All Forum Posts by: Peter Sanchez

Instead of starting one, have you thought about buying one?  I occasionally see people trying to sell their property mgt companies (I think it's a lot of headaches that people aren't prepared for).  If you can get the existing contracts to manage properties at less than it would cost you to go out and look for clients, it might be easier to get started and reach critical mass.  

If your goal is to sell, spending the money to rehab and get better tenants will get you a much better exit price.  Have you thought about partnering with someone local?  As in "I'll sell you half of it for X, and I'll contractually agree to use X for rehabbing the property."  

/\ THIS!!!  X 1000

How much are they asking you to pay?  I would counter it with "$0.00".  And say "that's my final offer." 

I highly recommend Street Smarts by Norm Brodsky.  He's built a company from scratch to $100 million, then bankrupted it, then built another company from scratch to $100 million and sold it.  Then started building hotels in North Dakota when fracking started.  Very smart guy and learned from his mistakes so you don't have to. 

I saw on another thread that in CHICAGO you have to put the security deposit in a separate account and mail them the interest annually.  So on a $1000 security deposit if you don't mail them their .05% percent ($5) yearly,you are liable for 3x the security deposit.

Yes, if you don't mail them their $5 check, you owe them $3000. Completely absurd!  

Is this a commercial property?  If not, your insurance probably doesn't cover someone running a business out of your property.  And this isn't a CPA doing taxes at his kitchen table, this is some guy wanting to install commercial roasting equipment!  I would say no way. 

Why don't you meet the dog and see what you think? I have a 12 year old beagle mix who is only 20 lbs.  He sleeps about 20 hours a day, so he's basically a cat.  If I ever sold my house and looked for a place to rent, I wouldn't hesitate to pay more for a place that allows dogs. 

 Except for a paralegal who watches too much TV and thinks they know as much as someone who has actually read law books and taken the bar. 

Well, if you have to be out by the 31st to do the walk through, and you have to clean the place after your stuff is out (on the 30th), what are the movers supposed to do with your stuff for 2 days?  If you stay past the 31st, a new month starts and you have to pay your old landlord for a full month so that you can move out on the 1st and into the new place on the same day? You're either going to pro-rate the old landlord a few days to move out after the 31st (if they allow it), or pro-rate the new landlord to move in before the first (if they allow it). Either way, something's gotta give, that's how time works  :) 

 A lawyer who works at a big firm is like a doctor:  you make a lot of money, work a lot of hours and don't have a lot of free time. The last thing I would want to do with my free time is waste time arguing about nickel and dime stuff.  If your bonus is dependent on how many hours you bill (and you pay for people to deliver your dry cleaning and food so you can keep billing), why would you be behind in your rent and draft letters back and forth arguing about it? I think you rented to a down on his luck solo practitioner who is basically on a "eat what you kill" income, like a real estate agent or used car salesman.