All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Welcome to the site, neighbor (I'm in Fairfield/Cordelia). Best of luck with starting your real estate career.

The process for opening an account at CBA that I mentioned earlier isn't much different than Chan mentioned for SmartMove. But once the account is established there's no further screening of the landlord. CBA uses Experian for credit, which requires an on-site visit at your office to confirm that you have secure storage for tenant's confidential information.

I use Credit Bureau Associates, they run credit, identity, evictions, criminal, etc. Each screening runs around $20. Once you get an account opened, all you need is the applicant's name, SSN, driver license #, DOB, current and previous address. Takes about 5 minutes to enter and get results.

You don't say why you might buy the land. To re-sell? Investing in land is like playing poker - you don't play your hand, you play the other guy's hand (translation: evaluate the land as a potential end-use buyer, not as a seller). Why would anyone buy or lease this piece of land for any purpose? What would it be worth compared to any other property in the area? My preference is to consider a best-and-highest-use valuation only when land is scarce. If there is a lot of land available in the area, especially on the lake road, buyers will go for the best deal that offers an equivalent location. In short, I'd value the land based upon what I would be willing to pay for it as an end-user, not comps.

We have wage garnishment specialists all around the Bay Area. Different from a standard bill collector because they go straight for the paycheck rather than wasting time with calls and letters, but the tenant has to be employed and you have to know where.

@Jay Hinrichs True, not a lot of $200k flippers in Palo Alto, minimum SFR prices are around $900k. If you remember the orchard next to Juana Briones Park in Barron Park, I represented the seller who sold that 2.4 acres for $15M at the end of 2012. The non-profit who bought it had their City of PA project approval withdrawn and flipped the land 2 weeks ago for $22M. Who says no good flips available in Silicon Valley? I'm running across $1.1M to $1.5M opportunities that will back end around $1.7M to $2M. Just a matter of scale.

@Dave Slaughter Try to quantify their future business based on their assets, but don't burn bridges. Easier to say than do, for sure.

@JLH

I don't allow unlicensed assistants to solicit business or to have contact with clients other than "can I get you a cup of coffee?" Just not worth the risk.

The broker side of me says take the skinny deal as an investment in the relationship for long term business. The investor side says don't do that unless you can see the long term business clearly on the horizon. Look at the $$$ you're foregoing the same way you'd look at $$$ you'd be investing anywhere else. Unless the seller has a portfolio you can reasonably assure yourself you can tap in the future, why invest?

A joint venture is different from other forms of organization in three significant ways: 1) each JV participant brings operational expertise in some area of the business and does some portion of the work 2) the JV is meant to be an ongoing business, not just a short term project 3) equity in the JV is negotiated based upon operational participation, not just cash invested.

Of course, there are no set rules. You can form a JV according to any parameters you want.