All Forum Posts by: Tom Goans

Consider a town with an economy that greatly depends upon military or other government income.

What happens when this changes? What happens to the deomographics should the military be deployed? What happens if the govnment consolidates and closes offices or moves some out of town?

This greatly affects the demographics, a business plan, and real estate investment success.

The business plan is more important than the numbers, this is my experience.

Here is why I feel the business plan is more important. A property may have stellar numbers. Yet, if the target market is not there, now what. What are the neighborhood demographics? If the neighborhood is on the decline, if the largest neighborhood employer is leaving, if the trend has moved on ... all of these things can affect your ability to sell or lease a property, commercial or residential. Now, the numbers are meaningless.

What are your thoughts, comments, and experiences?

Rachel, great question.

I have been designing and operating my own websites since the 1990s. The last time I checked, GoDaddy.com offers submitting your websites to all the search engines as a FREE service to those who register a domain name with them. Check the GoDaddy.com website or call the customer service department.

My hosting offers the same free service, most do. However, you must contact them to get them to do it.

The design of your website is more critical than having your websites sumbitted to search engines. All search engines index all the websites on a weekly basis. When designing a website, DO NOT USE FLASH. Be sure to have key words scattered throughout the pages, in the title, and as part of every image.

Google has excellent information about this on their website.

From what I have read over the years, updating website files is critical, especially the index file. It indicates to the search engines your site is active and not dead.

In review, do not respond to SPAM or use one of the SEO companies that contact you. Use the free service provided by GoDaddy.com. Make sure your websites are well designed and Internet search engine friendly. Lastly, update often. I try to update my sites at least once a week to keep the search engines interested and ranking me high.

Bill, that is part of what I referred to.

Another favorite of courts and lawyers is "Time is of the Essence".

This line is in my agreement:
"Termination of the Purchaser’s rights of possession does not relieve the Purchaser’s obligations under this Agreement." Change to two words for make it applicable to a lease.

This is the line I feel is very critical, especially should you need to face a judge:
"Acceptance of a late payment or associated fees does not constitute Seller’s willingness to continue accepting payments or associated fees late."

Extremely great question. And a very important one as well since it has legal implications.

Read your lease agreement. A properly designed contract for collecting money should contain a paragraph regarding this exact subject.

With that in mind and to more directly answer your question, usually you have not created a new lease or extended the present one when accepting delinquent payments. The verbiage in the contract generally states it is YOUR decision alone if it does renew or extend the present lease.

The verbiage that I am referring to that a contract should contain states that accepting delinquent money after a payment becomes delinquent does not automatically create a new agreement, extend the present one, and is not considered a new set of terms. This is critical verbiage in a contract.

One of my former clients built, developed, and owned very successful restaurants. This person was also a good friend of mine. While the restaurants were in their hay days, he sold them and kept the real estate. He leased the real estate back to the restaurants. A big payday and a monthly income without all the work of operating a restaurant. The restaurant buyers thought it was a great deal. However, from the sideline view, they are working 90, 100 or so hours with huge risks while the original investor makes deposits.

It is my opinion the real estate side is the best way to be in the restaurant business.

The perception of manufactured homes by many is very incorrect. Some have 2x6 exterior walls. In high wind area, they are required to be more structurally sound. If it is a double or triple wide, interior walls may be 8 inches thick where the halfs are joined. There are at least 2 large steel beams running the length of the homes. If set on a permanent foundation at HUD specifications, I believe they are more structurally sound than most site-built homes. They also qualify for FHA loans if set on permanent foundations at HUD specifications. Cost per square foot is less than site-built homes, but they can be just as fancy inside. Delivery of a new home is generally 6-8 weeks, not months as with a site-built home.

From an investors point-of-view, manufactured home and manufactured developments are a great investment opportunity for a special reason. There is very little competition due to the misconceptions. Not a bunch of investors driving up prices. Yet, just like in the automobile business, there are more buyers for Chevys than Caddies.

Michael,

In some states, it is illegal for a licensed real estate agent to pay a finder's fee or any type of commission or even to give you a gift for what you described. Colorado is one. There are many agents do not follow the law.

Be careful.

If you charish your friendship, do NOT provide the financing for a long list of issues.

In in particular, you must treat them as if they are strangers when it comes to collecting payments and taking care of the collateral. "Grace Periods" are one thing, a friend's grace period can be a problem.

I am an old pro with almost 50 years of experience. I can look back now and realize the suggestions my grandfather and father gave me were much wiser than many of my decisions of trying to re-invent the wheel.

Sure, some of my ideas worked, but if I had followed their suggestions, I would have spent less time trying to be successful.

Re-inventing the wheel may scare away deep-pocket investors or lenders.