All Forum Posts by: Jason Barnett

Laws will vary from state to state, but I am 90% sure that you cannot use the letters "LLC" or "Corp." etc. anywhere unless you have actually registered an LLC within that state.

You're already one step ahead of the game by checking if your business's name is available in your state. But did you also check for trade names? Do you know the laws in your state for distinguishing between a corporation vs. LLC vs. partnership? They vary from state to state.

I would suggest that you are a tax ID. You should only use a name if you control the tax ID and state registration for that name. What do you do if someone creates Max Properties within the next year and sues you for using their name? That potential for litigation is enough for me to say "stay away!" Just make cards for your own personal name for now... after all, you are deeding the houses you buy to your own (personal) tax ID.

Great deals aren't usually listed in the MLS. MLS is for marketing the properties that I find to the general public (and sometimes I will use a realtor for that).

Why would I hire someone to help me structure a deal when that's supposed to be my expertise? Not trying to be rude to all realtors because I am sure that some of them are very skilled in structuring deals. But as an investor I've got a pretty good idea of the options available to me.

I like to see what my competition is doing. I recently spoke with a realtor that was selling a rehabbed house for a private investor. I started talking with the realtor about signing a lease-option contract for the house. "I've been a realtor for 20 years and I've never done a deal like that. Maybe you can talk to the owner?" She then proceeded to call the owner and I spoke with him for a little bit. His response? "I'm actually pretty new and I don't know anything about lease-options. Why don't you talk to my realtor?"

In any case I would only use a buyer's agent in two situations.
1. If I was new to the type of deal I was doing (a raw land deal, for example)
2. If I was trying to buy property in another state (not going to happen anytime soon, I have enough opportunities around here).

Pretty nice, actually. What I like the most is all of the reports that get created for me auto-magically. If I were the one designing it I would make the projections able to go out over more years. That said... I plan on using this for future deals and will certainly get my money's worth out of it.

Exactly what is my ROI for a property analysis tool when my investment is $0???

For the most part I like the tool. It gets straight to the heart of the numbers and it lets you plug in new / different assumptions. Always a key thing there. It could be better if it let us use ranges for our assumptions (minimum, maximum, average... then show trends for future years based on these values). As-is I can do that in three steps though so it's not a huge deal.

Overall very nice... I give it a 9 out of 10.

I'm having somer issues when I try to use the tool with Mozilla Firefox. If I'm not mistaken it seems that we need to have JavaScript enabled in order to use the page.

In fact I have already verified the usage of JavaScript... so if you are using the tool and it seems like it's not working then it's possible that you need to turn JavaScript on.

Just found an awesome answer to my own question... check this out!

http://www.myrealestateira.com/SelfDirectedIRAFAQs.html

I've got a Roth IRA account set up that isn't doing a whole lot for me (I bought some small caps that have gone nowhere). As I was looking around for better alternatives a thought hit me: is it possible for me to take that Roth money and invest it into an LLC that I have created?

Consider the implications here. With the Roth IRA (assuming you follow the rules) you are putting after-tax money into an investment account. The IRS then lets you have tax-free gains on all investments made from this account. Now I wonder: when my LLC realizes a taxable gain, will I get to avoid tax on my portion of the profits? After all I have used Roth money to make the investment!!!

Just read this article on msn:

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/forbes/P126962.asp?GT1=6969

That's not what I call flipping. Flipping is, in my mind, when someone assigns a contract to someone else without doing any repair work whatsoever. All the same, it is interesting to see how little activity there is in properties that are bought and sold in less than a year.

Interest rates determine the value. I get the rate that I have locked in as my return... if I lower my rate then I lower my return (but I will win the bid).

AFAIK (and I'm no lawyer) Encumberances follow the property. Owners are disassociated from encumberances once they lose title to the property.

I was wondering if some people would mind sharing their rental contracts with the rest of us. What are some of the terms (financial or otherwise) that you put in the contract to protect yourself? I am mostly interested in rental contracts for residential properties.

I can go ahead and get started with one of my own: late fees. In my contracts I specify that if a tenant is late on rent then they will be charged a $20 late fee. I also state that if rent is late then I reserve the right to refuse rent even if I have accepted late rent in the past.

To be completely honest I'm not sure if the above will stand up in court, but it looks good on paper. :lol: