All Forum Posts by: George P.

atl,

a few things to consider:

1. those PM cost you a lot of money at the end of the day. is it as much as listing it with an agent? probably not, but that's eating your profit.

2. we advertise used to put ONLY a street sign and a Craiglist ad. Now that we found Vflier (thanks to BP!!!!!), i do the same thing, but the ad appears on more places online. you must put a street sign. you must put an ad on CL right away. dont wait until next week. that "internet savvy" stuff is incorrect. different people have different filters (rss feeders) and might miss your property.

3. what kind of role would she be doing? interviewing clients? running credit checks? if you dont feel comfortable doing it yourself, use her. but you get to keep more money if you do it alone.

4. I agree with her that at the end the good school district homes do better.

5. It normally takes us around 1 month (good area) to find tenants

6. Dont keep the asking price too long if you dont have takers. reduce it down by $25, $50 if you have to. it's better to have an occupant than to wait for that one person that will pay higher price.

i'd love to get a hold of that list, but i heard it's "illegal" to share that information because it would be considered a "side deal" or conflict of interest.

but i am glad to hear that some of you have done it and it works. will have to try it myself.

i have found that realtor.com is outdated (as far as the listings).

best way is to have multiple sources like trulia, any realtor office site (like century 21, remax, etc), because they are basically pulling the information from the MLS.

bubba, you are like me..

i have a 97 (rusting as we speak, sheetmetal falling off) f-150 with 152k on it. check engine light on, bottom's rusted through.

wife has 05 volvo, all paid for and loving the extra money in the account.

wifey thinks that tenants would not respect me if i have a beater truck though. who knows what they really think??

kevin,

like the books say "if you dont make money, you hate the property/work/experience. since you hate it, you dont take care of it. since you dont update things, you get bad tenants. bad tenants will destroy you".

that's exactly the case here. She is not making money, so she despises the investment. I asked her if she read books, got a "negative". told her about these types of forums, does not seem interested.

I told her about all her options, and that's all i can do. Hope she realizes it one day.

i thought that there's another way i am not seeing and just wanted to give the more seasoned investors a chance to respond.

thanks for the reply, btw.

jeff, that's exactly what's going on with me too. there are so many suburbs around (around 20, i'd guess) with huge price range (from 10k to 140k) on foreclosed properties. however, i am targeting specific area, where the prices are right in the middle. good times if you are playing your cards right.

how many does your brother have? just 2?

first one was at 53. second was 80. third was 75. since my full time job takes so much work and i dont like to pay contractors for things i can do myself, i really go after great houses that dont come by often.

in my city you can't find anything below 50 (and that's short sale). a dump is around 60. suddenly at 69.9 and above, you can get houses that with just 5-8k worth of work, you have an amazing 1050sq ft house.

hi jackie,

short sale galore over here, but i dont ever touch them...they take too long and i dont to wait until the cows come home. i want a positive cash property now and dont mind paying 5k extra to get it. at the end of the day it will pay off with or without the extra 5k.

how is the rent in your area? the average here is around $1050 give or take $100.

kevin,

they thought the way to make money in real estate is to "start making money after the property is paid off"...dont ask me why.

the current tenants can't purchase the property since one is not "legal" and the other does not have that kind of money. but yes, i agree that it's a good idea.

my relative is not very good at being a landlord since she has to use a realtor to even find tenants. that eats up more than her profit (which isn't even there).

hi guys, and thanks for the reply. jon, you impress me more and more every time i come across your posts. thanks for taking the time to reply.

they said the property is not maintaned by the HOA very well and the buildings look crappy. since the positive cash flow is not there, they have no motivation to make improvements inside, which is sad. it's a vicious cycle and they are in the middle of it. on top of that HOA increases the fees every year (common, expected).

jon, between you, me and the fence post, they have no idea how this thing works. i will suggest selling them even if it's at a loss.

btw, tried changing my name/profile. i dont think it allows me to.
posted in "introductions" as well.