All Forum Posts by: Julie Doke

An idea for staging yourself is renting furniture groupings and even accessories. To keep cost down instead of renting long term, rent long enough to take some awesome photos and even have an open house

@josh caldwell and @Dmitriy Fomichenko thank you both for the warm welcome! 

Dmitny I also appreciated the "heads up" about the keyword alerts, I know that will be helpful.

 I have worked in property management using both QuickBooks and Yardi. Yardi is an excellent for both residental and commercial however it is expensive and has a steep learning curve. Unless Quickbooks has addressed the issue does not have a specific real estate module so you have to work around it using customers as properties and jobs as tenants. Of course it has been several years since I used either and currently I myself am searching for the "right" software. Let me know what options you find

Great reasoning. I know it was a disaster working with a realtor ten years ago when we first looked into investing. I will certainly use this approach when I get ready to find an agent to work with. @Eric Blackford did you interview several agents in order to find one you felt was a good fit and what do you feels makes for an investor friendly agent? 

Hello everyone!

My name is Julie, I live in Birmingham Alabama with my husband Joe and real estate investing is a new exciting chapter in our life.

I’ve been reading and researching all the information and inspiring stories on biggerpockets and am excited to be part of this group and look forward to being able to give back through sharing my experiences with others soon.

Recently attended a three day seminar which showed me what was possible if I stay determined, get out of my comfort zone and crush the fear of not knowing everything there is to know.

There are lots of possibilities in the area depending upon what exit strategy we want to use. For starters we plan to connect with other investors that work with wholesalers. Thanks to everyone that makes this an awesome hub.

I found an empty house yesterday and after doing research it appears this property has been empty since the owner went into a nursing home in 2007 - she passed away in 2011 and has children/grandchildren so I'm not sure why the home was not sold then. As luck would have it (not sure if it's good luck or bad) I also found out this house is part of an up coming tax sale. I plan on calling the county Monday but a view point from experienced investors would be extremely helpful. Here are the details and areas of confusion ... There are outstanding back taxes from 2007 - 2008.  Is it possible to pay the back taxes and purchase the house before it goes up for auction?? and two another item of concern is a lien for medical payments dated 2007 from Medicaid - the amount owed on this lien is not stated instead it gives an address so I will have to write or find a number. Is there a chance this debt was wiped out upon her death?? Is there a "normal" for this type of thing??

Congratulations! Sounds like great negotiation skills and an excellent strategy falling into place.