All Forum Posts by: Ryan Pyle

I love this book. I'm one of the suckers that paid over $100 for it.

The big benefit I gleaned from the book was apartment investing in general as a means for wealth accumulation. Prior to reading Nickerson (and lots of John T. Reed) I was only doing single family houses. After reading this book, I started aggressively pursuing apartments. I've also begun the process of selling my single family rentals and using the equity from them as down payments on apartment buildings.

I also like the "real estate investing is a mom-and-pop business" feel of the book. No pie-in-the-sky visions of hiring all of the dirty work out so you can run your business from your private island. I think he lays out a very realistic roadmap for success. Highly recommended.

I agree with Chet. The IRS considers sinle-member LLC's a disregarded entity. Also, if you are married filing jointly you and your spouse are considered a single tax payer.

If you must, you must. However I think it's really important to be there and see how the prospect reacts to the unit and how you and the prospect interact with eachother. You are going to be in a "relationship" with this person for a long time, hopefully, so you ought to know as much about them as you can.

Jeff...thanks for the heads up on elance. I've been doing all of my own web dev (on top of flipping and my rentals). I'd love to farm out the techie stuff.

J...I agree. However there are 2 sets of buyers out there. My agent gets the more sophisticated set. Those deals are easier. They are also a lot less profitable for me.

I get the set that aren't currently looking to buy, but they come across my house and love it and had no idea they could buy a home because they don't have 20% down and an 800 credit score because "after all the media says that no one can get a loan these days." So they were looking for a rent to own/land contract/lease option. They are excited to find out they can actually buy for real.

I also get those people who tried to get qualified by the wrong bank and were told they had to have a 660 score, and they only have a 610. Basically, I get the Realtor rejects. But, there are a LOT of them. Like I said, I sell a majority (2/3) of my houses myself. And those that I do sell myself I almost always get full price, have little to no home inspection repairs (because I control the buyer), and don't pay a commission.

With that said, I field about 50 - 70 buyer calls a day, 49.9 - 69.9 of which are bad leads. But, all it takes is one.

Hi all, I am a fix-and-flipper. I sell 2/3 of my houses through my website. The thing is, I hate my website, I am trying to find a good "house selling" website out there that does a few things:

1. Market one's own inventory of homes. Can be a flipper, home builder, or even a buyer's agent.

2. Promotes the concept of home ownership. I do a lot of marketing to renters who have good credit and the ability to buy, but they keep renting because it's either easy or they don't know how to buy a home.

3. Uses video and social media.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

I use craigslist and then have my craigslist ads point to my own website. I also list with real estate agent. I sell 2/3 via my website and my agent sell 1/3 of them.

I have found 2 major drawbacks to renting to people on SSI. First, if they stiff you, you can't garnish them. So they have nothing to lose from the start. Second, if...sorry, when they run into financial trouble, they have no way to ever get caught up. Guess who's going to take that hit? You.

I own several properties in low income areas where most people are on Section 8 and/or welfare. I used to take people on SSI and treat it the same as regular job income. Now, I don't take people who only get SSI unless they are on Section 8. It can take a bit longer to fill the unit, but in the long run I come out ahead.

Jon, at this point all I can do is ride it out. Luckily I can afford the hit.

To top off the negative cash flow, I am underwater on the property by about $100k. So there is no realistic or ethical way to sell it. Heck, I've only got about 22 years to go before it's paid off!

No. I think that the guru pitch gives the meetings a "made for newbies" feel. Adding to what FinanceExaminer said, I would love to hear a talk given by a local expert on pertinent subject matter. But I can't stand the sales pitches. I stopped going because of them.

My very first deal I bought from a wholesaler. I trusted his numbers...all of them. 8 years later I still own that house. It cash flows NEGATIVE $1,000 per month. Yes, that's per month. I call it my monthly tuition.