All Forum Posts by: Michaela G.

I used to work with unclaimed funds and people would hang up on me, cuss me out, threaten me. I would pay for everything, everything would go through an attorney, who they could talk to and check out through the local bar, give them 10 names and contacts of other people that I found money for and they still didn't want to talk to me. Fortunately, these were funds that any blood relative could claim, so 2 or 3 didn't want to talk to me, but I could always find a 4th that would. There was absolutely nothing to lose for them. No money to pay, no sensitive information to give out. I pay for it and get 30% after the fact. I made many people happy, but got hung up on a lot. 

How can we, as investors, be on the forefront of this and possibly create new niches to cater to this new normal?

With many corporations now supposedly considering work-from-home as the new normal, what do you think the effect will be on real estate? 

Will residents of studios or 1 bedrooms now want to move up to larger units? Will a couple, who had been happy in a 2 bedroom want to/have to move up to a 3 or 4 bedroom, because 1 or both need an office space? 

Will corporations pay extra, so that employees can afford to have the extra space or will they sell it as a benefit to the employee and gladly keep the savings from not having to provide office space? 

Will smaller units, that may have been in big demand by single people now sort of lose their shine?

And what will it do to commercial real estate? Office space?
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/01/major-companies-talking-about-permanent-work-from-home-positions.html?fbclid=IwAR0YxcT7BUGTPyt35C7Z7uiQOPmwB229LYCweWZktnkMKVEymtVj7mIPD04

I agree with @Kai Van Leuven , make it a personal conversation and don't be a sales man. 

I don't buy so many properties, but I've been able to buy most of the ones where I contacted the owner. I knock on the door and fly by the seat of my pants wherever the conversation goes. I don't try to do a hard sale. I tell them why I noticed the property and what I can envision for it and ask them what their plan is. 

I'm also on the receiving end of an average of 10 calls, texts, postcards a day. I still own 13 properties in a gentrifying neighborhood. I'm a total b*tch and tell most of them to 'go to h*ll'. Yes, I'm an investor and should understand their side and should have the patience, but it's clear that to almost all of these investors I'm just a number and I don't react well to that. 

They all say and write the same thing. Every freaking one says something like :"I know this call comes completely out of the blue..." or "I know this is completely unexpected"or "I know this is surprising.." They all start off the same....must have all taken the same course and I tell them that it's not out of the blue at all, since I had 3 or 4 calls saying the same thing in the past hour. It's an insult to my intelligence, when they print these postcards with "...street" printed in a different color or font, showing that they have this blank formula and just instruct the computer to fill in that address. But I were to call them back, my name would not mean anything to them. 

I think that's the crux of a lot of things in this world: gangs, school shootings etc: ......people want to matter. Nobody likes to be treated like they're a nobody and the person on the other end of the call will just say 'next', when you hang up. And that's what you're telling the other person with those mass emailers or phone calls. 

Knocking on someone's door takes a lot more effort and it shows some investment of time. That's why those who do it have better results. And that's why most investors don't want to do it. They just want to get the numbers in: I can print and mail 500 cards in a day or I can knock on 10 doors - so, the go for the 500 contacts. Quantity over quality. 

Every once in a while some investor gets past my defenses and gets me to talk. I can tell that they're more experienced and aren't reading from some print-out. They ask questions and I give them honest answers. I tell them why I'm not selling the burn-out (because it's part of an assemblage and the other 6 properties next to it are part of it) or why the house next to mine will be difficult to buy, but I'd be happy, if they would (aunt died and 2 of the nephews took over and have lively drug sales out of it. No probate was ever done and all of the other cousins are ok with that, as they can also handle their prostitution business out of it. ) 

Let your potential seller know that this is about this house (and not just a number) and that they are the one in control and are important and listen to them. Work with them. Find out their motivation and then create a custom solution for them. 

If it's their deceased mother's house and they feel they'd be a bad son for selling, suggest that they could donate for a bench in the park around the corner, that would have a plaque with the mother's name, so that all of the people that knew her can notice her generosity. Suggest to use the money for a scholarship for a student at her college.......I don't know, make it personal, make it about that house, let the seller know that they matter. 

I do know that LendingOne presently only does fix-n-flip loans. Not any rental loans. 

I want both: cash flow and potential appreciation. 

My 1st criteria is that it has to be within 15-20 minutes of where I live (I self manage).

2nd is close proximity to some upcoming development. I'm only going to be a landlord for a few more years and am not interested in getting cashflow for 3 years, but no appreciation. 

3rd criteria is cash flow, within the areas that fit the 2 initial criterias. 

It has worked well for me so far

I have the same. Getting about 24K per month in rents and all of my mortgages are about 12K. But because the banks only count 75% of my rental income, they feel that my DTI is too high and won't let me refi out of some loans where I'm paying 8%. Even though that would lower those payments to half. And portfolio lenders want 7-8%, so, it wouldn't make sense to go through them.

It's ok. Others always think I'm crazy when i zig when everyone else zags. Lol

People will get unemployment and stimulus checks in April, which should cover May rent, unless it's high rent. But many of the higher income people haven't lost their jobs. It's the lower income jobs that were wiped out by this, which many of my tenants have. And their rents usually aren't so high in the first place, so the stimulus will cover it. Many of mine are 2 or 3 in a place, so, they get multiple checks per household. 

And many get tax refund checks any day as well. 

I work from thoughts of abundance and not scarcity. 

You also shouldn't assume that all of us who discount the rent are affluent. I simply felt that we're all in this together and I dropped my rents to a little above my mortgages. For one thing, I can live without profit for a month. I don't have an expensive lifestyle. But it also makes tenants think of me as a great landlord and they're less likely to take advantage of the eviction moratorium that is happening in Atlanta. So, I'm trying to preempt that, in addition to being human. 

I'm only giving away profit. If I can pay my mortgages I'm ok. Next month people will have unemployment and the stimulus checks. Most of my tenants are artists, who share a place between 2 or 3. So, even if they get a low paying job, they will still be able to pay the full rent then. This just gives them some breathing room and they don't just wait out the eviction or take off in the middle of the night to move back in with parents.