All Forum Posts by: Aaron Kinney

I recently set up a mail merge program for the creation of documents in my real estate business (offers, leases, thank you letters to sellers & buyers, and eviction paperwork). By filling out a few values in a spreadsheet, I can create a new completed document much faster than before. It's also reduced errors as it's obvious in the spreadsheet what values need to be completed.

Anyway, I thought that since I found it useful, other investors may like it as well. I set up the website (SendQuickOffers.com) a couple of weeks ago to assist real estate agents with their offers but am willing to help anybody with any real estate documents.

I'd be willing to give discounted or possibly free work to the first couple people who reply that they're interested in exchange for their feedback.

Hello, I'm actively buying mobile homes with land in the Columbia and Aiken markets.  

I just wanted to chime in on the property tax discussion.  When I bought my first personal residence in Lexington, the property taxes at the 6% rate on a $100k home were at $2,900.  Once we got the home reclassified at the 4% rate, the taxes dropped to under $600 with the same assessed value of the home.

In my experience, rental property tends to be taxed at an actual rate of 6% while owner-occupied property has an actual rate between 0.5 and 0.7%.  

With our investing in lower-priced properties, we're far from being immune to these tax hits but can better absorb them with higher cash flow than most site-built single family homes.

That sounds good, @Chris Duzan . Hope to see you out there.

Hey Everybody!

Come out and grab some lunch in Lexington to discuss all things real estate investing.

Whether you're just starting out or are quite experienced, all attendees should be able to gain some useful knowledge and/or contacts.

Please let me know if you are coming as soon as possible so that I can let the restaurant know.

Also, here's a Groupon worth considering:

http://www.groupon.com/deals/main-street-cafe-bar-grill

Hope to see you out there.

Hey Chris, you are definitely welcome to come and bring your friends.

I just set up a group on meetup.com as Lexington Real Estate Investing Meetup.

Hopefully we can all gain something from this get-together regardless of experience.

I am looking to start a real estate investor's club in the Columbia, South Carolina area.

I envision it being a simple no-pitch, no-fee club that meets a couple of times a month to discuss the current happenings in each investor's business and to help each person grow their current business.

I'd like to set these up to run on a weekday lunch or a Saturday breakfast to keep them short but hopefully productive. If you have an interest, please let me know.

Hey @Daniel Warren

Our agreements state that our tenants are responsible for all repairs. However, we will help them when major issues arise on a case-by-case basis.

Hey @Daniel Warren ,

If you are wanting to owner-finance mobile homes, don't give up. The product (providing affordable housing in the form of a mobile home) is not illegal in itself but the method of delivering this product (owner-financing the mobile home) is in question. Just keep in mind that we're not dealing in illegal products but simply need to manipulate our delivery.

In regards to the delivery, my method is similar to what Bill suggested in that the mobile home is a rental until the last payment is made at which point I agree to give the title to the tenant-buyer due to the ending of the useful life of the mobile home.

This is far from being a perfect strategy, but it's working for me right now and I'll adapt when necessary.

Hey @Omar Naguib ,

That's great about getting into mobile home investing. I'm on the mobile home and land side myself but started with just mobile homes. I have three pieces of advice for you:

1. Educate yourself as much as you can. BP is a great place to do that. Check out a bunch of the books on Amazon related to mobile home investing. John's MobileHomeInvesting.net and Rachel's AdventuresInMobileHomes.com are great resources as well.

2. Evaluate your financial condition. I'm not just talking about how much money you have in the bank but also what is your borrowing power. I know that you're young so your credit is new but work to build that score up. And if you can make a little money in college with some W-2 income, you might be able to borrow money on personal lines of credit at your bank to be able to help finance that first deal.

Also, check with any of your close relationships (friends and family) and see if they would be interested investing with you.

3. Get started as soon as you can. One of the biggest regrets from established real estate investors is that they didn't start investing sooner.

I started investing when I was 21 but wish I could have started even sooner.

Hey @Ken Rishel ,

I'll send you the eBook I wrote about my business , including how we sell our homes. Just email me at [email protected].

It's definitely not a perfect strategy. It will need to be adapted as time goes on and more information comes out about new federal regulations.

That's what we are all here for is to get better through collaboration.