All Forum Posts by: James McCormick

I am in St. Louis, MO. I have a friend in Tucson who is considering rental houses in the Tucson area. I have no idea of the local areas. I expect that he would be looking for B or C properties. He would be looking for foreclosures, or at least properties that are in need of rehab, and would perform the work himself. We both have backgrounds in remodeling work.

Any advice that you could offer would be most appreciated. 

it sounds to me like your dad would have no tax to pay, as he is going to make zero on the sale. You, however would have an instant gain of about 15,000 (the appresion on the house this far) that you would have to consider if and when you sell the house. If you waited, and inherited the house from your father at his death, your cost basis would be the fair market value of the house at the time of his death. Just something to consider. I am not a tax man , talk to yours. 

@Luke Carl OK, that's fair. I can be an a**hole sometimes. I will keep that in mind when I check out listings. I still think it would be better to point out, in clear text, that there is no AC in a unit, but I guess that would have been my fault for not "listening". I think my point was that I would expect it. I stand corrected. 

@Corey Schaecher I know a plumber. Licensed in City, County. He works everywhere. Is your brother @Scott Schaecher ? He connected with me, so I have his email address. I could send his the plumbers contact info if you like.

Not a developer by any stretch but I am thinking that excel is not what you want to use for this type of application. I think that Access (a relational database) would be much more suitable for the task. Your current lists in excel spread sheets could be imported as (to) tables, then you could use Quarries to funnel only the data that meets the particular criteria you are focused on. This can be say a quarry that matches 2, 3, or more lists (table fields). Then use reports to put the information in an organized page.

I cannot tell you how to do it, but I think that is a better path to invest your efforts. 

Update... The whole seller I was working with told the truth. The seller from Pennsylvania (Banshee, perhaps?) had signed contracts with several whole sellers at the same time. He needed to get out of the house, as his partnership fell apart. One of them was exercising his contract. This did not make sense to me, and I did not believe him. I figured he just got a better price.

The person I had the handshake deal with paid the other whole seller off to go away, and he is selling to me for the price we had agreed on. I know he is making a little money on the deal still, and I am good with that. The deal works for me. I close on Monday. So my faith in humanity is somewhat restored. Although I know these things can and do happen.

Therefore, it is time to go to work and get it rented out! Thank you all for listening and your input.

@Deanna McCormick ".. you can wire your own house in most states, but it needs to pass inspection and requires a permit.. so it's to code."
 

I would think this varies in different states. In St. Louis (County), MO you can do electrical work on your own house as long as you: 1. live in the house, not just own it. 2. Can pass the test to determine that you know what you are doing. 3. Get a permit and pass inspections. I have done this in the past with both plumbing and electrical work.

I must also say that you have a great last name!

The manager needs to go away. I would call property whole sellers (look on craigslist for real estate for sale in the area) (we buy houses) and ask them for property managers in the area. Call realtors and ask them. Explain to them that you are hurting, and ask for help, a lot of times they know people who are real good, and the ones that are not. 

The bottom line is you need to lookout for yourself, as the manager is not, hell; he is not ever answering his phone for you. How nice can he really be? Good luck, stay the course, I hope you get past this and the properties work out for you.

I have not yet stayed in any AirBNB, but I am going to in November, Tampa, already booked. We live in St. Louis, the weather is not same as in your area (I get that), but if I had booked a stay I don't think that I would even look to see if it had AC or not, I would just expect that it would. If I found no AC when I got there and it was hot, I would write up a review that would not be kind to your business model. Just saying. You may, of course do what ever you want, but I just wanted to point out that there are risks.

I have sometimes taken a day or so to decide to make an offer or not. Once I decide, I text my agent with the offer and only 1 time did it take him longer then 2 hours to get the contract for me to sign (he was going to the baseball game). He let me know that is what he was doing, and I had the contract late that evening after the game (baseball is important in St. Louis). Even at that I have lost several deals because we were too late. Crazy sellers market. You need to work with another agent. I don't see how he could think that you are not serious.