All Forum Posts by: John McCombs

One SFH at a time, bought right, leveraged with the best interest rates, with cash flow on each deal, with one eye on wealth, and the other on income.

This sounds like the beginning of a great real estate blog post. I look forward to following your story! Regardless of any other ideas about the quality of this deal, please remember, "happy wife, happy life!"

My personal experience is that buying adequate insurance and having a contract between you and your sister will be cheaper and better protection in the long run. The cost of an LLC in CA is not worth the effort on a property unless tt is a multi-unit dive that is just aching for a lawsuit.

By the time you wash the walls, clean the carpets and wait to see if it still stinks, you may lose a month's rent, so often it is better just to re-paint and re-carpet. Or, just market to a smoker! They won't even notice the smell!

I predict that John Thedford is going to meet his real estate goals this year!

This house is in crisis mode! You may be able to ice skate through the house before too long. Call the city to report the problem... Save someone an even bigger headache!

I would suggest that you go to the FDMC website or the FNMA websites. They have lists of lenders who will do HARP2.0 loans. On one of my loans, the servicers didn't do refi's, and none of the big names would work with me, but the first company I called on the FDMC website was happy to work with me and offer a great rate. Wishing you the best!

The spreadsheet that you shared is great. I look forward to using it as I am working on evaluating some properties. I've using some similar calculations, but not on a spreadsheet. Thanks for your help!

The elementary school principal in me says "pay the taxes" because that will pay for TEN teacher's salaries for a year, but my investor mindset can't imagine paying that much if you don't have to.
IMHO, it all comes down to what kind of property you've got and what kind of property you want. If you stay in the same lane, you can avoid the taxes, but if you've just gotta change lanes to get around the slow driver, you may reach your destination more quickly. Look at all of the potential like kind properties, and stay in the slow lane (avoiding taxes) if the numbers look right. If the like kind properties that you've identified don't pan out to be racey enough after doing your due diligence, then turn on your blinker, get into the fast lane and buy what you really want. And if you do have to pay the taxes, feel good knowing that a large percentage of your CA taxes pays for teachers.

Like!