All Forum Posts by: Lynn McGeein

Sounds to me like this is more about work atmosphere than location. I do not know what your family/home situation is, small children, space issues, but I had an acquaintance (her son lived with her but he was grown) who turned her dining room and living room into offices and had 2-3 others on her team that just came to her house and worked from there. I thought, Perfect, conduct business, team atmosphere, and you can do laundry, too!

I never minded being alone in a home office, but my husband is definitely a more social creature and really needs that team environment. Just coffee breaks with colleagues, even office meetings just refresh him, give him better energy than working alone. Sounds like you need that, too, so don't ignore it, just look for economical ways to make it happen. Maybe hook up with 1 or 2 others at an investment club or just go out for coffee with them once a week, a refresh mode for yourself.

Tom, Welcome! I just found BP 2 months ago, and kind of addicted at this point. Learned a lot about hard money lenders, subject to, insurance issues, etc... just pick different topics and start reading and you'll be amazed at the knowledge on these boards.

We have 3 rentals in the Raleigh area. My husband and I also got into it to supplement our income, and we've been very happy with the results over the years.

It can't be that bad!!! Be careful or you'll start to sound like Rick Santorum and his rant about President Kennedy!

Warning: Forum posting after 2 Manhattans. Please disregard any offensive statements.

Yeah, our choice at the time (2008) was either refinance with commercial loans under the LLC, which apparently the banks would let us do at much higher rates and balloons, etc., to get the liability issue handled, or go against the current wisdom at the time (2008-2009), forget the LLC, keep the low interest rates fixed for 30 years and just up our umbrella policies and hope for the best. Actually comforting to know we aren't the only ones in this situation as I was perturbed that it all seemed to change right when we decided to do it.

We plan to change it all and establish a trust once we get settled again, feel like gypsies right now moving across country and re-establishing ourselves with properties scattered across the U.S., but the last 3 years have been very interesting, to say the least.

If a Maryland Certified Inspector Technician or Risk Assessor, IT or RA, certifies a '70s home lead-free, than I do not have to get certified myself or follow lead-base paint practices to do the work myself as landlord. I would like to find a reputable inspector working in/near Annapolis, MD, to do both the home inspection and the lead inspection together before closing. If you know a good, certified, lead inspection service that provides these certificates, please let me know. If they just do lead inspection and not home inspection, that is fine, but I prefer it all done at once.

Jeff, Separate policy, but minimums required on all auto, home, landlord policies, no matter the carrier, to meet requirements for umbrella. Also, watch out for teenagers. Ugh. After 3 car wrecks (no major injuries, thank goodness!), we lost our really great umbrella and had to go with a much higher price policy from another company. They say I have one more year to go to get back to the good one with my primary insurance, barring any other incidents.

Cheryl, I don't think he'd ever play a shill at any stage of his life, but I just find it very coincidental that he chooses today, the day of the announcement of 2500 bulk sales, to express his opinion of, What a great idea if only he had the property management in place to manage it. Fully realize I'm a conspiracy theory nut, but coincidences like that always make me wonder what is really going on in the world.

If you have enough assets, credit, and contacts, it is possible to refinance the properties with commercial loans in the LLC's name. BB&T actually told me they would do that with the mortgage we held with them should we wish to continue with the LLC, but it was a much higher interest rate, points, terms, etc. for commercial refi, so we just increased our umbrella policy and kept our low rates.

He said something about his company not finding decent solution to manage that many individual single family homes, unlike apartment buildings. I, personally, think he's out there drumming up interest in the bulk sale program the government just announced. Not sure why he would do that, favor to President Obama maybe, but strange that he's saying all those things the same day they announce the first 2500 bulk sales program.

It doesn't look like it will affect my areas, but it certainly will have an impact on Atlanta. And will the sale price affect the appraisals, BPOs etc coming up after the bulk sale, prices sold a matter of public record? Anyway, just thought it interesting and a little scary for little guys like me who were actually thinking of buying another rental by the end of the year. May hold off to see what unforeseen issues arise from this.