All Forum Posts by: Johnny Kang

@Ben Stevenson

I wouldn't be able to give you advice on whether buying out of state is for you or not, since I don't know your situation. 

Only thing I can say is, why I'm keen on buying out of state.

- Eviction laws are unfavorable for landlords in NY

- NY properties are almost always an appreciation play; something I'll do at a later stage in my career, but not to start off

- I know the towns I'd buy in Pennsylvania because I've been going down there for 15 years 

@Ben Stevenson

My biggest regret is not turning my earned income to passive income from the deals I've done so far (10).

Those 10 deals netted me $354,766.67, and I could've easily went out of state (prob PA, since I've been going down there on short weekend trips for about 15 years), and bought a 6 unit (2 adjoining properties, 3 units each) I looked at last year all cash, which from having run my #s, would've netted little over $40,000/yr after all expenses. 

Buying out of state wasn't in my radar cuz I still had NY prices in mind, where you can't even buy a condo in an area you want to live in for less than $550,000. And that's just in the outer boroughs. Manhattan would be at least over $1,000,000.

But lesson learned. ~sigh~~~ lol

@Brian Ellis

I'm with you. This is something I've struggled with since seeing the Cashflow Quadrant at a seminar once years ago; trying to make that jump from the left side of the Quadrant, to the right side. For financial reasons, yes of course, but more importantly, to face my demons & see if I have the guts to climb the Mt. Everest of my life. To know I did it.

Starting out, you're doing everything and the energy it takes to do the necessary things that's required, takes self motivation, which isn't easy. But what really takes a toll is, when things aren't going the way you had envisioned; when you're dealing with unforeseen issues that come up; stressful situations, projects taking longer, spinning too many plates, budgeting issues, family & personal things that come up, till your emotional bucket is running on empty. 

It's true what Kiyosaki said in his book, Cashflow Quadrant; "This book is about the mental, emotional, and educational process I went through in following my rich dad's advice." 

Most people are aware that they need to study, read, listen to podcast to get started, but I'm not sure what percentage of people really know the mental & emotional change they need to go through to accomplish what they want to achieve, and if they have the fortitude to stick it out. 

You ask a great question; where does rest come in? Anytime I've tried to apply what I would read online, or hear on podcasts, about having a balanced life, taking time off, it just hasn't worked for me. You can take time off, but if your mind is elsewhere because you feel like you have a purpose, trying to reach milestones to get closer to the life you've visualized, taking time off only creates dissonance because you're putting that vision on hold. I'm not saying taking time off doesn't help you recharge. Just making a point that it doesn't necessarily bring enthusiasm if you're thoughts are elsewhere. But that's just my view. 

The flip side to that is, even if you're working 80-100 hours a week, if you can see progress, things moving, getting closer to your goals, the anticipation & excitement of it can recharge your emotional battery like no vacation can. 

With that said, there are few things that have helped me disburse my load the past year, revitalizing my enthusiasm. 

1) I hired VAs overseas to do administrative tasks that bogged me down. I put in a filtering process to weed out candidates. By nature, I don't like to repeat myself, so I used Filmora (free) to record instructional videos on what they need to do. If a VA didn't work out and I needed to find someone else, I just had to send them links to those videos for them to get up to speed. At this point, I may chat with my VAs once, maybe twice a week on Google Hangouts.

2) I've connected with a few, good, like-minded people on BP. People who have similar goals and drive. Working on projects, brainstorming, collaborating, bantering back & forth as a team really helps bring synergy to what you're doing.    

3) I've been thinking about playing volleyball again, and just got a set of golf clubs so I can incorporate some physical activity into my schedule.  

Do you have people going in the same direction you're headed?

@Georgui Kasaev

I've been using IFTTT to automate lead generation for several months, since I heard about it, and it's awesome. 

It's what basically allowed us to create an assembly line of creating & converting out bound leads on auto-pilot.

I mainly use it have leads go directly into Google sheets, then my VA goes into the shared folders to look up property owner's info. Once property info is all entered in, our skip tracer looks up phone #s.

For example, one lead source I use IFTTT on is, to look for motivated sellers on Craig's List. IFTTT scours Craig's List postings I've set keywords on, populates it into Google drive. Then my VA looks up owner's name/mailing address. Skip tracer will then look up phone #s. 

You can even have an applet set up on IFTTT to call your phone, if you want to designate a specific task you want to differentiate from other projects.

I have about 40 applets set up on IFTTT for various lead sources. 

@Lulli Debrosse

Crowd sourcing is something that's been gaining traction in many different fields & applications, so there might be something there. Too early to tell.

A common hurdle to overcome, regarding using data/automation, is trying to figure out how it fits into a usable, real-world application, whether it's commercial or not. 

Only way to find out is to do a lot of testing to see if it's something people want. Start small, then cover larger areas, data sets, and other variables. 

Any contractors experienced in renovating Fire Damaged Properties? 

I'm looking for people in NYC, Long Island, Up State NY, and northern NJ to handle renovation jobs. 

Must know how to deal with insurance, adjusters, mold & asbestos (if need be). 

@Lulli Debrosse

This is just my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt, since I don't have the full scope of the data sets you'll be looking into, but I'm also employing automation/AI/Machine learning to locate fire damaged properties, nationwide, so I'm speaking from the point of having looked at crunching data on a large scale. 

The thing with this approach is that, as you're aware, RE is local; sometimes, very granular, and the amount of time you would have to expend considering, first to see what data sets you'd need to collect, then figuring out how to interpret that data, I believe is not the best use of time. 

I have a programmer friend who's also looking to launch something using automation, nationwide, but since there's no congruency in RE data across the county, or even from city to city, the hurdles you'd have to over come can be daunting.  

It may have some merit down the road, if building the infrastructure to do something like this supports the validity of having scaled something to that level, which then can be used for multiple purposes, including but not limited to locating the best buy & hold assets. However, if it's for personal use, and depending on your time line, initially I would stick to markets you know, or interested in and get to know that area and run numbers based on your criteria.

Automation is like an assembly line. It works best after the process has been streamlined; then you can scale. 

Hey @Scott Graham

I actually prefer PhoneBurner.com. IMO, PhoneBurner has a more user friendly interface, along with a more customizable contact attributes. 

Pricing is straight forward & all inclusive at $149/mth, whereas Mojo's can be a little cheaper, or more expensive, depending on additional services you sign up for. 

If you decide to go with Mojo, personally, I would shy away from the "Triple Line" dialer, and go with the "Single Line" dialer. Triple Line dialer is where they employ 3 lines to call 3 phone numbers at the same time, then connects the call when someone picks up. But this has the notable "Telemarketers" pause that the receiver hears. 

I didn't use Mojo's reverse # look up during my trial period, since I have a skip tracer who does that for us.

Test both platforms out and see which you prefer.

@Shahdan Calcuttawalla

ServPro is a franchise, and they mostly specialize in boardups; individual operators may tell you otherwise, but they primarily do boardups. 

Some operators do restoration work, but if I were you, I would google "Fire Damage Restoration," and talk to the ones with good reviews. I would start there, but have a whole filtering process in place to find the right restoration & renovation company (i.e. test their responsiveness; set up the appointment a week out to see if they remember; see how quick they are to submit a proposal, ask to see their previous projects, or better yet, if they're ok with it, current project job sites you can visit, etc.) 

Even if ServPro did restoration work, like I've mentioned earlier, you want the restoration & renovation work done by the same people. 

Most companies stick to doing boardups & restoration work, because the job turnaround time ranges between a few hours (boardups), to a few days (restoration work). And the margins on restoration work can be as high as 70~80% profit. 

Very few companies will handle the renovation aspect, cuz they're "stuck" doing a rehab for months, with margins ranging between 20-30%. 

I personally wouldn't use ServPro, or anyone they recommend. Just look at their reviews. 

Google the way I mentioned and filter out the less professional ones from people who'll actually deliver on their promises. 

@Shahdan Calcuttawalla

I'm not sure what your experience level is, but there are many layers involved in rehabbing fire damaged properties and it's definitely not for the novice. 

- There are 3 main aspects companies get involved in, when it comes to rehabbing fire damaged properties. Most specialize in doing 1, or 2 of the 3 aspects. Rarely will a company do all 3. 

1) Boardup companies: As the name suggests, these companies only do boardups. 

2) Restoration companies: They're involved in the demo, drying, smoke sealing & clean-outs of all the debris from the incident. 

3) Rebuild/Rehab companies. These are companies who do the full renovation, and may use other subs, such as roofers, to finish the whole project. 

Everyone knows finding the right GC is hard enough, but with added layers in the process, the task in finding the right people to tackle fire damaged property is exponentially harder. 

(i.e. if you end up hiring the wrong restoration company that doesn't do a proper job of eliminating the smell of smoke due to improper sealing. If this happens, and the finishing work is completed by a GC, making the place new again, the smell of smoke will permeate throughout the property once the weather turns hot & humid. To prevent this from happening, find a company that does both restoration & renovation, and have them guarantee their work.) 

- Look for companies online based on rating system, so you can see other people's reviews. 

- Also, it's good to see how responsive they are to your calls/texts. How one does something, is how they do everything. If they can't call/text you back in a timely fashion, they'll be sloppy in their work also. 

- Inspection is done by the city/township, so as long as you're working with a licensed GC, it's fairly straightforward; it'll just have more line items due to extensiveness of damage that has to be remedied. 

- Also, most Restoration/Renovation companies that specialize in rehabbing fire damaged properties will use a web based tool called Xactimate for a comprehensive scope of work, which may at times be, as long as 300 pages. Most regular GCs won't even know how to use this tool. 

Hope that helped.