All Forum Posts by: Michael Rossi

Magi,

I bought almost all of mine with bank financing, subject-to, with owner financing, and on lease option. However, if I was very young; had some cash and very low expenses, I would work hard and pay CASH. You would be amazed at how fast your portfolio would grow and everything would be paid for!

Thanks Jon, glad to be back.

With your specific situation, I'd be very tempted to pay CASH for the properties. You'd be amazed at how fast you could build up a significant rental business, assuming that you buy right!

Treat everyone the same? Why? People are NOT all the same!!!

For example, I don't take felons - PERIOD! Therefore, if they tell me that they are a felon, I'm not meeting with them and they're not filling out an application. "Felon" is not a protected class and I'm not treating them the same as someone that is not a felon. Ditto for druggies. Ditto for anyone that has to hold their pants up with one hand or has tatts from head to toe.

Everyone the same? NOT HARDLY!

Hi guys! Just like a bad penny - I'm back. I appreciate your concern and to answer the question of where I've been, I've been involved in a Jihad! Here's the story.

A couple of years ago, the city where I live started extorting landlords for unpaid tenant water bills. The city actually took us to court and sued us for bills that belonged to our tenants. Several of the local landlords decided that we would not be extorted and we joined forces to fight the city. To make a very long story short, this has moved all the way up to Federal District Court and it looks like we are about to win. In addition, I have become involved with a couple of other small groups that fought a city tax levy, which was nothing more than an attempt to extort the taxpayers. We've been very busy and to date, we defeated the tax levy; we humiliated our disgraceful mayor who was running for judge (he lost with only 18% of the vote); we humiliated a disgraceful assistant law director who was also running for judge (he lost with only 20% of the vote); we were going to recall the mayor, until he decided not to run for re-election; our group was instrumental in convincing 3 other disgraceful city council members to not run for re-election; and we're now involved in a fight to replace the rest of the disgraceful city council members, the law director, and to have control of the local water department taken away from the city. In other words, I've been very busy.

In addition to all that, I worked on the campaigns for several of our Ohio congressmen and I'm part of the local tea party. Moreover, I've been very busy trying to get "restaurant carry" (carrying a concealed handgun in establishments that serve alcohol) passed here in Ohio.

With the little time I have left over, I'm still running my rentals and still dealing with my share of scumbag tenants, druggies, and felons.

Yes, there is going to be another war, but it isn't going to be a war on poverty. We don't have ANY poverty in the United States - not one poor person! Our "poor" people sit in their Section 8 rental watching Judge Judy reruns on their big screen tv while eating potato chips purchased with their SNAP card (food stamps) and occassionally chatting on their taxpayer-paid cellphone! THAT IS NOT POOR!

According to the UN, a person is in poverty when they're living on less that $1.25 per day, not when they're eating more than $1.25 worth of potato chips per day like our "poor" people do!

Talk about being late to the party, this problem was resolved in December of 2009 and the tenant is LONG GONE!

Rent is due on the 1st and late at 5:01pm on the 4th. If they pay at or after 5:01 pm on the 4th, they owe the $50 late fee. I post three day notices on the morning of the 5th and file the eviction immediately after the expiration of the 3 day notice.

I find that it's not practical to have the late fee start prior to the 4th, because many low income tenants receive government checks that arrive on the 3rd.

Painted wood floors are the lowest maintenance for normal flooring. Obviously, concrete would be great too. Everything else WILL be destroyed by the tenants.

Taxes and insurance are part of the 50% Rule - so you don't add them in. I would suggest that you read one of the sticky threads on the 50% Rule.