I don’t want my money to just sit in a bank account not being active.  So I decided to go online to find out what rich people do with small sums, like $10K.

A Kris Kohn video appeared and he mentioned that you could buy a small business and possibly put only $10K down.

I’ve found a few websites that caught my eye and there was a Pizza Place that appeared in my area.

Now, I have significant knowledge working in an industrial kitchen because that was my primary job in the military, so I know what everything should look like, but I don’t have a lot of knowledge about a civilian Pizza shop directly.  When I ran a flight kitchen overseas, we had crusts, cheese, sauce, toppings, etc and employees to get the pizzas done but we were also focused on getting a large variety of foods out, not just pizza, but I digress.

What I’m trying to understand is the mathematical language.  This shop appears to have longevity, so that’s a good sign at least.

The Pizza Place has been in business since 2005.

Asking Price is $79K

Annual Revenue is $475K

Cash flow is $75K 

Net profit not disclosed.

My first question with buying a business such as this is, do you normally have to pay the full $79K up front or do they take a down payment like any other real estate deal? If it’s 20% or less, I can easily put $16K down.

My second question is about the annual revenue.  Why is it so disproportionately different than the cashflow?   I know you have to buy equipment, pay employees, pay utilities etc, but a half a million dollars a year to pocket $75K?  Really?  I’m not familiar with business ownership but if someone could enlighten me I’d appreciate it.

-Ibrahim

@Jason Malabute

 It sounds like you don’t want to give them solutions and want them to figure solutions out on their own, but your title suggests that they will fail without you but I don’t believe that was your intention.

I’m reading a book called “The Four Hour Workweek”, and there’s a section that talks about not allowing employees to get used to reaching you for things that aren’t emergencies.  Once they figure you out that you aren’t available at certain times, they will eventually figure things out on their own.  Also, it mentions not having a “Single Point of Failure”.  If you can’t be reached, there should be at least 3 people in place that can take care of any issues while you’re away.  But they should have a guideline on how to deal.

“Not giving them instructions” seems odd.  I’ve seen this first hand in my 20 years in the Air Force.  If the sergeants didn’t provide clear instructions or some guidance on what they wanted done, the troops were tense, annoyed and stressed out because they didn’t understand what was being asked of them.  

This would immediately lower morale.

People; Employees or Military, require guidance, and often demand it, even if they do not say so directly
 You don’t have to give them the answer, but you can provide guidance and instructions on what you need accomplished and let them figure the rest out on their own.

You can provide some type of creative freedom, especially to the younger employees.  You said it yourself, they will usually come up with solutions, you didn’t think of.

I don’t recommend micromanaging, but you shouldn’t be completely “hands off” either.  I needed to order equipment for my facility but because of my position, I didn’t work directly with the airmen.  Instead of ordering what I thought the facility needed,  I decided to ask them what type of equipment they needed to do their jobs and they mentioned things that didn’t cross my mind.  These asks were professional and even under budget.  

If you give people a chance, they will often surprise you!

If they try something different or new and succeed, great!  If they try and fail, they’ll probably learn more than what can be taught in a classroom.  There is no greater teacher than failure.