All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

No real estate deal is locked in concrete. If you buy something and decide you don't like it, you can always sell it again.

Where you start will be determined by how much money you can put in. That sets a price range that you can look at.

Whatever you buy will not be the only real estate that you ever own. You can buy one to live in, and then, if you want to try out of state investing, you can buy one out of state for your next one.

Investing out of state is harder. Condos might be OK to live in yourself, but they have pronblems as rentals.

Your skill levels will determine whether you want to buy fixer-uppers or not. Your negotiating skills will determine whether or not you want to do short sales.

Try making yourself a list of your skills and how much you can invest, and I think a lot of it will sort itself out.

I would not buy unless I knew exactly what the problem was and what it would take to fix it.

If the problem is a broken downspout, that's one thing. If the problem is that the property is the lowest spot in the entire neighborhood, so that it is at the bottom of a lake every time it rains, then that is very difficult to fix.

I might be willing to do French drains if the price of the house was really low, but I walk away from something where the drainage problem is due to the location and not really fixable.

There is a lot of property available for purchase. I am not too interested in really difficult-to-fix problems.

You've really got to be careful if the property has a septic tank and there is a problem with drainage or high water table. A house is worthless if it doesn't have some sort of functioniong sewage system.

I've seen the type of tenants the property managers around here put into rentals.

No thanks. I'll pick my own tenants and do my own upkeep. Then it gets done right.

Why would they not be happy to hear from you?

Think about it.

I would absolutley love to have someone else find perfect deals and bring them to me all ready to go.

I wouldn't have to search at all, just buy what I wanted with no effort at all. I love the idea.

The only thing that I would reccomend is to make careful notes about exactly what the buyers want. It's very annoying to have some salesman constantly trying to sell me something that isn't even close to what I want.

But, yeah, bring me exactly what I want, all wrapped up in ribbons, and we can do business.

There are 1-2 states where that clause is legal.

A couple of different suggestions:

Ask the landlord to change that one clause. If everyone agrees, you can strike through it and everybody initials. Or change it to 30 day notice for either party to cancel (which makes it a month to month)

If you can not reach an agreement with the landlord, go and find something else to rent.

If the house is still on the market for sale, there is going to be some inconvenience to you with property showings. It might be worth while if you are getting reduced rent. Make sure you know whether or not the property is still for sale.

If you really need a place for the entire year, I suggest that you find something else to rent.

You want to look clean and neat and like you have enough money to bail them out. So no ratty clothes.

However, you don't want to look rich, because their reaction to that might very well be resentment that the rich guy is taking advantage of them.

Neat, clean, casual. Average sort of casual car, clean and neat.

I'd wait until after the deal was done to let the neighbors know that I buy houses. Let the seller pretend to keep a shred of dignity.

Government agencies don't use hot mail accounts.

I've heard rumors that the tenant landlord courts in Detroit are 150% on the side of the tenant.

That the city owed utilities are extrememly difficult to work with. They simply will not correct errors.

That the sludge on the very bottom of the tenant pool is all that exists in Detroit. If there are no jobs, then your tenants are on welfare.

However, it's a huge city and it probably has areas that are better than most. So at the very least, I wouldn't even think of buying without spending some serious time there, checking things out.

Just a guess: the nice areas of town don't have houses available for $20,000.

By best place do you mean the best state?

Or are you asking how to find deals in your local area?

I have written criteria that I use to screen every applicant. Every applicant gets screened exactly the same with the same criteria (that is federal law)

On the first contact, I write down what they tell me and note any problems like screaming or barking or breakage in the background.

I give information about the property and my criteria and ask them to do a drive-by and then call for an appointment. Most won;t call back as soon as they learn I check references and credit. That saves me the time wasted by no-shows.

I show. I will accept an application from anyone and everyone. I never reject without a filled in application. There is always a written record of my legal reason to reject.

The very first thing I do is to compare what they have said in person to what they said over the phone and what they have written on the application. I find that the number of pets and the number of residents has a way of changing.

At the viewing I find out when they expect to move and whether or not they have all the move-in money.

Then I look up the owners of all addresses and do reverse directory on every phone number that the applicant has provided. Sometimes I have to look up a phone number for the real owner of the rental unit when applicants have lied about who their landlord is.

Then I go down the line and start making phone calls. I verify rental history, check references, check their employment. I don't usually call their personal references. I get those as a method to track my tenants down if they skip.

If all references check out OK, I run the credit report and criminal background check.

Normaly, I stop as soon as I find a legal reason to reject the applicant. I make a note of the reason for rejection and I am done.

Occassionally, I will continue the process, just for practice and amazement at the sort of lies that applicants tell.

My writtten criteria is quite thorough and I can legal reject people that experience has taught me are going to be trouble, based on the fact that they don't meet my written criteria.