All Forum Posts by: Mark S.

@Blake Garcia I agree with what you say - Just remember that any time you replace an outlet code requires an arc fault.

@Sam Giberti Something you will hopefully learn is that asking for advice and then calling people vulgar names when you don’t like what they offer is really not the way to develop yourself as a professional, which is what I assume you would like to do. By the way, I don’t hold myself to be an expert on all things but I am an MBA/CFA with 35 years experience managing personal and institutional assets as well as a land management company. Now in a second career as a licensed general contractor and RE investor. So I would hope that young people just starting their careers would be open to suggestions from people with my kind of experience. As I said in my original post, good luck.

@Sam Giberti So if you have it all figured out why are you asking for advice? Check back in 10 years and let us know how it goes. Not trying to be mean but honest. Too many people are being mislead into believing RE is the only way to wealth and you can do it with no money. Any time you can get free money you should never pass it up.

@Yazan Ayyash as has been discussed in multiple posts on BP, it really depends on your goals. And cash flow is only one component of making money in real estate. There is also principal pay down, potential appreciation, conversion of ordinary income to long term capital gains on sale. Also need to consider how much money you are tying up to get that $200 (or $300 or whatever). What are your needs and goals? What is your end game/exit plan? All these things matter. Those who simply say $xx per door or x% rent to purchase price are over simplifying. Buying real estate is a more involved purchase than most things. Good luck.

@Jason James I usually offer without inspection but I generally know what to look for. One approach that is often taken in the Minneapolis market is for the seller to have an inspection done, address any real issues that come up, and then put the property on the market with the pre-listing inspection available to potential buyers. That makes the property that much more attractive and can take away some of the crap that some buyers pull by making an offer they know they won’t honor as written, planning to try to work the price down based on an inspection.

@Thuy Pham-Satrappe I NEVER buy a property without insuring it. But the stuff I buy runs in the 250-500k range. Would be way too much risk vs. cost to not do so. I suppose if you were buying 25k properties it may be okay. But why risk it? The cost is minimal.

@Matt Michaelson if it was horribly dangerous we would all be sick or dead.Do you eat baked goods, for example? Do you realize that small grain fields are sprayed with Roundup to kill them off so the grain starts to dry? That corn has been modified to be ‘Roundup ready?

@Dennis M. The kid selling night crawlers isn’t creating any equity or tax benefits - not a good comparison.

@Zachary Bohn However, there are some REIT managers who will also handle 1031 exchanges for individual properties that they manager or have access to.

@Geoff Antone Keep in mind the tax benefits of LTCG on a hold vs. ordinary income, including FICA taxes, on a flip. Makes a huge difference in what you actually make in a property when you sell.