All Forum Posts by: Jay Hinrichs

http://www.straitstimes.com/news/business/property/story/woman-charged-marketing-foreign-properties-without-licence-20140521

As many may know there is a huge sales effort over seas to sell US turn Key properties. And many if not most of those marketing the properties are no licensed. And in some instances they do not need licenses.  However not the case in this country...

I can see the same thing here in the US with all the flipping... by unlicensed folks getting paid off of the huds for marketing fee's etc.  Just like the Gov came down on the mortgage industry with Dodd Frank  it may be only a matter of time until states other than Ohio and Florida start to crack down on un licensed activity.

@Craig Shute 

  one thing that can be learned is that hand written locally postmarked letters to a very small target audience will get replys... As opposed to sending out mass mailings..

I know some folks have posted that they don't get replys.. some shoe leather and drive for dollars may up that for them.

Here is what I used to say when I bought homes like this.

I would use the third person and make kind of a Joke.

I would say:

I was talking to another homeowner the other day and we discussed price.. And this person said they thought their home was worth 500k  and I knew it was a 200k home so I knew they were not serious or motivated in anyway.. I can tell by talking with you that your not that way and you probably want to sell for a reasonable price... then get them to agree that they are reasonable and continue on.. that worked for me

@Joe Villeneuve 

  if I could keep my wifes monthly credit card bill down to 4k... I would be a happy camper :)  I could live on that in the late 70's  ... but I guess that's why we are all here in the RE game as we don't get stuck in a rut with the same wage coming in month after month and we are able to work ourselves into raise's as often as we want.. We do trade that for the security of that monthly income.. Many a family can't do what we do because one or the other just has to have the reliable repeatable income even if it creates a situation where like many they just get by.

If I look back on being raised in Cupertino and during the rise of computers and internet I think I maybe should have gotten into marketing and sold Apple computers world wide or Intel chips I would be long retired with tons of dough...

@Richard C. 

  Detroit has a pretty significant Middle east population...

I used to own a second home in British Columbia and the times I drove up instead of flew up I would see how the Canadians handled their border.. they turn people around and send them back.. no illegals there or very few...

The focus of Many turn key companies is to sell homes and tout the SEction 8 as guaranteed rents... Maybe if landlords refused to rent to section 8 ( which many do) that would have an impact..  I had many section 8 rentals as it was just the lay of the land so I understand and can appreciate both sides of the argument.. My experience is that although they are tougher tenants based on family dynamics  IE single mother 3 or 4 kids that are just really rough on the house..But some were very good and very neat and clean and work their jobs etc etc.

From my point of view I do not see the boarded up areas of the suburbs turning around for the better with the exception of some pockets...and areas that are closer to the down town core that are the focus of developers revitalization efforts.. Those are dense type developments with large upside for the developer... SFR's on a city street just do not really afford that same kind of opportunity... IN many of the mid west or rust belt or deed south large towns were SFR's are dominated by renters... And with sub prime gone the chance to sell those homes to the less fortunate are about nil.

@Larry Flanagan 

  IN that asset class your dead on .... Its also known as slum lording in some circles.

In my mind if one is starting off and wants to build up this cash flow from rents or whatever. its a 3 pronged approach.

1. get a RE license so you can also make income in the field that you want to ultimately retire in be it with rentals or a developer or a lender or whatever.

2. start acquiring what ever it is in your market that make sense. From a cash flow perspective..

3. Look for the bigger flip plays without pigeon holing your efforts into say low end SFR's maybe you sell a big Multi and knock down a 50k fee.. Or you rehab and sell to a homeowner and make a nice 20 to 50k profit.. Or maybe you scout up a land deal for a developer and make a nice commission all legally.

4. In a hot Market the Most passive way to make income is simply be a Listing AGent  get listings...they are money in the bank and not a lot of time or effort  IE in a HOT Market not a run down low value market you got to work for those.. But you can be known as the go to agent for wholesale deals as well and that is super simple money far easier than land lording.  And all of you with any experience buying rehabbers or run down rentals know how little time an agent puts into those deals its easy money and all cash for the agent with no risk or repairs  :)

@Annette Hibbler 

your my partner : well not specifically but your the person I do business with.. I currently have lots of these working in 11 states... I am the JV you are the partner that does the work.. Even better than Hiring a PM.. because there is a huge pay day at the end of the line for you.. and your efforts are directly related to my profits...

AS for the goal of how much one would need to comfortably live on.. that in my mind has a lot of moving parts.. it all depends on where you live.. where you are in the your life cycle.. IE are your kids raised and on their own or are you still feeding them and saving for college or bailing them out of lifes issues..

I have a lot of experience at this.. My first HML company I had all private investors about 250 of them... And you really get to know those folks they are the ultimate passive investor most owned rentals then grew to hate them and migrated to loaning money.

But once they came into the company as a lender they would live on the interest income and only took their capital out ( usually ) for 2 reasons.. To buy their kid a home or to bail them out of Jail and pay for the lawyer... I am serious.. happens more than we know.

I have a lot of Airline pilot buddies who retired.. and they usually have about 2 mil in cash at the end of the career of course many have more and some have less but 2 mil in cash correctly invested and your personal residence free and clear can usually make a nice retirement.

I know for me everytime I get real close to my cash goals we have another freaking recession and I get knocked on my butt yet again.  LOL

HML are in our market 65% LTV and you must have cash in the deal .. there are not lenders in our market that publically adverstidse that will lend to anyone who does not have cash to bring into the deal.. and that could be a function of how hot our market is

@Ian Hintze 

  I am in the camp of buy as close to home as you can or it makes sense.. If you have an issue you can drive to the property. as Oppossed to fly rent a care pay for hotel etc. just one trip to your market can use up your whole year of Positive cash flow at least it would for me because I only fly first class  LOL

@Elizabeth Colegrove 

  Like many that are life long RE folks you either decide to be in the rental game or you are in the value add game without all the PM head aches. I choose the value add game.

not that its any better or the right thing to do.. The value add definalty provides a far greater cash flow as long as you work it.. but does not have the benefits of long term capital gains or 1031.. but I like making the nice hits as opposed to making it 100 to 300 a month. I would lose that kind of money on who knows what for me personally I need bigger hits to let me know I am doing well

@William P. 

  I want to stress its not only MI.. .I do business in most of the cash flow markets and to a certain extent its in every one of those cities. form Memphis to KC ,, Indy, St. Louis ( which is pretty bad as we have seen by the riots recently) and so on and so forth they all have these boarded up hoods.. what do we do with them ..