All Forum Posts by: James O.

My PM is trying to charge me $1500 for a new fridge and $300+ for labor. My fridge at my own house isn't even that much. What would you guys do in this situation?

Thanks all for the feedback! I had a feeling is was the response I would get. I am using the default demographic report generator from Census and guess I have to figure out how to omit this section out.

As the title says, is there anything illegal or wrong about using race breakdown (Whites, Blacks, Hispanic, Asians, etc.) in my market reports? I am an agent representing a buyer and want to provide reports providing all kind of demographic info including race. I am not trying to steer any buyers or try to influence their decision based on race. This should be Ok, right?

I keep reading on these forums comments saying how turnkeys are worst investment ever. How turnkey companies take all the profit. How returns are never what you expect. I am up to 6 turnkeys. Sure, I had problems with them whether it is turnovers, property management charging extra fees, etc. But rents have slowly gone up, my cashflows increased, I am super conservative so I have about than 6 months in reserves for each property. I don't plan on selling these. In fact I will buy more turnkey. I have a great career as a software developer and want to continue doing this. How can those same people saying turnkey is the worst investment say the same 15-20 years from now? At the end of the day, I will still be doing what I love to do in tech indsutry and STILL own a portfolio. What is wrong with that? I feel like these people are so focused on immediate returns. I get the BRRRR, but not everyone is interested in that. Some like myself are ok with lower returns because we have loads of cash thats not in the stock market. So to those that keep giving turnkeys a bad rep and discouraging people from them - STOP!  It is perfect for people like myself, and you are not doing a favor by steering them away. As long as they do their due diligence and understand the downsides and see that it works for them, they should be ENCOURAGED. It has been a great investment for me so far, and it can be the same for others.

I was talking to a turnkey company and I read in the fine prints that they do not represent buyers. I always thought of them as buyer agents in a turnkey purchase. Is this because they want to avoid legal issues? Or not take on duty as a fiduciary?

Also, how much do the turnkey marketers get paid? Do they charge sellers 3% for the "representing" buy side?

I got a message from my Property management that they will be doing a "spring maintenance". They are charging $250. They say they are doing gutter cleaning and ac tune-ups.  Just wondering if this was a normal thing that property management charges and if they are around the same price? I am located in Kansas City market.

@Jay Hinrichs

Had a couple questions for you since you have tremendous experience with turnkeys:

1 - You foreclosed on hundreds of investors who couldn't refi with you HML at bank rates. What happened there? Were appraisals not coming in high enough? And were your HML long-term fixed financing like a 30 year mortgage?

2 - Do you have any insights into how turnkey investors did during the GFC? These would be investors who didn't need to worry about refinancing, only holding on and weathering out the storm. I've heard many investors in B-class areas taking initial hits, but being able to recoup shortly after.

@Alan Grobmeier

I am not trying to attack your comments in any way, but just trying to get perspective. But, where are you getting your numbers on people leaving midwest? Based on the population numbers from census and what reports are saying, people are actually moving to midwest. Is there something I am missing something?

Also, I read your other comment on people buying 20 rentals just to lose it all. Then what do you suggest? From what I heard, most people that held on to properties for cash flow survived, but the ones who bought multiple hoping for appreciation went bankrupt.