All Forum Posts by: Justin Schaefer

I rent right now for a little while longer, and my landlord required the rent and first month's rent up front.  I'm sure it depends on the laws in your area.  You might want to ask a RE attorney about that one.

The banks are not in the real estate business, they are in the money business. I heard of an investor who once found themselves in a situation where they were called by the bank on an owner financed property and the bank had discovered that they had deeded it into an LLC or a trust (I can't remember which) Anyway, the bank said they were going to call the note due. The investors had made all payments on time, and his response was, "the bank is definitely within its rights to call the note. However, I do not operate that way, therefore the moment I receive notice that bank is calling the note due, is the moment I stop sending you checks." The representative said he would call the investor back. The investor never heard from the bank again.

That is why, as I move forward towards my first property I will likely use owner financing (probably many times) and I would definitely use this tactic if a bank ever anything to me.  It only makes sense that if they were getting the money as agreed (or better) that they would not have an interest in pursuing anything.  If anyone has any additional thoughts on this, please chime in.  I would be interested to hear more perspectives on this.  It seems like it could be an important topic to many people.  Thank you!

And so that is the only reason?  People don't view that as very overly high risk?  Thank you!

Pun intended... I am a horse person, LOL!  My name is Justin Schaefer, and although I come from a long line of successful real estate investors, and have studied it off and on for over quite a while; I am new to actually doing it, and now is 150,000% the time!

My highest level of interest is in commercial multifamily properties in the Walworth/Waukesha/Western Racine County areas of Southeastern Wisconsin.  I am especially interested in the cities of East Troy and Waterford now, mainly because those are two cities I wish to live in, and my research indicates that they are both real strong rental markets with great schools, and low vacancy rates.   I strongly want to owner occupy my first property to free up that money for me so I can quickly move on to more deals.  

I am absolutely willing to do all of the work, and manage the properties myself to start with.  I am willing to sit in the right persons office and answer phones whenever possible... I don't care, (although the "whenever possible" time isn't very often right now due to my job.)  I just want to get started right now, and get a deal in the pipeline ASAP.  I have a goal to have my first property by the end of the summer, and I absolutely intend to meet that goal.

I do also have some questions, as far as what can be safe numbers to figure on in my area, and as we speak, I am working on answering those questions on my own through finding a good realtor who is willing to work with me, but if those answers come quicker through BP, then that is fantastic!

There's a little about me in a nutshell.

OK, so not to change the subject here, but I'm a new investor, and I get why to invest near the best grade/high schools, but I'm not seeing exactly what it is about universities other than student rentals.  Could you please enlighten me?  I've been hearing this a lot lately, and I'm curious.  I have several universities near me in the SE Wisconsin area, and I'm wondering if I should consider going that route at some point.  Thank you!

Thanks for bringing this up.  This is curiosity I've had too.

That's awesome!

Thanks guys I am PMing you both right now!

Most retail seems to still be doing quite well, but from many years of experience in the retail world myself, I can say that retail stores must constantly reinvent themselves, and in many cases not only keep up with the times, but reinvent (or at least participate in the reinvention) of the times.  

The being said, the real estate that failed retail outlets once occupied, also will almost always reinvent itself.  There are always reasons for these "failures," often times of which most people are not aware of.  My cousin is a big commercial investor in the Twin Cities, and has expanded out across the country.  I recently asked him about his thoughts on places like the 1,000,000 square foot Mills Mall in PA that recently sold for $1 per square foot.  His response was that those places usually reinvent themselves.  What was yesterdays shopping mall could easily be tomorrow's university site, or office building etc.  I personally know of a mall that was converted into a community college a couple of hours north of me, and it was just blossomed, but also remember what a failure it was of a mall in the 15 or so years prior to it being sold and "reinvented."

As for me, I am going to take respectful observation of those failures, and then focus on what I am doing right, and keep on doing it more and more right.

If you've done your numbers correctly, you will likely have most/all of the money needed to repaint in savings.  You've clearly said you're sick of them, so  why continue to stress yourself out.  Get rid of them.  If your lease will allow you to, keep their security deposit, and call it a day.

Another way of looking it at, is if they do pay you the late fee every month too, and you're not late paying your bills.... well then hey... extra money!  Also, maybe you raise the late fee, and the rent, and perhaps even have a meeting with them about paying their rent on time.  It's up to you.  Trust your gut, and do what works for you.