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All Forum Posts by: Matt R.

Matt R. has started 16 posts and replied 478 times.

Post: What is the official MLS website for KCMO?

Matt R.Posted
  • Blue Springs, MO
  • Posts 481
  • Votes 313

@Georges Martin 

Disclaimer: I am not a Realtor or real estate agent.

The official site is Heartland MLS, http://www.heartlandmls.com/ .  However, humans can't search for properties there... it's just for Realtors to log in and add/update/delete listings.  It refers you to http://realtor.com if you want to search for properties.

Heartland MLS is owned by the KC Regional Association of Realtors, which is the link Johnathan Schneider gave.

(In some cities, humans are allowed to search the "official" MLS site. I used to live in Tulsa, OK and their MLS is like that.)

Matt R.

Post: I'm panicking! Just bought my first property.

Matt R.Posted
  • Blue Springs, MO
  • Posts 481
  • Votes 313

@Jeff Bisgier

Congratulations!  I remember bouncing around for a couple of days earlier this year after I wrote a big check and signed a lot of papers.  It gets better.  :D

To answer one of your questions:

> 2. Any good sites on what order to do rehab work in the house? Not sure where to start.

Your contractor can help with this, but one way to do this is to think about the way that the house was originally built.  The things that were put in first are buried under things that were put in later, so if you have to fix any of those "early" things, you do those first, so you aren't having to tear out something you just did.

1.  Basic supporting structure of the house.  Things like: big cracks in the foundation walls, sagging beams in the basement, floor in the bedroom moves up and down two inches when you jump on it.  This stuff can affect the entire house.

2.  Outside envelope of the house.  Things like: rotten wood around the windows, somebody didn't caulk around the dryer vent, the roof leaks or needs replaced.  Basically, you're trying to keep the weather on the outside.

3.  Electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling systems inside the house.  Things like: outlets that need to be GFCIs, worn-out light switches, faucet that needs to be replaced, leaky drain pipe on a sink, bathroom vent fan that doesn't work, furnace needs repair, etc.  Fixing some of the electrical and plumbing things sometimes means opening up walls.

4.  Stuff built into the interior of the house.  Things like: a new bedroom door, new kitchen cabinets, fixing closet shelves, etc.

5.  Wall and ceiling finish and paint.  Things like: fixing holes in drywall, replacing walls you cut into to fix something else, staining the new kitchen cabinets, etc.

6.  Floor finish.  Things like: installing tile, carpet, hardwood, vinyl.

You may also have stuff to do in the yard (grass seed, trimming trees, shoveling snow, etc) and that stuff kind of happens as needed.  A lot of these things just aren't going to happen in the winter in New York, so they will probably come later on for you.

Please remember that 1) I am not a professional contractor and 2) this is a rough guide.  Sometimes you do things "out of order".  For instance, if you look at the house on the first day and the light switch for the stairs is broken, you go buy a switch for $2 and install it, so you (and anyone else working there) don't fall on your butt when you try to go down the stairs in the dark.

I hope this helps!

Matt R.

Post: Opinions on REI Club First Meeting

Matt R.Posted
  • Blue Springs, MO
  • Posts 481
  • Votes 313

@Patrick Kane

"What is the typical format for these meetings? Things to look out for?"

Format

I've been going to one of the local REIA meetings for a little over a year now. This is what I've seen. Keep in mind that probably every group does it a bit differently; this is all my own observations and opinions.

The meeting is held once a month at a local hotel, in one of the bigger conference rooms.  There is hotel-conference-room type food available starting at 6 PM.  (What I mean is, don't expect steaks and sushi and Scotch.  :D  Think fried chicken, ravioli, meatballs, water, iced tea, stuff like that.)

There is an admission charge. You can attend one meeting for free, and then pay for meetings one at a time, or buy a quarterly or yearly membership. The yearly membership at the one I go to is $100. I'm sure the REIA makes a *little* money on this, but I think it mostly goes for the food, renting the room, etc.

The "formal" program doesn't begin until 7 PM; from 6 to 7 you can grab some food, wander around and talk to people, check out the vendors (see next), or do whatever you want.

There is a "vendors" area next to the conference room.  This consists of a set of tables where various people/companies advertise their products and services.  Some of the vendors have a slick trade-show-booth setup and sometimes it's one person with a stack of flyers.  These vary a lot: I've seen hard money lenders, turnkey providers, wholesalers, building contractors/tradesmen, suppliers (flooring, cabinets, appliances), companies that offer tenant screening, property managers, etc.  Home Depot was there once explaining their "pro buyer" and paint discount programs.  There is also a table in the vendors area for people who don't have a whole table of their own, but put out flyers, business cards, brochures, etc for their business.  The vendors are always there from 6 to 7 PM; some of them stick around after the formal presentation and some don't.

At most meetings, there is a small meeting for total newbies (people who are there for the very first time) from 6:30 to 7. This happens in a smaller room or in the corner of the big conference room. The head of the REIA group will briefly explain the group, what it is, how the meetings work, etc.

At 7 PM, the formal program begins. Everybody sits down and the head of the REIA group welcomes everyone and makes announcements. Sometimes they talk briefly about some issue that might affect everyone, like changes in state laws. They often mention other REIA group meetings that happen in the local area. Also, each of the vendors comes up and gives their 30-second pitch for what they do. This whole part of the program takes maybe 10 or 15 minutes.

Then, the head of the REIA group introduces the main speaker for that evening. This person usually talks (and takes questions) for 60 to 90 minutes on one particular topic. Some of the ones I've seen include: a local landlord giving tips and "lessons learned" from their experience renting out houses; a representative of a company that does self-directed IRAs; someone who was pitching a guru program. In my experience, some of these were good and relevant to my interests; some were good but were about a type of investing or financing that I'm not interested in *right now*; some were sales pitches. (It's OK to leave if you decide it's just a sales pitch.) Occasionally there will be two main speakers... in that case, usually the first one has a short presentation, like 20 or 30 minutes, and then the second one has a longer one.

After the main speaker is done, some people leave and some people hang out and talk.  The conference room "closes" at 9 PM and some people then adjourn to the hotel bar.  :)

In the December meeting, there is no main speaker... instead they set up a long line of tables and we do "speed networking", like speed dating.  Basically, half the people sit on one side of the tables and half on the other.  When they say "go", you have 90 seconds to introduce yourself and give your pitch, and then the other person has 90 seconds to do the same.  When that's done, everybody moves one chair to the left, and does it again.  Most people bring a stack of business cards (or flyers or whatever they have) to exchange during this process.

Things to look out for

There should be a mix of people there.  What I mean is, if everyone there is brand new to investing, you might be at a sales pitch. At a "good" REIA meeting, there will be some newbies, but there will also be people that own a few rental properties, people that own a *lot* of rental properties, money/finance people, wholesalers, real estate agents, lawyers, etc. The focus will be on meeting different people who you might be able to work with when investing. For example, you might meet a wholesaler who has a good deal on a house that fits your criteria, and someone who can help you with the financing on it, and maybe a contractor who can help with some of the rehab. It works both ways... if *you* have a house to sell or money to lend or whatever, *you* can look for/talk to someone who might be interested in what you have.

If the person who seems to be in charge is affiliated with the same company that the "main" speaker is from... you *might* be at a sales pitch. (It wouldn't be totally unheard of for the person in charge at an REIA meeting to also spend some time talking about their own business. If their message is "everyone in the room needs to give *me* money" - sales pitch. If their message is more like "this is what I do, if you're interested, come see me later... now on to the rest of the meeting", then that's more legit, in my opinion.)

One progression I have seen a couple of times is that the "main" speaker will talk for 60 minutes or so "for free", and then pitch a 1-day or 2-day session on an upcoming weekend that costs $50-$200 or so.  If you sign up for the weekend session, you will probably learn some things you didn't know before, but you may also get pitched to sign up for further training that costs a lot more (thousands).

I am less sure about this, but having to spend between 5 and 20 bucks to get in the door seems to be a sign of a "good" REIA meeting. The sales pitches all seem to start with a "free" meeting. Again, this probably varies more than I know about.

What I've done at the meetings

Mostly I'm there to network, but sometimes the speaker is interesting as well.  (The landlord that talked about their experiences gave some good information.)

I laser-print my own business cards to give out.  The front has the usual contact information.  On the back, I print a short blurb about what I'm interested in.  I also usually put the name of the meeting and the date on it.  The very first ones I gave out, last year, said "New to real estate in 4th quarter 2015. Looking to purchase and rent out a single-family home or duplex in Blue Springs, Lee's Summit, or south Independence, Missouri." on the back.  You could also get nice professionally printed cards and then print your own sticker to put on the back, if you want.

The reason I do that is that it's kind of common to get lots of business cards at one of these meetings, and then have a hard time remembering what that person *does* when you look at the card later.  Advice: when somebody gives *you* a card, compare what's on the card with what they've told you they do or are looking for.  If the card doesn't have the same information, immediately write a few short notes on it with a pen, so you can remember later.  Like, "wholesaler, north side, single-family", or "looking for multi-family in Exampleburg and Somewheretown", or whatever.

I hope this helps!

Matt R.

Post: Interior Rental Inspections on YOUR Dime in Independence, which M

Matt R.Posted
  • Blue Springs, MO
  • Posts 481
  • Votes 313
Originally posted by @John Powell:

I'd be there, but I am in Arizona.

The Independence City Council meetings are broadcast online at http://www.ci.independence.mo.us/City7/VideoEvents , but I don't think there is a way for people to ask questions remotely.

The meeting is tonight, 6 September, at 6 PM Central time.

Matt R.

Post: House in T-Intersection

Matt R.Posted
  • Blue Springs, MO
  • Posts 481
  • Votes 313

The house I used to live in (in Oklahoma) was close to a T intersection.  The house was on an east-west street, and another street ran south from that one.  At night, I'd get car headlights sweeping across the front of the house, if someone was driving north and turning west.

The house sat a little bit higher than the street, so the car lights mostly shone on the outside wall of the house just under the windows, and didn't shine directly in the windows.  The house had the master bedroom and another bedroom facing the east-west street.  Both bedrooms had vinyl mini-blinds in the windows, which I would close at night, and the lights didn't bother me.

You might drive your car through there in the early evening or night and see where the headlights shine on the house.  If you think they are shining directly in to a window, maybe a darker shade or blinds on that window would help.

@Account Closed That's a good point, about what it will cost the city.  Since I posted, I watched the City Council study session about the proposal, and they claim that it will be funded by new business licenses for landlords that don't currently have one.  (The business license requirement has been in place for a few years.)  They didn't talk about it in the study session, but I expect they will also charge people to become approved inspectors.

In the study session, the speaker mentions that having the city do the inspections was considered too expensive, so it was put on the landlords.  That video also mentions that there are about 17,000 rental units in the city, and that the city is proposing capping the price of an inspection at $50.  That fee would go to the inspector, not the city.

The way I understand it, if you fail the initial inspection, the reinspection also costs $50. So, the inspector's incentive is to find as many things wrong as they can, one at a time.

@Chris Mason The video of the city meeting also mentions that the inspectors would have to be "approved" by the city, and the city manager at one point says that only "5 to 7" companies would be approved initially.  (So maybe I just found out who is pushing this.)

I wrote three City Council members a week ago.  So far, I've only heard back from one of them, which is sort of interesting.

@Brian Glasser 

@Kim Tucker (Hi, Kim!)

I don't think it's been made into law yet.  I've Googled around and all I can find is the proposal and request for comments from spring 2016, but nothing newer than that.

Post: Indpendence proposes mandatory rental inspections

Matt R.Posted
  • Blue Springs, MO
  • Posts 481
  • Votes 313

Hello, all!

Independence is proposing mandatory rental inspections, that landlords would have to pay for.  This will likely be discussed at the next City Council meeting on 6 September 2016.  I wrote a more detailed post about it here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/346...

Matt Roberds

Post: Kansas City Laws

Matt R.Posted
  • Blue Springs, MO
  • Posts 481
  • Votes 313

Independence, MO has proposed mandatory inspections. I wrote more about it here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/346...

I have read (but can't confirm) that other area governments will be introducing similar legislation, but I don't know the details on anything other than Independence.

Matt Roberds

My first post was the facts.  Here are the opinions and advocacy.  :)

I am opposed to this proposal and I already wrote my City Councilmembers about it.  The City Council has four members with specific districts and two at-large members.  They are all listed here http://www.ci.independence.mo.us/CityCouncil/ ; click on their name and you will get their contact information.  There is also a map of the districts on that page.  I wrote to the member for my district, plus the two at-large members, a couple of days ago; I haven't gotten any response so far.

I also plan to go to the City Council meeting on 6 September.  

I think the reason why they are requiring the landlords to hire the inspectors is to get around the 4th Amendment problem of having a city government employee do the inspection. Back in October 2015, a court found the inspection ordinance in Portsmouth, Ohio invalid for this reason.  (Thread here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/234... )

The different handling of large properties bothers me.  At first, a large property only has to inspect 10% of their units, whereas someone that owns SFRs or duplexes would have to inspect 100% of their units.  Since the inspections are good for two years, a large property effectively has 18 years to inspect all of their units.

Also, the language that requires only 10% of the units at a large property to be inspected doesn't say that it has to be a different 10% of the units each time.  As written, a large property could reinspect the same units over and over (while not maintaining the other units) and still be in compliance.

I sort of wonder where these proposals come from.  I found some indication that they are being pushed locally by MARC, the regional association of governments.  Because the proposed law seems to go easy on large complexes, I wonder if they are pushed by the owners of big complexes in order to drive up costs for the competition. *adjusts tinfoil hat*

Matt Roberds