All Forum Posts by: Mike Zipf

My family owned a bar in Bound Brook. They said it wasn't worth the stress being in a flood zone, even with their bar being so cheap. Of course residential is different, I wouldn't want to have to worry about having my income producing property be out of commission for months or even years.

Worth while questions to ask the seller, what length are the leases and are the tenants Section 8 or market rate, and if they are Section 8 how much does it cover. If they are all market rate monthly leases would be a higher risk of high vacancy.

@Mary B. I'm not OK with ignorance and would not affiliate with anyone who would perpetuate ignorance to peddle their properties. Just as much as I wouldn't want some Fox News host in my network. I think of it this way, if I am the sum of the 5 people I affiliate most with I would not want one of those five people to be ignorant or worse, someone who regularly justifies ignorance in the name of a small profit.

The exact same thing has been happening in New Jersey, "Go home bennies" "We don't need wall street money" so on, for as long as I can remember. The sentiment at least, is not specific to Californians and the west coast. People don't like outsiders coming and driving up real estate. Correlation is not causation, but try to tell that to someone who makes significantly less then the people moving in and can no longer afford the neighborhood they have lived in their whole lives. The emotion is strong and deeply rooted and not unique to the area.

It seems that everyone commenting on how insane 20k cash for keys is insane is not from Massachusetts. My guess is while it may not be common elsewhere it is in your market. Well congrats on the first deal! I think it looks great.

Not sure about specifics of renters, but be aware that large parts of Rahway are in a flood zone. Make sure you check out if a property is in a flood zone and ask what they are paying in flood insurance. It could be a big profit killer.

Good catch there, I remember hearing something about Atlantic City not allowing rentals under 30 days to non hotels. Just hearsay, never had the time to read through the zoning laws. But is something to look into.

Just looked it up, the lobbying group "Short Term Rental Advocacy Center" has an older article on this. Apparently the short term rental ban was lifted in Atlantic City, that being said there are politicians in the area gunning for short term rentals.

 You mentioned your concerns then asked how can I say no. To summarize the comments...

1) You can't say no

2) Charge them more (Dont say no)

3) Demand a background check for every adult (Dont say no)

4) Deny on a different basis (Say no)

Your saying you know all the laws governing denial of said applicants, so nix point one and just deny them for whatever reason you deemed legal. The lesson you should learn is if you want legal advice ask a professional and if you want pubic opinion then ask publicly on a forum.

Listen to Rob follow the law and definitely don't add extra requirements for tenants after someone applies. A family fee however you vail it will definitely throw up some red flags.

I am not afraid of getting in a debate with friends and family. But it seems thats not what you would like to do because you haven't done that, so just follow your instinct and keep your head down.

As much as Robert Kiyosaki makes my stomach turn (personality wise) he does have a pretty good grip on the "normal person" aka non REI's in the way he talks about his so called poor dad. The poor dad is a metaphor for people like your family, those who think that money is earned by working for someone else. They don't understand business and how to make passive income. The concept of passive income sounds like a scam to them.