All Forum Posts by: John Laine

There are lots of books and posts that praise the use of systems and processes to run your Real Estate business and I am big fan. What they don't often cover is how to document your systems.

I have used spreadsheets, word docs and an app called Todoist. I'm curious to find out what has worked well for others.

Also, do you have a "process" for updating your systems? What I mean is, you don't want to just go changing your process without a good reason and what if your current process isn't working for some reason, do you try out a new process before updating your system?

If your having trouble getting financing then any other buyers probably are too. My point is that maybe if you stress this point to the sellers they will be more open to seller financing.

I had one deal where the bank would not lend on the land/home package but would loan on just the land. If that's possible in your situation, maybe you could use the funds from the land loan to give the seller a larger down and seller finance the rest.

Good luck!

I use avail.co for 10 rentals and I love it. Used to use Cozy and that was great too, avail just has more features I was looking for.

I had a property that was sitting vacant for three plus months and was really happy when an interested renter came along. He was willing to give me 2 months rent up front in addition to a deposit, in cash, but he wanted to move in right there and then without a credit check. I always do some type of check and should have seen this one coming, but I was just so happy to get a nibble on this property that I took the cash and handed over the keys.

As you might expect, it was a nightmare! We're talking police involvement and extensive property damage.

A vacancy is always better than a bad tenant, lesson learned!

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback!

I'm a SFR investor and I'd like to do a 1031 exchange with a few of my properties into a small multifamily.

I had some financial trouble awhile back and allowed the bank to foreclose on one of my rentals. It will be 7 years next October since the foreclosure. I have a good credit score, around 770 and a decent amount of equity in the properties.

I am in the process of gaining knowledge on the subject, 'The Complete Guide to Buying and Selling Apartment Buildings' by Steve Berges is just awesome! So I'm not ready just yet to pull the trigger but I wanted to get some idea of how having a foreclosure on record will affect my ability to get financing.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!