All Forum Posts by: Paul Winka

❤️this. Saving it to my evernote on sales phrases that resonate well. 😀

Thanks, but the owner said he doesn't want to let tenants learn of intent to sell though, so that's not really a solution. And showing up and driving by and knocking on the door will spin my wheels at best, annoy the tenant and the owner at worst.

Seller must be in denial about the situation or just not motivated enough. The cumulative effect of all the wholesaler calls, lowball offers, etc has poisoned the stream a bit. Wholesalers are just above used car salesman and politicians with their reputation. 😀

Tenants are additional barrier to viewing the property before making the offer. The potential seller "doesn't want to disturb the tenants" when I ask if I can have a look. I'd say I have failed as a wholesaler to find a seller that's motivated enough or I haven't done a good job of building rapport to show I am serious. No matter though, what's the best practice to get in to have a look? Magic phrases? Polite persistence? 

Speaking of 63121: There is a lot of variety in that zip code, super nice houses near UMSL, and some sections filled with tiny houses (<700 sf) with weird floorplans that even if treated with TLC would not be that desirable to rent out or to live in. How much work do you really want to put into a $12K house that will only be worth $50K on the high end? 

@John Warren "more professional software" is AppFolio over QuickBooks? The property management companies use AppFolio, but I have never though of it as solution for what I need. 

Try Kathie Davis in Brentwood. She's very affable yet effective, the former quality tough to find in an attorney. 

@Nick Belsky Have you used QB desktop previously? If so, what was the biggest adjustment you had going to online? Seems silly, but I do have the keyboard shortcuts for QB desktop down pretty well, it makes me efficient at data entry, these shortcuts normally don't carry over so well to web apps. 

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@John Warren Congrats on the +20 on the doors! I jumped up six doors last year and the feeling is rather amazing. I love doing the accounting myself, but each year it becomes harder and more time-consuming, not the highest and best use of my time. I would like to offload it, but I am struggling with finding a solution that is practical and affordable. I would love to get the time back though.

For example, I have logins to 2 banks, plus 6 property management companies that often utilize temporary one-time passwords that are sent by text upon logging in. Not only my rentals, but I have my Airbnb business, some hard money loans, all of these I would need to track. I feel as though looking through my QB file, only I alone would "get it" and bringing someone else (a VA in the Philippines??) on board would take hours of convoluted training and honing until they "get it" like me---they would likely decide to quit immediately or soon after starting. And then there is the cost and how long they likely stay with me.

Am I overthinking how hard & how expensive this will be? What should I do first to follow in your footsteps? 

@Ricco Ardemagni Thanks, I went to the website and registered. I am surprised that so much is still just online only. Have you noticed a bump up in the number of participants that are not local? 

@Mike Reynolds There is one meeting on the weekend. Hot Springs. Check my links above, looks like the next one is on 17 Jul 2021, then the next one is 21 Aug 2021. @Rachel Fazio is well involved in that one and could confirm more about it.

@Nick Belsky What made you decide on QuickBooks Online vs Desktop? The latter is a fixed cost and seems to be more user-friendly, I paid $199 in 2019, and the online subscriptions run around $30, last I remember. I have not made the switch to online because I haven't investigated how to get my current QB file in online format. Also, I'd rather not have the recurring expense. Just curious on your perspective.

@John Warren "have a part time bookkeeper in AppFolio". What do you mean by this, you hired an actual person, like a VA that does all the entry for you? I would think having a bookkeeper would be prohibitively expensive unless I'd have say, 50+ doors. It takes me gobs of time each year to do all my data entry, I'd love to hire a fantastic person to leverage my time, never bothered costing it out...figured that if I had to ask I couldn't afford it.

I am interested in networking in person at real estate meetups in Little Rock. Which meetups can you recommend? 

I've combed through the meetup.com and Facebook for Little Rock. The most active ones that meet in person are posted below. Covid seems to have done away with many of the meetups, with the last events posted back in May 2020 and canceled. Are there any more? 

https://www.meetup.com/Central-Arkansas-Real-Estate-Investors-Association
https://www.meetup.com/Hot-Springs-Village-Real-Estate-Investors-Meetup
https://www.meetup.com/Landlords-Association-of-Arkansas-Little-Rock-Chapter