All Forum Posts by: Kristi C.

I just talked to the actual owner. He said he forgot that he owned it. He said he will consider selling it to me if he gets an appraisal. The neighbor has been maintaining the mowing and putting his things on it for some time now and telling people it's his property. Is it possible the land does belong to this neighbor through squatter's rights now? I don't want to buy it only to find out that squatters have more rights than the actual deeded land owner. But he is trespassing on both our properties and placing "No Trespassing" signage.

I didn't find anything about easements for the properties in the deeds.

The thing is, it's a driveway that he's arguing over so a fence wouldn't work here. The driveway is directly beside my house and I own most of it. I would prefer to be able use it. The owners of the two lots it resides in have the right to use it. That would mean I can use it, and the owner of the vacant lot can use it. This guy has no land claim to it. He is putting things in it and claiming it when his house trailer isn't even near it. His property line is about 30-40 ft away from it.  

I purchased a house last year. I did not have the property surveyed. It appears the property line is in the driveway, with me owning most of the driveway. The driveway is shared with a vacant lot. The man who lives in the trailer on the other side of the vacant lot claimed he own the vacant lot. 

He constantly harasses us about the property line. He put a spike in the ground and said the city surveyed it and put the mark there. They said they don't do that and did not do that. Later he moved the mark into my side of the driveway. Now he's moved it to my property entirely and claims a city official has marked it. I know he is the one moving it. A surveyor didn't do it. He's not even claiming a surveyor did it. He says city officials are doing it for free. The city said they don't mark property lines, for free or for pay. So last week he claimed he owns all the driveway and called police on me for blocking "his" driveway. He put his house number on my property on a post. He calls police on me every time he sees me at my property on the side by him and claims I'm trespassing on him.

So anyway, I went to the courthouse to look at the deeds and plats. I own most of the driveway. He owns zero percent of the driveway. He does not own the vacant lot between our houses. It appears he is trying to claim the property by squatting and announcing constantly that he owns it. Yet, he calls the cops to come talk to me if he thinks I'm over "his" property line. I'm trying to get in contact with the owner of the lot. In the meantime, do I need to remove the spikes and poles he is putting in my driveway? Does he get to just claim he owns it if the poles are there long enough? He only started trying to claim the driveway when I bought the house. I know he will call police if I remove the spikes and poles he is putting in my side yard. He's constantly digging in my property and putting things there to mark it. The markers keep moving closer to my house. He indicated recently he owns up to the edge of my house like we don't have walking space there. I own about 6 or 8 ft on the side of my house.

My mother and my uncle co-own a house that belonged to my grandmother. My uncle is a very unreasonable and unpleasant person with mental problems, anger issues, and violent tendencies. Just believe me when I say it's not possible to talk to him about the house, AT ALL. 

My mother would like to sell it. She has been paying property tax and lawn care on the house. Uncle refuses to pay anything for its taxes or lawn maintenance. 

What would be the best way to force the sale of this property? I would love to buy the house. It is impossible to just buy it directly because of my uncle's refusal to speak.

It just seems like people that take the classes are being told they need to take more classes. So they don't feel confident enough to make any big decisions because they feel they need more classes (because each class tells them about another class they need). It just goes in a circle without ever doing any real life real estate investing. 

I am a landlord. I own 2 duplexes and 3 single family homes which I am currently happy with. 

I bought these before attending the free seminar so it had no affect on my decision to get started. 

I am curious about this. I want to see if anyone has any input. I went to a guru seminar where they give you free food then try to sell you a class for $2k. I checked my smartphone during the presentation and found online that going to the $2k class just tells you that you need to attend a $20k class and so on. None of the reviews ever said they actually bought some real estate after attending the classes. It looked scammy to me.

That being said, I also know some people IRL who have spent tens of thousands attending guru classes. These people have never actually bought any real estate. They just keep paying to attend the classes.

I also know people who buy and sell real estate as landlords and flippers. I don't know any landlords or flippers that attended the guru classes before getting into real estate.

So my thought is that the guru classes are somehow causing analysis paralysis when these people go about trying to get their first deals. Perhaps they are constantly telling you that you need more classes before you can begin? When I hear how much time and money some people have put into real estate guru classes I feel they could have already been rather far along in real estate if they'd gotten their education from a few good real estate books then put their money into property instead of classes. (I'm talking about people spending between $50k to $100k on guru classes with no actual real estate deals to show for it.)

Am I wrong about this? It seems like real estate guru class attendees end up taking classes until they run out of funding then never buy any real estate. 

I'm looking at a rental property. The garage roof is in terrible shape and needs to be replaced. Would this be depreciated at 27.5 years or is there some way to take the expense all this year? The house is currently rented out, but the garage is not usable due to the roof.

OK, I can see how having separate entities set up for multiple houses would be helpful in case of a lawsuit. If someone sues, you lose that one house at the most.

What about if you owned a 20 unit apartment complex? What can you do to protect your assets in that case?