All Forum Posts by: Luis Toledo

You can't bar them from installing the dish, but you can bar them from putting holes in your walls or attaching anything to the structure...

As for who gets to pay for removal of the dish and repair of the structure... that would be you unless you still have something like a security deposit from the tenant. In the future, just require that if they install a dish, then they must return the property to its previous condition when they leave or you'll take it out of the deposit.

I took a look at the zoning map for that area and it's all zoned CN, or compact neighborhood. Which is basically mixed use medium density residential and commercial. The SFR is actually out of place for the current zoning, but of course it was grandfathered in.

So the numbers are as follow, 160k asking price and rent should be 1200-1400 per month with a little work on the property, basically paint and landscaping from the looks of it. Maybe new appliances. I'll know for sure after the inspection. I'm wondering if it will bring that much as a parking lot with a lot less headache and lower taxes... Taxes are about 1100 per year and insurance will likely be about the same, conservatively. Assuming a 30 year amortization at 5% for $850 per month I'm looking at maybe $200 per month net. Did I do that right? I really didn't want to be a landlord but I figure that's a lot of my market...

So thoughts? Deal or no deal?

Thanks Joe Fairless ! I'm not familiar with the rezoning process but am trying to get together with a commercial developer who is. The property is the only SFR zoned parcel on that block. The rest of the block is either parking lot or Garden MFR. I can't imagine meeting any resistance to rezoning, especially for the parking lot option or acquiring a few additional adjoining parcels and rezoning it for retail/restaurant space.

I got a lead yesterday on a 2/1/1200sqft home on .3 acres that's adjacent to a 4.75 acre parcel bought last year for $4 million to develop high end apartments. When I say "adjacent", I mean it actually borders the larger parcel on two sides and would be the key to acquiring an additional .3 acre parcel on the other side of my lot to fill out the rectangle of the development.

The property is very convenient to a prestigious local university and hospital. Assuming the developer would pay the same price per square foot for this parcel that they paid for the large lot, it would go for twice what the owner is asking.

Assuming this property isn't bought from me by the developer, it would be a great parking lot as it could service the nearby university/hospital as well as provide overflow for the MFR, it could also be potentially be rezoned commercial and be a great restaurant location.

I'm trying to find a local commercial developer/investor to talk through options. My plan is to get it under contract today and hold it as a student rental in the short term unless I can flip it to a developer for a quick profit. I'm looking at a slight negative cash flow if I rent it out.

I'm new to this sort of thing but I really think there's a deal to be had here, it's just not straight forward. Advice? This is the first lead I got from my first letter campaign.

I have a full time job and am just starting out. My wife is a SAHM, but we have two small children, so she can't reliably answer the phone. I'm about to send out my first yellow letter campaign and have determined that making the most of the leads created requires the phone to be answered live every single time. I'll try VM options later to test whether there is really a difference, but I'm determined to go with a service at first (IOW, please don't tell me to use GV and send everything to VM ;)

I''ve researched a bunch of different services, but actual recommendations from real customers in our business are hard to come by.

So, if you've used an answering service to field calls for your business would care to share your experience (good or bad), I'd love to hear it.

My plan is to have the AS collect very basic info at first, basically asking for name, contact info and the address of the property so that I can do some research and call them back ASAP.

So what's the skinny on answering services? What are they good for? What aren't they good for? Who have you used and what was your experience? Thanks in advance!

@John Horner

I haven't subscribed to helloblair.com but I just called the sample line and was not impressed at all. The girl who answered seemed surprised that someone was calling. I told her I wanted to sell a property and she put me on hold for at least 15 seconds. Long enough that I was wondering if she would come back. When she did start working from the script it was really noisy in the background and she kind of fumbled through it while taking the message. I had to repeat myself several times, but she was good at repeating back what she understood so I knew she got the message right.

@David Jonsson

I know lots of folks who have had dealings with State regulators. The last thing you want to do antagonize them. Some bureaucrat will get a hair up their hole and make your life miserable and there will be no way to avoid it except to spend more money on lawyers. Your goal should be to GET OFF THEIR RADAR ASAP.

I think responding to them in person was a mistake. A good, real estate investor friendly lawyer should have responded on your behalf and put this thing to bed. Since that didn't happen, lets see if they respond asking for more info. If they do, please let your new lawyer do the talking, you can only hurt yourself by responding directly.

Also, is "Rockstar Realty LLC" the same entity that you used to use when you were licensed? Because that could cause you trouble. Either way, I would talk to that lawyer about creating a new company that doesn't have the word "Realty" in the name. He might recommend that since you aren't going to own real property under the LLC, you might want to do business as a regular corporation and create LLC's for properties you intend to take title of... Not a lawyer, but he might say the same thing..

Originally posted by @Rafael Floresta:

@Todd Plambeck
I will let some time go by and let her survey the market and learn more about the prices.

I agree, it sounds like she might not be ready to sell yet. Did you ask about a timeframe as to when she needs to sell and why? If she doesn't have that motivation, you might have a while to wait. Definitely follow up though, time and circumstance and all that...

Originally posted by @Rafael Floresta:

@Luis Toledo , thank you so much. Your post is enlightening.
She contacted me first because I sent her a yellow letter.

Do you even ask the sellers how much they want out of the transaction? Or do you give a number first?

I think if you dig a little, there's a reason beyond her just getting a yellow letter from you that caused her to call an investor instead of a Realtor. Realtors are everywhere and everyone knows what they do. She decided to find out how much you would offer for her house and if you lead the conversation, but talk very little and let her fill in the dead air on the phone you'll probably find out what her motivation is. Then address that directly by offering a solution.

I'm new to real estate, but I've applied the principles of sales, marketing and negotiation in other businesses successfully (so there's my disclaimer.) Generally speaking, in any negotiation (job salary, purchase, sale, etc.) you don't want to be the first person to offer a number. I've heard many explanations for why this is a basic tenant, but here's my theory... stating a number is making a commitment to the transaction and giving up the power to decide, psychologically anyway. If I'm trying to buy your house and ask you what you want for it and you tell me a number, you're essentially saying "here's my price that I'll say yes to." If the seller gives a number, they've essentially committed to selling you their house, what's left is the price negotiation. It's like the old joke goes "Will you sleep with me for $1 million dollars?" the other person says "sure," or something like that... "How about $1?"... "Of course not, what kind of person do you think I am?"... "We've already established that you're a whore, now we're just negotiating a price..." (The joke seems to work better with lawyers...)

Once that number has been given, the other person then has the power to decide whether to accept it. If they accept it then the person who made the offer will feel obligated to complete the transaction. This persists beyond the initial negotiation. Honest people are far less likely to try and back out of a deal where they made (as opposed to accepted) the final offer. It's why I'm always willing to come down a few bucks from my price if the person asks... coming down a little almost always secures a smooth transaction because of that give and take, its the same trick as establishing obligation by offering food or drink and them accepting. Michael Quarles (in a podcast I heard) has suggested asking how much they think the house is worth and then following that up with asking how much they'd take. I think he also said that he asks at several times throughout his initial discussion how much they need.

I think buying houses for profit is a little confusing because of the terms we use. We call the person with the house "the seller", but in fact we're trying to convince them to accept our offer, not the other way around. Think of them as a customer for our service, which is "ease of transaction" that they're paying for with equity and I think you'll see that its just like any other sales process.

It sounds like you lost her trust at some point. I don't see the point of letting a seller know your ARV. It's a lose lose situation. You're either confirming the inflated number in their head and inviting suspicion when they figure out "what you're going to make" on the deal, or you're challenging their reality and forcing them to defend their mistake. When you go to trade in a car at a dealership, they don't tell you what your car will sell for after they get it, that number has no bearing on the transaction at hand. They're offering you what your car is worth to them at that time. I once pulled out a Blue Book appraisal to show a dealer what they should be offering me... the guy told me that it's too bad KBB won't let me print out a check too. He had a point. Now I always get an offer from Carmax before walking into a car dealership with a trade. I guess what I'm trying to say is that sales isn't about convincing prospects that they should take what you're offering, it's about showing them that you have the solution to their problem and letting them make up their own mind. Why did she call you first and not a Realtor? Find out what that motivation was and address the problem/need, then offer a solution that will solve it and ask to move forward (close the sale.) Don't try to talk them into anything and for Pete's sake don't try to convince them with numbers. If your solution to their problem sounds good enough, they'll convince themselves.