All Forum Posts by: Ken Hicks

What am I hearing so much about foundation problems in the Dallas area? I am told you have to water your foundation because it is a slab and is on clay that drys up to much in the summer. Has anyone ever had or know of anyone that has had a foundation problem in the Dallas area, or any other area? Usually the average cost to fix this problem is around $7,000

Let me take a crack at this one. If your selling that is good. If you are buying that is bad bad bad. If I remember right it's your yearly NOI (taxes, insurance, bills, snow removal what ever it cost to maintain the apartment building. Most realtor's don't include everything when they do the NOI so watch out.) lets say the NOI is $20,000 then you divide that amount by what you will put into the unit. say the unit cost $250,000 and you put $30,000 down so now you owe $220,000. example would be $20,000/$220,000=.09 or 9% caprate. someone please correct me if I'm wrong. I don't even look at anything unless it's a 10% caprate Yeah I don't buy much.

I won't spend a dime on training material, or classes until you go to your local real estate investment club. I would network with others and ask questions and be honest these guys will know if your a newbie, or not. Usually they have classes you can take at the club.

somtimes you can assign the contract to the rehabber for a fee or when dealing with fannie mae, hud, or banks you have to do a double closing and hope you rehabber doesn' back out. its best to join a REI club and make contacts with people that have cash ready and and close in days not months and get multiple back up offers.

I try not to mix my friends with my business, some don't even know that I have rentals. It just is not worth the head ache of a friend asking you to teach them about real estate. I just feel like giving them one of my 20 books I bought then see how bad they want to learn. Some realtors work hard and are honest but for every one of those there are 20 that are not. I learned like you the hard way on how this business is. I was with my so called buyers agent at the time riding in his car and I was telling him about the offer I wanted to make, He turned to me and said "If that house would sell for that amount I would buy it". I know then working with him is not in my best interest. Now I only contact the listing agent, and every time I hear "oh I work with investors all the time let me send you some listings" I tell them thats great and also included a list of repairs needed on the property and an ARV. long story short I never hear back from them. Just consider this a nice free leason from that awsome school of hard knocks were tuition can be anywere from $1- High as you can count. Lesson lived, Lesson learned Move on

Way to go. Now I feel like reading all those posts just to see whats going on. I usually avoid things that bring that much attention.

I am starting to see alot of L.E.D. billboards. I am really not sure what they call it. Usually I see them mounted on the side of a building and the ad changes every 5 seconds or so. Pretty cool stuff. I'm not sure what it cost.

:welcome:

I agree about not paying for a mentor, However I do believe to compensate some one that helps me. If a guy helped me close a deal you can bet I would give them a fair amount of money on that deal or help them in other ways. This lets me sleep good at night knowing I did the right thing. Lack of focus is my primary problem. I just wanted to get some insight on what everyones veiws are with mentors. I'm sure some people had good experiences. But to pay $4,000-$10,000 for a mentor is a big investment.

ILoveRealEstate What experience have you had with mentors?