All Forum Posts by: Will F.

I actually had heard of National Family mortgage before. Supposedly they have a $725 one time fee. I might try them. Has anyone else had experience with them?

I might also just do a form on Nolo. This is a family member who I trust and who trusts me a lot. We've already been doing business together for 10 years. The monthly payments would be no problem for me. I will just have them electronically sent to my lender/family member directly each month.

I had brief discussion with my accountant- he just said that the lender would just have to file a 1098 to report the interest they earn as income and I would be able to report the interest I pay.

Hello,

So I was going to get a loan from a close family member for around $125K to purchase a condo or home for myself.

I was wondering what is the legit way to do this?

It does not necessarily need to be recorded but I am amortizing the loan over 30 years etc at 4.5%.

Is there an easy way to "do-it-yourself" as in write something up and just start paying him. I want do this legitimately on his side also so that he can report his 4.5% earnings to IRS etc.

I was thinking of just using a form from a place like Nolo or similar, has anyone done this before?

Thanks guys. Yeah I think he totally overcharged for the inside of the apartment. I forgot to mention that the sq ft of the apartment is about 840.

Anyways last week I let him paint the exterior of this 2 1/2 story triplex. The triplex is mainly stucco but has all wood paneling on the front and wood trim all around the first, second floor and the roof.

He charged $2300 to paint the exterior wood trim around roof and on first level, also the front of the triplex, which was all damaged wood that needed a lot of replacing. This took about 4 days with 2-4 workers and had extensive wood damage.

I feel that for this we got a better deal, as I was there most of the time to inspect it.

PS and no I did not have insurance for this, but have spoken to my insurance agent and will have it for the next time ;P Actually the next time I will most likely use a licensed painter

Yeah Sheri, Long Beach/ LA I can't find anything that cashflow using the 50% rule. Whereas in Vegas it seems like I can (based on a couple quick searches, so don't quote me on this). Perhaps they barely cashflow if vacancies are high. Also I do realize that rents are going down in Vegas so that's something I should consider

http://www.forbes.com/sites/morganbrennan/2013/06/13/the-most-overvalued-and-undervalued-housing-markets-in-the-u-s/

This is yet another article that states Las Vegas is an undervalued market for housing. Perhaps its still an OK time to get into it. Obviously not as great as 2011, but I wish I had just gone with my gut about a year ago when I initially found interest in the market.

They also list Atlanta, Chicago, and Orlando as other undervalued markets.

The article is based largely on data from a firm Fitch Ratings, which claims that the local economy in Vegas should support higher RE values.

So what do you all think about the 50% and 2 % guideline for RE in Vegas? What are some areas

Thanks Rob I'm going to call my insurance guy (state farm) about this. I also don't know about taxes etc as far as how to set that up with these laborers.

When I do things like roofs or painting 2 story buildings I try to hire licensed contractors, but I suppose they could be hiring someone unlicensed as well. It's scary thinking about liability issues. I guess that's just going to be another cost that will eat into any profit :-/ ... but it is probably worth it.

Rob K Hey where do you get this insurance from? Could I go directly to my renter's insurance?

I guess that's another big risk I'm taking hiring these laborers.

With buy and hold real estate it's really hard to find cash flow if I'm not cheap LOL.

Wow Mike I think you're pretty darn close as far as pricing here.

I think he did spend a lot of time with prep work etc. Although, his original price was going to be $1800 but after I complained he lowered it to the $1660.

He told me that he spent about $350 on Paint and other supplies. I think he said he used 5-6 gallons of paint.

I don't want to just nickle and dime him. I just thought that he was over charging.

I agree that 50 hours seems a lot for a job like this. I think that he probably really spent just a few hours a day, but I was not around to inspect it.

I feel that it's hard to turn a profit in this business without trying to get deals on labor. Especially for things that don't require as much skill like painting.

I understand that licensed workers will have their own insurance etc, but I'm trying to turn a profit here and in LA the real estate/mortgage payments are so high...

How much would a licensed painter or handyman charge in Los Angeles?

Thanks everyone for your different input, helps a lot.

Thanks Tom. I like that philosophy in some ways ;) Especially when you think about quality of work.

Now I'm trying to figure out some specifics as to what other's are paying for this type of job. Then I figure out a point to compare it to. For this example my worker requested for 3 x what I would have expected from him, although perhaps the quality was slightly better than expected.

Hi everyone we have several rentals in the Los Angeles area. For tenant turnover we often have to do basic cleaning, flooring, paint, caulk etc.

For this we go with the cheapest labor possible. I found a "handyman" worker who speaks only broken English, but enough to understand 80% of what we talk about.

So the pros are that he's generally cheaper than a contractor. I trust him for the most part. But the cons are there's a communication problem as far as English and that his prices are becoming more expensive for what his actual skills are.

Anyways I was wondering how much you generally pay for someone like this and how you pay them (per job/per hour)

I feel that in the beginning he charged very little for his services, but lately he has been increasing prices.

For instance, for a one bed one bath apartment (650 sq ft apx) with large kitchen he charged $1660 for basic cleaning and paint. I happened to be out of town for this so I just had him collect the keys so we had not agreed upon a price. For this he used a double coat of Behr Ultra Paint/primer, and had to deal with a lot of oils from the kitchen, but I still don't understand how it could be this expensive. He also claimed it took 6 days with 2 people.

We argued over this price because I have had apartment paint specialists (found through apartment associations) paint a similar apartment with basic cleaning for about $500. These people come in over 1-2 days and just spray everything with cheap paint but it will still come out looking good overall.

So how do you all set up basic systems for paying handymen? Do you pay per hour? I could see them taking their time if paid hourly. How do you set up incentives for them to do things more quickly? Or any negotiating tips would be helpful.

Thanks Marco, Victor, Shari, Lukasz, Shane.

Shari Posey : "Will F.--Where are you finding $500k 4-plexes in LB that rent for $1000 per unit? "
Forgive me, more like $600k 4 plexes that rent for $900 per unit in the lower income areas of Long Beach (West and North. The nicer areas of Long Beach can be $650k+ for a duplex that rents for $1700.
Is this more correct for Long Beach? What areas of Long Beach do you think are best for investment?
I've actually been searching for just something that will cash flow in long beach, but with the 50% rule none of them even come near cash flowing. In the North and West I see some that are a little better investments.

Shane Tomas You say the market is Soft and a seller's market? I thought a soft market means its a buyer's market and there are a lot more sellers than buyers so prices would be decreasing.

Are prices decreasing or increasing in vegas? I would assume if the inventory is so low as people have said above the prices would be increasing?

Lukasz: How's the research going?