All Forum Posts by: John K.

@Michael Barnhart - I thought about trying to sell handwritten materials to others, but feel like it's too much of the shiny object taking away from finding deals on my own.  

Just purchased a 3 bedroom 1 bathroom SF house using a realtor who called us about a house that wouldn't show well after they received one of our direct mail pieces.  We were able to help the owners out by doing a quick closing cash offer (using line of credit) with no contingencies - so a win for the owners.  We turned around and resold (actual closing) 8 days later, for $37k profit after all closing costs, attorneys fees, etc.  We did offer to cleanup the yard which took us 2 hours.  Shows cash is king and direct mail really does work!  

We use to handwrite all our direct mail but then we started using machines to send it increasing our volume 500 times overnight.  Our homemade machine is impressive so thought I'd share a video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iou3HRV7e_k

@Colin Wyatt totally depends on area for turnover. Property taxes are a little high, I actually just hired an attorney this year to fight a few places, one 4 unit jumped 23% and a house we purchased 8 months ago for 126k jumped to $230k

Welcome to Madison, WI!  Madison is a great rental market with rents seeming to always be strong with low vacancy.

We send everything handwritten - it's the only way to go if you can.  We built our own machine that generates our "handwritten" letters and envelopes.  We have seen an unbelievably high response rate from our handwritten mail (vs. printed).  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rasiSeU24Y

I should start by saying never intended to pre-pay any cheap debt with how low rates currently are.  But now I'm just curious about some wording as the thought crossed my mind the other day.  

As I was re-reading some of my loan documents, I re-read the pre-payment penalty on a loan and it's worded after the percentages:  "of the principal balance then outstanding shall be paid to the bank" - what is the percent prepayment penalty based on?  Is it based on the loan balance remaining?  So if the loan is 200k, and I pay 10k then the outstanding balance would be 190k, so would the penalty be  X% of 190k?  

It's my understanding that every asset needs to be assigned to a property, we have 7 rental properties, and buy things like a snowblower that we use at two multi-family properties.  Do we split the depreciation and asset between these two properties?  Or should it be assigned to a single one (for accounting and tax purposes).  I can easily do it in quickbooks, but how does it work when tax season comes?  

Post a sign saying vehicles will be towed (I would suggest calling your preferred towing company for the correct sign to post), and then when they park there call the towing company and have them tow the car

We have a single page form we use. I just cross off the other options and only give tenants the renewal option for one year. I suggest NEVER drafting any of your own forms, I know in WI we have a number of special things that have to be in leases otherwise they are worthless if you actually need them. Even the big box office supply stores sell canned leases that are illegal in WI. Here is the form we use: https://www.wilegalblank.com/RapidCat/Catalog/ShowImage.cfm?Image=/RCProductImages/1343/6971/b.970%203-14%20L.jpg&RC_Responsive=false

I don't believe any. If you live in a rental than the fraction of units (duplex would be 1/2) of expenses can't be deducted, and are treated as if it's your own home.