All Forum Posts by: Logan Hicks

Why would you ever let someone stay at any of your properties for free, like ever? Havent you heard of the concept that the milk isnt free? Why didnt you get a day to day lease if nothing else? A week to week? 

I really do hope you learned your lesson here. You got really lucky here. Its a good thing they were too stupid to realize a bag of quickcrete in your pipes would have been 10s of thousands of dollars in damage.

Im willing to take risks on newbies in the TN area, especially Memphis. What were you trying to do?

What are your objectives? Do you have good credit? What is your business plan? Do you have a business plan? What are your housing criteria? Rental Candidate criteria? A lot of questions, all of them matter.

@Melissa Fourie 

The number one things to always tell yourself is this:

"The need for housing will never diminish." "There is no such thing as a good deal, only a good portfolio." "There will always be another purchase I can add instead."

These are three extremely important philosophies to keep in mind at all times. If you dont feel good or arent happy with a deal, always walk away, no questions asked. No matter how much time you put into it, it can, and usually will, go south on you in the future. Its much better to simply walk away.

Majority of people in the US today dont use a formal dining room for much else than once or twice a year meals, or fancy furniture storage.

Convert it into a nice office space, it will sell the house more quickly.

The average american family has 2.2-2.5 kids, so its a family of 4ish. Two bedrooms for the kids, master for the parents, the third for a nice office/playroom/activity room/storage. Way better for value.

If you want the definitive answer, call the person who will be handing you the fine. They will be able to tell you what is, and is not allowed, and its illegal for them to intentionally mislead you, and can be used against the state should you get their comment in writing. 

Being mislead by an official of the state in an oversight position to a particular field is grounds for dismissal of fines, penalties, and/or charges against you.

Dont waste your time and money calling some two bit attorney who charges you a 3500 dollar retainer, call the people who will charge you for violations. They are a lot easier to get ahold of, and far more reliable.

Take one look at a satellite image from space of havana at its ports, and youll see three MASSIVE reasons to say no to investing in cuba right now. Thats right, three ENORMOUS russian carriers are parked there.

Pay attention to politics, it can crush you financially if you arent careful. Right now the only reason why we are playing friendly with Cuba is because they allowed harbor for russian carriers. The second that alliance falls through for them, we dump due to the same reasons we always did, political differences, embargos go back up, and so do the travel restrictions.

Its hard to collect rent from a country that another country hates, and good luck enforcing your ownership rights in the event of a dispute.

Dont get involved in political power pissing contests, simply invest elsewhere. Dubia is a much safer bet for you right now. So is Japan, as well as Italy.

Condos are always a bad idea unless you can get at least 51% of all the properties. HOAs will massacre your profits. If you can get at least 51% of the shares, ensure you can abolish the HOA by means of a majority vote. If so, buy them all, wait till the area fully populates, and strike down the HOA.

At that point, most people are trapped in a particular mindset already, and are trapped in the mortgage.

Your profits will rise due to the HOA being gone.

Otherwise if you cant get out of the HOA fees, simply go somewhere else. Its just not worth it. It you want a lot of cheap properties per door, go after MFUs.

Its 10 loans.

Hit the 4 cap, consolidate, hit the 4 cap again. Considate a 2nd time, incorporate, transfer the profits to the business. Profit for 2 years, build a portfolio, establish yourself as a business entity specializing in real estate, grow from there as a business using business loans to grow your business.

I use a more specific method of approach to rental properties that I find is effective across the board, regardless of region.

You always target the following things:

A profit point vs price to purchase 

Areas of historical high population.

A price range of 50k-200k.

For me for example, I wont accept a property with a profit margin of less than 20% at the end of the day, all things said and done, its simply not worth my time.

Also, I target a specific profit margin of x per $100 I spend on a property. For example, If I spend 100,000 dollars on a property, I want 20,000 or more in profit at the end of the day. 

By following a disciplined guideline such as this, you never buy trash properties that run high costs, you never buy excessively costly properties that the average american cant afford to buy from you if you chose to liquidate, and you maintain a profit margin of your desired end point.

Obviously as well, you can tell that you are more limited in the types of properties that you can buy, and where you can buy for obvious regions, but in higher populated regions, rents are always more expensive simply because of supply and demand.

For instance, in Frederick, MD, my previous abode, I was paying 2800 a month for rent for a house there. Over a 100 years old property, but in a desirable area. The owner was making close to 200% of mortgage on me, but that is the cost to win a house on 5th street.

Ask for his P & L statement as well as his tax forms for his properties. 

If he has as many properties as you believe he absolutely has an LLC of some kind holding them all, and will also have a corporate tax form.

Get all of the documents, and see how they all have performed collectively. You dont want to inherit just his troubled children, you want the whole manor.