All Forum Posts by: JD Martin

I hate to tell you this but there's really nothing you can do. I have one in 4 Corners and the last 2 years bookings have been in the toilet because I'd rather have an empty house than compete with bottom-feeder cut-rate properties. You've done a great job on the house and your location is fine, but to be honest the only reason you're staying that booked up is because you've got cheap rates compared to the competition. 

Until some of the supply comes off the market (if ever) you are going to either have to live with lower prices or more vacancy. You at least have the advantage (option) of doing some on-site property management, versus guys like me that have to use some kind of remote management (I have a caretaker, so I do most of the actual managing myself) to try to cut some of your costs. It's not a good market for STRs down there unless you bought 10-15 years ago. 

Are they sure it's an oak and they're acorns? We have a lot of shagbark hickory trees around here, and I will tell you from plenty of personal experience they will absolutely dent a car. In fact my run-around Kia has about 6 dents in it from those nuts hitting the car. When they hit sheet metal it almost sounds like a gunshot. Not to say that they have any kind of case, but yeah the right kind of nut can create dents. 

If they are lending on real estate they should have secured the note with a lien on the property. If they didn't do that or if these are signature loans they are probably SOL.

Quote from @Daryl Allen:

Ok to start things off .

Im buying my raw land for $30k. Paid $15k upfront to initiate the contract.  Heres where it gets fun.  Its at a 7% amortized interest rate.  Signed on april 2022.  Ive been making monthly payments of $265 at the least.  My required payments were $235.  However for the first 5 months i was able to pay via zelle with no fees.  Then i get asked to switch to terra notes and have been paying through them since sept 2022.  I noticed after about 1 year of app paying they never applied my zelle payments.   So i ask for them to update it so it reflects correctly. They never did.  So i continue to pay via requested app to today still.  Well the other day i noticed still no update,  and the extra i have been paying towards principal has been being taken as a service fee.  So i compiled a list of these service fees and some taps a $60.75 mark.   Well.  All the service fees add up to $1318.76 that wasnt ever applied to my principal.   So that leaves the $1300 from zelle payments and the $1318.76 from fees that should have went to my principal.   Ran it through the usual Google machine and a paid chat gpt and both said i should already be paid off and entitled a refund .   Can a Human please help me?   I am living off of 366 a week of unemployment for the time being so i cant afford a lawyer 

Somewhere there should be some statement on how to make payments and how they are applied. If you don't have this, because of some kind of homemade or gentlemen's agreement, then you will likely need a court to enforce what you say are extra principal and they say are service fees.

I hate all of it, though it's coming and there's nothing we can do about it. I'd much rather talk to real people, even if they might be wrong. I want to be my own Chatgpt based on the replies and information I get from people who have done it before. That's all AI is doing - compiling an answer from a bunch of other sources. It's getting better at giving better answers for sure but I don't want to talk to robots I want to talk to real people. 

On a side note, we don't allow Chatgpt replies in here - they are removed when we find them - but they are getting harder to pinpoint. 

Get it cleaned and rented and thank Providence they left on their own and left your stuff like the remote behind. 

Quote from @James Wise:

Quote from @JD Martin:

Quote from @Becca F.:

Quote from @Ken M.:

 As they say, the internet is forever. This is why you shouldn't do Porn in your 20's.

 Or at least hold off until you're in your 40s!

If you are making good money, why not just pay someone to finish the stuff that you are sick of doing? Just because you *can* do something doesn't mean you "should* do something. I can do a far better job on my lawn than my lawn crew does. It would also take me 1.5 hours, minimum, every week to do that job. They do my lawn in 15 minutes, cut, edge and blow and it costs me $25. My time is definitely worth more than $17/hr, not including the costs I would incur for the equipment and fuel. Interior door replacement is a simple job for anyone with even basic handyman skills. Same thing with fence repair.

It doesn't have to be an either/or proposition. If you want to sell to cash out, by all means so so, but know you will get better money virtually anywhere by having a house that presents to potential buyers as "all finished" because guess what - those jobs you don't want to do? Neither do your buyers unless they're getting a cash bargain for the privilege of working. 

If the delta between what you can make on your current house and what you would replace it with is that high, then financially there's no question you should do it. You need to know if your mortgage permits it on your current house, and be sure you can both rent that cheap for yourself and rent your place out for that much money before you do anything.

Quote from @Orlando Ferreira:

Hi everyone,
 I’m 19 years old, and I’ve been learning about real estate for several months. I’ve read around 20 books about real estate in the past few months, and I’ve watched many YouTube videos, podcasts, and other content to deepen my knowledge. I don’t have much practical experience yet, but I analyze properties every day and try to understand how the market works.

I'm at a point where I want to start investing, but I have limited resources and many possible paths wholesaling, get a w2 job for a DSCR loans or fha, flips, etc.).

I’d love to hear advice from experienced investors: if you were in my position at 19, what would you do to start building a real estate portfolio or gaining real experience?

Thanks in advance for any guidance!

1. Earn money.

2. Save money.

3. Invest in a house hack flip or hold, or a duplex/triplex/quadplex.

4. Repeat 1-3.

If you want to be an investor you need money. Don't minimize the accumulation of capital, because that's where you need to start. All the knowledge in the world is useless if you don't have anything to invest. Live as cheap as possible, make as much as possible, put the accumulated capital to work in something that can provide your roof and your investment at the same time.