All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Why would someone want to take on a partner who can clear the land rather than just paying a land clearing contactor and avoid having to deal with a partner. There is a huge difference between what you see happening in real estate when you are clearing land vs. understanding all the math it takes, experience, knowledge and risks in regards to the business of developing land and building.

Start investing to maximize your profits. Start with no less than a 4-plex because when you increase the rents for a 4-plex your profits are almost exponential compared to a single-family home. If you purchase a single-family, first, then it may take many years to save the money for multi-unit properties. So, look for a 4-plex you can afford, or wait until you have the cash because even if you wait you will be far ahead.

Before you invest in a single-family or multi-unit send a PM and I will do the math for you.

It is sad that you think the color of your skin affects anything in your life because if you feel that your color affects things then it will. I've been in the plumbing, heating and construction business more than 50 years, about 50% of my customers are black and I don't see one bit of difference between doing business with black people than with any other ethnic group. Stop thinking the way you are, stand tall and make people treat you and respect you for what you are. Stand next to your wife, support her and let people know the only difference is the color of your skin.

If an appraiser did treat you different then sue the crap out of him and destroy his life. It is time for this world to stop seeing the color black, brown, or whatever a person is and I wish the word 'black' could be removed from every language and dictionary.

 For a person just starting with real estate investing, the last thing you want to do is invest out-of-state. Prices are cheaper in other states, but there is a reason the prices are cheaper e.g. the rents are lower. When you own properties out-of-state there are several inherent risks and costs you cannot avoid e.g. you need to pay a property management company 10+% and no property management company will manage your properties as well as a hands-on owner.

Keep your rentals close to you and look for no less than a 4-plex because when you increase the rents for a 4-plex you automatically increase the value of the property. You barely keep up with paying your bills and inflation when collecting rents. The big money is earned from inflation and you cannot increase the value of single-family homes by increasing the rents.

I know very little about financing because I always went with conventional loans, but I have many friends who purchased properties with financing and just about zero money down. Maybe, you need to wait until you have more cash, or watch Pace Mobry's videos about getting seller financing. 

Ask, "how much is 1 + 1?" and when the CPA asks, "what do you want it to be", you found a good CPA!

 You need to talk to a CPA so you don't get into tax problems down the road. I gifted my children several homes and don't have a clue about how the IRS documents work, but somehow the IRS allows people to gift real estate for of something like $10 million+ in their lifetime and the person receiving the real real estate does not pay taxes unless they sell it. You mother does not pay Capital Gains tax when gifting the real estate. When she gifts the real estate to you she needs to furnish your CPA with an appraisal for the property and you pay Capital Gains tax based on your mother's purchase price if you sell the property any time down the road.

If you are asking about how to acquire three properties with some sort of transfers and/or loans we nee a lot more information e.g. the purchase price for each property, down payments, rental income, expenses, etc..

 The problem with going with a syndicator is it is very difficult to find a good one who is honest and on top of his game. In 1980, I invested exactly $1 million into to syndicated deals for two K-Mart shopping centers. The deal was recommended by my accountant. I paid an attorney for advice and to review the Placement Memorandum. I paid a financial advisor something like $300 or $400 to check the deal. I lost exactly $1 million on the deal, paid an attorney $40,000 to sue the general partner. My attorney screwed me, moved to South Africa, turned the case over to another attorney and that attorney screwed me. I sued my accountant, the general partner and then my bonding company and 2 attorneys sue me. All the partners filed a Class Action lawsuit and we won $50 million, but after the attorneys took their cut I received a check for $13,000.

Never trust someone else with your money. Never trust someone else to make your decisions. Always have 100% control of your own money and you can't do that when you are a limited partner in a syndicated deal. I can tell your horror stories all day long about bad syndicators and about the fools who lost their entire life savings by doing business with them. About the same applies for the fools investing in Turnkey investment properties where the properties are managed by the companies selling those deals.

As a wise old woman once told me, "The Devil Is In The Details" and salesmen never tell those details.

I disagree with everyone, as usual. Sorry!!!

You are already motivated, pumped up and you definitely don't need any motivational advice.'

Academic teachings is totally senseless. You need to do this and you need to do that, but with NO HOW TO DO IT!!!

You say you are looking for real estate and not finding any good deals. How would you know a deal if it bit you in the butt if you don't have the skills to identify what a deal is. I will bet I can send you some great deal, but you won't have the ability to know they are deals because you don't have the experience to do the math.

The biggest problem both new and experienced investors have is nobody watches our backs because everyone has their own agenda and the greed more money.

What you need is to do is; rather than banging your head against a concrete wall, post the properties you are looking at, write as much detail about each property as you can including rehab costs, rental income, how much you can increase rents and then let people give you their opinions and advice.

Here is a serious problem with people who own their own business and then we wonder why some people are successful and why some are not. I've been in business, technically, since I was 13-years old going back to 1963. So, I have a lot of experiences with people who succeeded and people who failed. I know many people who were so hungry to earn money it was sickening and ad the same time those same people were so lazy it was even more sickening. My point is; when in your position, if you want to be successful and have the 'want' then you need to put in the hard work to achieve what you want. 

Then, when you want to achieve something, don't ask what to do. Ask for specifics in regards to HOW TO DO IT. I can tell you that the best leads are properties that were on the market, did not sell and you need to go after those leads. So, even if you agree you still don't have a clue regarding how the best way is to obtain those leads and you don't know what the best method is to contact the owners of those properties. I would like to see people on BP provide more inclusive information instead of one-line suggestions. I would also like to see different types of threads and different types of meetups that are not The Blind Leading The Blind and at these meetups the investors are provided with very inclusive instructional information.

Example. Come to my office with your concerns and I will personally set you up with everything I can give you so all you need to do is follow a recipe like you are getting on-the-job training. I did this for several contractors absolutely free and this free service benefits me in several ways since I learn from others and some of those contractors gave me some fairly large jobs they could were not qualified to do.

End of my long story. Start asking how to do what you need to do vs. asking what you need to do and maybe you will learn faster. You are most-likely already seeing great deals, but cannot identify them. Start learning the math.

Read the books:

50 Real Estate Investing Calculations

What Every Real Estate Investor Needs To Know About Cashflow (This book is great for beginners).

Keep your money in a super safe place until you are so positive about what you are doing you don't have to ask others for advice and wait until you can give advice rather than having to ask. Money is too hard to earn and easy to lose.

 I don't understand why. 

Technically, you, I and everyone on this planet pays down the mortgage for every business we do business with. Is blissful ignorance the reason tenants get angry with their landlords and if that is the reason then who should care about what ignorant tenants think. 

As landlords, we can't utilize our energy worrying about what tenants think, whether or not they are having a hard time paying the rent, or whether or not they are physically ill or lose their job because we landlords have our own burdens to worry about e.g. major expenses, increases in insurance, property taxes, non-paying tenants, liable lawsuits and we have our own personal problems, illnesses and griefs to deal with. Owning rental units has to be treated solely as a business with no personal tied or personal worries about tenants. 

As for the worries landlords have, I am worried about the new law in California that requires landlords to get balconies inspected and retrofitted within the next year and the inspection has to be performed by some sort of engineer. I have two apartment buildings with more than 600 feet of 2nd floor balcony at each buildings and am worried about some crazy retrofitting job that could cost tens of thousands of dollars. About 15 years ago, I spent about $60,000 at each property changing all the beams and installed 600 lineal feet of ceramic tile for one balcony and all aluminum flooring on another. Do the tenants worry about whether or not I have enough money to pay those bills like some landlords worry about whether or not tenants can afford rent increases.

I wrote this posts about 20 times about a girl who ran away from her home in Japan because her parents were physically abusive. When she arrived in the Unites States she was totally broke. When I met her she had been in the United States 7 years, never had a job, never got a driver's license and never had a boyfriend. She did babysitting, banked about $7,000, invested the $7,000 into a co-op in downtown Los Angeles with another Japanese girlfriend. Her girlfriend moved back to Japan and left her with the co-op that in which the equity for each partner increased to $30,000 each. The Japanese girl kept the co-op, got a loan and purchased a beautiful condo about 2 miles from a community college. She rented the condo to about 10 or 12 students for $400 to $600 per month. She literally had 2 or 3 students living in bedrooms, the living room, garage and she even had students living in bedroom closets and laundry rooms.

When I met her, 7 years after she was in the United States she owned 18 properties and I figured if she cashed out she was would go back to Japan with $2.3 million. Then, she purchased a house in Victorville California (don't know the price), but at the same time she purchased a $550,000 house in Las Vegas and I stopped communicating with her back in about 2006 or 2007 and don't know how she did through the 2008 bubble and COVID probably did a lot of damage to her assets since she rented to only students from Japan.

This girl was a strange duck because I saw her walking down the street one day and asked he if she wanted a ride. She said she was taking a bus about 11 miles away to pay an electric bill and refused my offer. I asked why she didn't mail the payment and she said she did not want to pay the 49 cents for the stamp, had an annual bus pass and riding on the bus gave her time to read books about real estate investing.