All Forum Posts by: William Murrell

Depends on what your numbers look like and what your spread is.  5k doesn't tell us much without knowing what percentage that is of the total offer.  If you're not comfortable with 5k more, walk.  You usually don't lose money on deals you don't do.

I know what the Federal regs are, but California is notorious for going above and beyond in terms of their requirements so I'd caution you to call around and do some research.  

From a health and safety standpoint, it is not a health hazard as long as it is not friable, or in a state that readily releases fibers into the air when disturbed.   Think of a really old book sitting on a shelf and as soon as you touch it dust goes everywhere.  That's obviously an oversimplification, but it hammers home the point.  Sitting there undisturbed, it isn't technically hurting anything since asbestos only affects people when they breathe in the fibers.   There are tons of houses all around our area that have it and people just floor right over it.  

My first question: why are you trying to get overseas financing?  Why not go local?

Welcome to the site.  Read everything you can and listen to all the podcasts.  I started early and recommend everyone do the same.  House hack, hustle, shadow, do whatever you can.  Get out there and get started!

First of all, thank you for your service!  Second, welcome to the site.  More power to you on the dog front.  I also allow dogs and have had good results.  Welcome!

Once you get to a certain volume, you'd certainly want someone to be in-house managing everything.  Essentially, if all of your results come from your own efforts you'll never grow your company bigger than your own two hands.   However, it may very well be the case that it takes a while to get to the point that it makes sense to have someone dedicated to it.  Just keep at it and keep a running list of a few good contractors in each trade.  Feed all the work you can to the best ones and weed out the rest.

I would caution that your decision should be based on your own familiarity with working on different trades.  You can certainly save money if you self-manage, especially if you know which things to watch out for.  However, if for instance you don't know anything about a given trade, there's always the possibility for an unscrupulous tradesman to take advantage.  I think we've all met the person who says "check out the deal I got on this plumbing" only to hear the most wildly outrageous ripoff price imaginable.  

Me personally, I do a lot of the work myself or manage the subs internally.  But I also know how to do a lot of the trades already by myself.   But that isn't for everyone.  I have friends who barely know which end of the hammer to hold, and for them I'd caution that they might want to at least consider a GC.  But as Brian says, you're going to lose budget to the GC.  

But the other thing: depending on the project, you may need to spend a ton of time physically meeting and working with contractors.  If your career doesn't afford you a lot of free time, that might shift the balance to getting someone else to manage the project.  Sometimes they might cost more money upfront, but they'll get a project done in a month that you might take six to complete.  Good luck!

Start listening to the podcasts here. They will identify the different ways to invest, how to finance a deal, etc. Once you do that you'll have an idea of which type of investing you want to pursue and roughly how to do it. Then you can come back with specific questions to help dial in your goals and efforts.  Fast and free way to get up to speed.  Good luck!

Figure out why she doesn't like it so you can identify one you are both comfortable with.  Both spouses need to be 100% on board for your investing and relationship to succeed.

Boris, one easy way is to print the street map of the neighborhood you're going to drive. Then just draw a line with a red pen down each street you have already driven and keep going until the whole map is red. Obviously make dots or stars wherever you see something promising. Hope this helps!