All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Tracey Robinson - You only have to identify the properties by July 15th. There are also no limits to how many properties you can identify. Pick the markets you think may work and identify properties in each of them. The value of the properties (total) must be equal to or higher than the property you sold. That buys you time to see how things play out without having to make decisions now, and still preserves the tax deferral advantage if you choose to go that route.

@Sammy Lyon - Thanks for the shout out. I will be representing CLE at the meet-up. Hope anyone interested in real estate investing in Cleveland is able to join us!

Call Rob LaCivita at Deanna Property Management or Jad Boudiab at B2B Realty. Both are solid guys/companies that will help you take care of your investment. Good luck!

If a city has POS requirements, they apply to all residential properties regardless of price. Contractors must be registered and insured, and in most but not all cases bonded to work in the city. Each city has their own requirements. To my knowledge, all cities in Cuyahoga county require some form of rental registration. Property management can be performed by an owner or a licensed broker or licensee for the broker in Ohio. In my experience Shaker Heights and Warrensville Heights are the most difficult to work with. The challenge is the POS inspector can require specific repairs, and many time they add additional items upon re-inspection. Good luck!

Best of luck.

@Lincoln Coverdale - Glad you have what you need in place to deal with the problem. Seems crazy to me as well the seller will not work a deal. For many people real estate transactions are emotional activities, so common sense/logic does not always prevail. Mold scares away a lot of buyers. The fact you know what you are doing and willing to split the costs of the remediation (a solid price on the remediation for what it is worth) seems like a no brainer.

I am IICRC certified in mold remediation. To clear up a few things:

@Lincoln Coverdale - There are over 100,000 species of mold that scientists have identified, and they estimate there are hundreds of thousands more species they have not identified. Mold is nature’s method of breaking down dead organic material. It needs organic material for food. The color of the mold means nothing. Unless the contractor sent the mold to the lab to identify the species (I.e. aspergilus, penicillium, etc.) there would be no way to tell what the characteristics of the particular mold would be.

@Account Closed - well done! Your statements are all true re: mold toxicity and most people as well as the lack of an accepted/mandated mold protocol. A few states have adopted their own protocols, but they mostly mirrored asbestos and lead protocols because they didn’t know what else to do. The problem is no one knows which species of mold any one person may have a reaction to. 

@Chad Schaper - We do JV's with some of our customers under the right circumstances. If you have interest in the Cleveland area shoot me a message.

Look at it this way. When you go out to dinner at a restaurant, do you think the food is 4X - 10X better than it is at your house? Clearly it is not - you are paying for the service of others preparing your food. If you go to a fast food place, you still get food prepared by others. It is generally not high quality and the cost is lower than other restaurants. If you go to a white table cloth restaurant, the food and service is higher quality and the cost is higher than most restaurants. Contracting work is the same thing. You can get work done for cheap, but it is generally lower quality. If you are willing to pay for the skill and experience, you can get higher quality work done. There is nothing wrong with either of these scenarios. Each one has it's place. The problem becomes when you go to McDonald's and think you should get filet mignon, or you work at McDonald's and think you should get paid like you work at Ruth Chris.

As far as investing in out of town markets and having no way to verify, find people you trust to look out for your interests or invest in your hometown. It's hard to believe that someone didn't know they would need help running their property when they live on the West Coast but purchase investment property in Florida for example. I get that it's hard, but if you don't have people you can trust, don't do the deal.

Real estate investors, agents, property management companies, contractors, attorneys, and the majority of parties in the real estate world are for profit entities. It is funny to me when the same people trying to maximize their returns don't want others to maximize their own returns. Profit is not a dirty word - we are all allowed to make it. I also encourage people not to compare construction costs between markets. The permitting, labor, and utility costs vary widely from market to market. It is no different than comparing real estate prices in disparate markets. For example, Cleveland is a different market than San Francisco - comparing the two is not useful.

I do this a lot in Cleveland. I stay unemotional and business like. I offer a cash for keys deal and a 3 day notice at the same time. They have 3 days to decide to take the offer, and I never give them more than 7 days (including the 3 days for the notice) to physically move and hand me the keys. If you do it this way, you can proceed quickly with the eviction in the event they don’t move out. I have found most people agree to the cash for keys but don’t move out as a stalling tactic. Because I gave them the three day notice at the same time as the offer, I can move quickly to the legal eviction process with my attorney when they are not out of the property on day 7.

Things you should never do in my opinion: name call, threaten, raise your voice, treat people disrespectfully, argue or be sarcastic.  Obviously nothing illegal like entering the property without legal notice, changing locks, shutting off utilities, etc. I don’t enter the property unless the tenant lets me without a fight/argument, and many times I just wait to go in until after they vacate. The tenants tend to be emotional and want to fight/argue. It’s frustration on their part, but I don’t participate in those types of events. Stay above it and do your job - and evicting people is part of the job for a real estate investor.

I ALWAYS stay above board and legal and I always win at eviction court. Because I’m respectful and follow the law, I’ve never had a problem.