All Forum Posts by: Paul Altman

The power in numbers of these overly liberal people in certain areas of the country is allowing a bunch of people to make decisions that have no business making them. It seems they really just think that what ever option sounds the fluffiest and most well to do is the best one without any consideration for the consequences or viability. 

Measures have to be implemented to create fairness in communities but incentives are being taken away from the people who have the inherent ability and drive to affect change in these communities and breed progress. 

I hate to see what the result will be after all incentive is gone. RE investors create so much value in cities across the country and these social just warriors who demonize them are just uninformed and ingnorant  

Hi

This question is for anyone with experience or knowledge in the area of soil testing/geological surveying.

I am looking at purchasing a home thats built on the side of a hill where they cutout a notch in the hill to build a home in the 60s. The land the house actually sits on is nice big and flat however in the back theres a somewhat sheer cliff wall from the hill being cut out that comes down to the edge of backyard. The closest section of the house to wall is around 20-30 feet away. 

The wall itself is solid rock cliff however you can see where the occasional fist sized chunk had run down and collected at the yards edge. From the bottom to the top the wall is about 15-20 ft with another smaller wall above that that goes to the top of the original hill thats terraced and set further back than the lower wall.

My thoughts are that given that its a rock wall as opposed to dirt, erosion/mudslides etc arent as much a concern, however im not sure the likelihood of the rock its being unstable and possibly crumbling over time.

Any input, advice, or warning are appreciated.

Thanks 

Hello

My question is about how to structure a partnership when one partner is funding a majority (or all) of the deal but has less experience.

One member of the partnership has fairly extensive experience flipping houses (around 20 flips completed) the other member doesnt have experience with rehabbing/contractors but has other RE experience. The less experienced partner has capital and agrees to fund all or a majority of the project and be as hands on as possible and help with as many tasks he is capable of or instructed to do. 

The experienced flipper would basically agree to show the other his process of how to rehab and deal with contractors throughout the project in exchange for funding the deal. They would either split the profit 50/50 or maybe give a little more to the experienced side depending on who brought the deal.

My question is would it be fair to expect the partner putting up the money to fund the entire deal (purchase and rehab) or would he only be expected to maybe just fund the purchase and no rehab or even just do 75% of purchase (or ARV) similar to what a HML would do to create protection buffer?

Thanks in advance

Thanks everyone for their feedback

@Ben Robertsi didn't necessarily eliminate Memphis it just didn't seem to pop up throughout my searches in terms of job/population growth. I have known that Memphis is a good place for high cap rates ROI etc and a popular rental market with investors but was trying to focus on markets that had noticeably strong economic outlooks. Im a little more familiar with Nashville personally and seems to be up and coming but also looks like I may have missed a bit of the upswing in that area. Definitely not writing off Memphis and always up for some convincing.

@Walker Seid@Brad McBride@Leo K.I was kind of afraid that it would be difficult to get the kind of rents Im looking for in your areas, from what I've found looks like Boise, SLC, and Nashville have been up and coming for a little while now but still seem attractive from future economic outlook. Do you know if investors are still getting positive cash flow buying in your markets?

Hello

I am looking for rentals to add to my current portfolio and am trying to narrow down my search to one or two cities to focus on based off mainly projected job/population growth, potential ROI, and where i can hopefully meet the 1-2% rule and so far I'm looking at the four cities in the title. I know this list is pretty random but after doing research the economies there look promising however have only done a little searching on the rental rate to purchase price ratio. I would appreciate anyone out there that lives in or has any experience in these particular areas if they had any advice to give for why I should or shouldn't consider these cities. Would love to speak with any realtors/wholesalers/property mgmt companies that are knowledgable about these rental markets.

Thanks

thanks to everyone for the advice

@Mike Makkarthanks for taking the time to share the good advice. I agree with the "Just Do It" philosophy, guess sometimes in life you just gotta act, learn, and adjust as you go as long as you did every everything under your control from the start to protect and hedge your investment. I do have a few properties already but in areas where i was familiar with the type of tenant and knew the demand for the particular type property was high.

@Lee Smiththanks for the help. I have had a little bad luck with my realtor and PM search so far. Many realtors seemed more than willing to help at first and would then slowly (or quickly) disappear and the property management companies have been pretty flaky too. So the search continues!!  I noticed that you're located in Indy which is one of the areas I'm considering but the one place i haven't done to much reaching out yet. Would love any recommendations if you're able to share. 

Hello

I am searching for SFR and 1-4 unit buy and holds in other markets but am having trouble figuring out how to determine the likelihood that the properties Im looking to buy will actually rent once they're ready. I have gone to Zillow and looked at other rentals available in the area to see how long they have been listed and notice that some have been sitting for several months. The neighborhoods I am looking at are nice but affordable (80K-120K price points), with well kept properties, good schools zones and highly populated.

I imagine in many cases the problem is simply that the rent price is set too high but what other factors could cause rentals to sit on the market? Are there other sites or data available or other factors to consider to help me determine which areas to buy in without having to worry about them sitting vacant?

THANK YOU

@Account Closed No it doesn't and I've never seen it before on previous contracts it was more of curiosity after hearing a story of a seller having an issue. Thanks for your response I agree i would assume most of the time you're going to get a more thorough detailed inspection with and actual inspector.

@MJ Barnett@Account Closed Great thanks for the info. Ive been told and assumed it would be hard for anyone to force you to buy but I suppose its worth it to at least word the contingency as best as possible to at prevent the hassle of someone from even having the incentive to try to force you to buy

Hello

When having a property inspected is it recommended to use an actual licensed inspector to prevent any inspection clause issues if the seller tried to claim the inspection wasn't reasonably performed or will i be fine with just having a contractor look through? Or can i just do nothing at all and simply say i didn't like something about the house? Do i even have to provide a reason for wanting to back out or can I just say I wasn't satisfied?

Have heard mention of sellers trying to force buyers to buy based off the claim of "unreasonable dissatisfaction of property condition due to insignificant repairs" or that the inspection wasn't performed by a qualified professional.     

Thanks