All Forum Posts by: Ken Mitchell

in our market, the time it takes to ask someone to do something for nothing will usually kill a good deal but i get your point. once you find a good title company and close 20 to 30 deals, they may find it in their best interest to take care of you and if they can provide you a free service in less than 48 hours, your doing good..

until you become well seasoned, it's definetly not a waste of time to figure out how and where your public records are held. successful investing takes considerable effort and just remember it can take many many years to reach the point where you can pick up the phone and have people jumping to do your bidding....for free no less...

many landlords have owned their rentals for many years and aren't forced to use expense loan products or pay PMI like many of their tennants would be...

its not always cheaper to buy....

"To do it yourself, it is pretty difficult if not almost impossible… At least to do it right!" eric, eric eric.....

of course, you know, i do it all the time and why wouldn't you. there's no better way to know if you're wasting your time on a deal than to do 30 minutes worth of PRELIMINARY title work to see if thay can convey clear title and what it may cost them. will i do this on every property i offer on...no, but i will on properties that i get reasonable counters on. knowing what the owners liabilities are and trying to help them work through them is the text book definition of a distressed property owner is it not.

sometimes the difference between closing a deal and not clsoing the deal is SOMEBODY knowing up-front that there may be a lien on the property. this is especailly true when you're dealing with a property being purchadsed from an estate or where one of the owners on record has dropped of the face of the earth. in theses cases, the heirs or other owners of record may not know that their missing or dead parent hasn't paid his of her taxes in 15 years and finding out a week before closing can really screw things up.

how did it go eric, if you say you can't, you're right.

will i depend on my title findings to close a deal. absolutely not. when and if we finally do get everthing ironed out and the deal is headed to close, you hire (around here anyway) the closing attorney to do the title work and issue title assurance.

ron paul

eric, your a good sport and fun to play with. can i kick this horse one more time...

is your 35 an hour guy FULLY insured?

tim, i kinda liked your first scenario....

if this is allowing you to buy more home in a better area than you could otherwise afford, it's worth it.

good luck

sorry guys, i get a little carried away.

having managed, been involved with and done just about every useful trade there is, it chaps my *** to here people talk about how easy it is to do this kind of stuff. the trades typically go unappreciated around here but the truth is, we depend on these folks for our living.

if you cna get your wife to stomach living in an outdated home during a rehab, i'd say this would be a reasonable way to build equity.

things to consider...how long is your commute and how good are the schools?

where to start....

read it again boys...."can you find a scab to do it for that, sure, but you better hope he or she never damages anything or gets hurt on your property because you'll probably get stuck with the bill." all it takes is one incident...

"And yes, landscapers put much less than minimum wage workers in charge of 10's of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. Many of them hire undocumented aliens, so the guy driving the $20,000 truck probably doesn't even have a driver's license."...you're not accounting for the supervisor thats chasing after them to make sure things get done because he's driving a truck too....go ahead, I want to hear it, "there isn't one".....so are we to actually believe that all it takes to run a professional landscaping business is to put a few guys in a truck and go sit at the house!

"As far as the $20k rig… No I would not have one of those… That’s a great way to not make money. Im more of a $2000 fully paid for 1987 Toyota truck, a new $350 mower, a $200 weed-wacker, and another grand or two in other tools. When your over head is low, and you own everything, you can make money. If you are supporting a 20k rig… I agree you can’t make much money"...if you DON"T have 20k tied up in your rig, you won't be making much money. what happens the first time the truck tosses a timing belt?. ever tried to find a decent cylinder head for a 22r? thats 2k down the tubes...i can almost hear the grass growing and the phone ringing off the hook because the mower won't fit in the back of the BMW. and a $350 lawn mower? lucky to get one season out of it if that.

"I have a older married couple that mows grass at some of our smaller SFHs. Only charge $15 per house!!?!?!?!? We treat these people well with tips and extras like gift cards." are these folks licensed and insured?

"Looks like we might just have to agree that we disagree on this one"…if everyone here wants to believe they can get their lawn care done professionally, on time everytime, WITHOUT THE LIABILITIES OF INJURY OR LAWSUITS, then believe as you will.