All Forum Posts by: Michael K.

Originally posted by Frank Adams:

Habitat For Humanity ReHab stores and garage sales can be great sources too! I've posted before about the 1/2 bath that I added for next to nothing.

all cash

+1 for the ReStore. The local one out here will take credit cards.

I also like HOBO (Home Owners' Bargain Outlet) and CraigsList.

Mike

Will the area or could the area improve? If yes, put down a tough berber (or even outdoor) carpet with carpet padding. Remember, that padding will help to protect the floors in addition to the carpeting!

Too ghetto and no chance? Clean them up and be done with it.

Mike

Originally posted by Robert Burns:

How do realtors feel about providing investors with expired listings? How do realtors get paid for deals made on expired listings?

The investor and I sign a Buyer Agency contract. This contract stipulates that if they purchase ANY of the properties I send to them, I have one of two options:

a. Work out an one-party listing with the seller and charge the seller whatever I can get OR

b. The investor pays me 2.75% of the overall purchase price.

I've never had to invoke option b, as the seller is usually pleased beyond redemption to pay a listing commission of 3.0%-4.0%. Simple math- even on the low 3.0% end, I'm still earning more than the investor paying me 2.75%!

I love working things out like this because everybody wins. The investor gets a place at a low price, the seller gets to sell at a (in one's words) "stupidly low" commission, and I earn a nice commission. I've yet to experience anybody walking away from the table unhappy.

Most investors ask me to be the first point of contact with the expired seller. They each get a hand signed letter from me explaining the situation-- apparently my brokerage name on the letthead adds credibility. FWIW, roughly 2-3 of 5 folks who receive the letters respond.

Mike

I just got an email from an old friend in Chandler, AZ. Here's what he had to say:

"The apartment complex I lived in while in Chandler are trying to come after me for some carpet damage from over 2 years ago. They are claiming I had caused the damage from pets. However shortly before my lease was up, an adjacing apartment had flooded into our entire apartment and caused massive water damage and the carpet was pretty much scrapped because of it. When I left, the issue was resolved but since then my file wasnt "closed" out. So when the new management came in, they found my file and decided to come after me 2+ years later."

"My question to you is, do you know the statute of limitations concerning how far back they can come after me for this in the state of Arizona?"

Any ideas on this? Two years seems to be a bit long, but perhaps it's legal out there. (Hell, here in WI, you generally can't even deduct for carpet cleaning!)

Thanks,

Mike

So today I was sitting in my office. Today is a normal day that began way too early, saw me put over 100 miles on my car, and then back and forth between my office and too many places. Office Max for an ink cartridge that actually WORKED, the post office to pick up a package, some crap gas station to pay a crap sum for crap overpriced food, hours jawing on my phone with more people than I care to remember, listening to a client demand last minute changes to showings that took forever to set up...

...just another day that started at 5:30 am and still hasn't ended.

Then I heard a screech and a thud. Looking out my office window, I saw a SUV with a dent, a motorcycle on its side, a van with a dented rear bumper, and someone laying in the road. I joined a chorus of others frantically calling 911.

The ambulances came, one person per ambulance. The SUV driver, a woman, walked to one ambulance. She was fine, just shaken. The van driver, also a woman, was helped to another ambulance by two paramedics. The motorcycle driver, a man, was NOT moving. Four paramedics carefully placed him on a stretcher and loaded him into a third ambulance. The Flight for Life helicopter was cleared to land in an area bowling alley's parking lot.

It quickly landed and took off less than three minutes later.

None of the ambulances moved.

None of them have moved for over an hour. But I just watched as a nondescript red minivan slowly pulled forward. A magnetic sign on the door says "Medical Examiner - Transfer Vehicle."

The motorcycle is a cruiser, an older one. Maybe very late 1970s or early 1980s. Foreign. Maybe a Honda, Yamaha, or Kawasaki. Definitely not a Brit, though. I'd estimate that the bike was worth $3k, give or take, before being rear-ended and pushed into a van.

This guy was alive a little more than two hours ago. Don't know how his life was, if he was happy or mad or whatever. But he was alive and headed down the avenue on a motorcycle. Now his corpse is taking a ride downtown to meet the coroner.

We, as real estate investors, DO have a swagger about us that's unmatched by most others. Can't explain it, but few people can match the swagger and bravado of true real estate investors. Unfortunately, we're all going to end up just like the motorcyclist laid out inside of the coroner's van parked outside of my office. It won't be for the same reason. Hopefully it won't be so quickly. (He didn't look like an elderly man.)

So tell me. Can you honestly look at it all and say that you're totally headed in the right direction? Where you TRULY want to be? And when you're dead and being trucked off to a mortuary, what will people say? What will they say a year later? Two? Five? Ten?

I've been asking myself that for the last hour or so. I can't say that I'm so happy about all of the honest answers that have come to mind.

Mike

Originally posted by Richard Warren:

Originally posted by Realtyman:

What state requires a "real estate license" for managers?

Nevada requires that property managers have a real estate license and property manager certification. They also require additional continuing education hours.

:cool:

...and Wisconsin UNLESS it's a personally owned property (i.e. in your own name, not a corp/trust).

Mike

Originally posted by Michael S.:

this topic and some post bothers me a little. IMO a fire is a landlords worst nightmare! dollars vs.safety. lets say you are right, but guess what if there is a fire and somebody gets hurt or killed YOU will be in a world of trouble and opened up to numerous lawsuits check out this link at bottom were it says landlord was arrested
http://www.dvrbs.com/fire/CamdenNJ-Fire-011006.htm

An extreme case, but the original poster WILL be in even more hurt if something happens over there-- even if it's 100% unrelated.

I know a landlord who had a place burn down because a tenant got drunk and had a BBQ in the living room. No one injured, but the place and everything in it were total losses.

John Higginbotham, if you think they're hounding you now, imagine if this happened in your building. Then it gets out that you were "stonewalling the fire marshal" and "arguing over safety equipment."

You know that had nothing to do with the fire. I know that you had nothing to do with the fire.

But do any of the tenants know - or even care - that you had nothing to do with the fire? Will the court of public opinion know or care? How about the judge that handles the case when they all sue for negligence - even though you and I know you weren't truly negligent?

All they're going to care about is that you have bigger pockets than they do, and they want a piece of the action. YOUR action.

God help you if someone, especially a kid, dies. You'll never hear the end of it, will never stop paying for it, and may be a guest of the state in a penitentiary for some time.

You are getting the shaft. Fix it, or they'll fix you.

Mike

Anyone who "matters" in a bureaucracy can and will cause problems if given a reason to do so.

You NEED to contact a lawyer, NOW. You need to know what they can require of you and in what time frame. Once you know for sure, ONLY use licensed installers AND BE SURE TO PULL ALL APPLICABLE PERMITS. City departments LOVE to tag team anybody who might have any sort of money. Times are tough, so enforcement and fines get tougher.

One thing- you ROYALLY screwed up on time lines. "A few months" is NEVER acceptable unless you've got an amazingly great reason AND get that stipulated in the letter.

Examples include frozen ground if you need to dig (work has to wait until spring), can't paint the exterior due to cold weather (paint doesn't cover well when it's frozen), etc.

My crystal ball tells me that you're about to get into a WORLD OF HURT. Lawyer up NOW, get that work done NOW, and complain later.

Mike

Here on the retail (consumer) side, things are DOWN. WAY DOWN. I had three sales in three days in April. Nothing at all for May and June, and I'm working harder than before. May have one coming up in July, hopefully another one or two in August.

Mike

Just saw this, so please pardon me for replying to an old post.

Keep in mind that non-government-owned apartments are private property. We had a Realtor in my office who tried door hangings. She was caught by apartment staff and the police were called. The apartment manager wanted to cite for her CRIMINAL TRESPASS. In the end, she was legally informed by the responding officers that she was trespassing, further informed that she was banned from the property as per the owners themselves, and was told to either leave or be cited and arrested.

She quickly left.

While this was going on, the custodian was tasked with removing ALL of her placed hangings. He tore each one in half before returning them to her. Mean, but not illegal.

Parking lots are also private property and any large community WILL keep an eye on the lots for fliers. And unless you don't leave any contact information (what's the point, then?), they'll know who to go after for trespass. Getting renters is tough enough without people poaching them to buy a house!

My recommendation is to send mailings. It's illegal for anybody to interfere with the US Mail. If it's a questionable complex, send them inside plain envelopes. Just be sure to learn how their addressing system works. Up here, some apartment complexes have numbers on the units and buildings that appear to work one way, yet the mailing addresses work an entirely different way.

You might find it worth your while to wander the complex dressed like a typical tenant. Get a look at the mailboxes to see how the mail is actually addressed. This is especially important inside of a large complex with their own streets. We've got one a few miles from here where the internal streets all have their own names. However, the mailing addresses are all based off of the main (public) street just outside of the complex. Every other year some rookie agent gets 200+ of their mailers returned as undeliverable because they didn't bother to check the mailing conventions.

I don't recommend the about-to-graduate college set. Most will have little more than mountains of student loan debt and resumes to pass around. Professional grad students (medical, law, etc.) COULD work within a year or two of graduation, loans or not.

Success here requires more than a bit of planning. Good luck with your search!

Mike