All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Minge

If they were the victim of identity theft, then they would have to have filed a police report to show that. Ask them to produce the police report where they filed for identity theft.

Considering they are a police officer I would say something not right. They would have access to creating police reports without it being a "real" and "verifiable" police reports. I am a landlord so I am very suspicious of comments like this from my tenants.

I would have them give you a copy of the police report. Then I would call the police state where the report is filed and ask them to send you a copy of the report. You have to pay for it. Compare the report from tenant to report from police officer.

Ask them to tell you all the accounts that were false accounts created by the person who stole their identity. Compare that to their credit report.

Also if they have a police report of identity theft, they should be able to give that to the credit reporting agencies and have the false information removed. Ask them why this has not been done? As a police officer he would know how this is done and should have done it by now. Police departments have lawyers that they can call on for help. They should have gotten the police lawyer involved and had this negative information removed.

If the negative information is from last month, that is one thing. But if it is from last year then something ain't right.

Here is something you can try to market for property owners. Check the courthouse for the county you are interested in managing. Most of the counties around me will see a list of all property owners in the county. They should have a category that shows all SFR, multi-family etc. You can put this list in excel and then categorize it by owner names. if an owner names shows up 40 times, that means they own 40 properties. I would start talking to people that own 5-15 properties. Ask for referrals of other property owners you can talk to. If somebody gives you an owner name then give them a referral fee. The county list will also have the owners addresss. You can get a cheap direct mail piece off internet where company will market directly to these companies for you. Direct marketing.

Hope this helps.

Jennifer

I own mainly 4plexes and I have had several drug dealers. I would strongly recommend following the advice about talking to the police.

I had 2 roomates arrested in AL on drug charges and they got warrant to search the unit. I gave them a key so they would not do any damage. I talked to the police during this event and they gave me the name and number of 2 officers on the drug task force. Today if I suspect a drug dealer then I call them and they WILL tell you if they are actively canvasing the unit or have had dealings with the tenants in the past.

In addition before purchasing a property you can go to the police and get a crime report. This shows all the incidents that have occured at that property. You can also get something that shows the number of crimes in the neighborhood.

I bought a 4plex where 2 of the tenants were drug dealers. In less than 3 months, in one unit 3 people got stabbed and 2 of the tenants in that unit were arrested. In the other unit one tenant was shot in the head and died the next day from what I would assume was a drug deal gone bad. Yes, I got rid of everyone, fixed it up and got new tenants. I still had people driving by and knocking on those 2 doors at all times of the day and night. Finally I put a 2'x4' sign in front yard that said drug dealers gone, current address is gwinnett county jail and the phone number. People stopped coming by after that.

We have our business checking and escrow account at BB&T. The checking account is extremely active and we collect almost $25k a month in rents. We have the free business checking account for both accounts.

We have another LLC with very few properties (read 2) and we keep sec deposits at Wachovia. That account is non-interest bearing and has account activity maybe once a year. We dont have any other business acccount with them. I have banked with Wachovia personally for over a decade. We put the account with them when we were trying to get them to give us a free machine where you can deposit checks from your office without having to go to the bank. If we go it with them then we were going to try and play BB&T to give it to us for free or we were going to pull our account. We never did anything with the machine and the account just sits there.

Here is the basics of getting business credit that I will give you for free so you don't have to pay for it.

1) start business. Get it registered in your state. Get a tax id or EIN for IRS.
2) Get a Dun & Bradstreet account number. Got to their website and sign up where it says you are applying for a government contact and get number in 24-48 hours. NOTE: D&B will call & convince you to buy their products or say your D&B number is not valid you have to pay for one. Total BS. Don't pay. Ignore calls.
3) Setup accounts at companies offering net 30 terms. Stapes, Office Max, Quill, Uline etc. Order something. Pay in 30 days. Let them report to D&B. Some report quarterly so this can take up to 6 months. You need min of 3 accounts to report and 5-6 is best.
4) D&B will give you company a rating of 80 assuming you paid all net 30 accounts on time.
5) With D&B rating. Go to banks, homedepot, lowes, Amazon, Sams Club, gas stations and apply for credit under your business name. NOTE: You will have to give them your SSN, they will check your credit, you will have to PG the credit card.
6) Over time these credit cards will have their account limits increased every 6-12 months. For bigger limit cards at banks, work the smaller companies first to establish a credit file then apply with them after a year.
7) By now you have been building credit for at least 2 years and have had to pg every credit card. You can now apply for credit using your business credit payment history and EIN and not use your SSN or PG the application.

If you were expecting to create a new business tomorrow and have a bank give you 100k in business credit the next day without pg, you would be mistaken.

If you find this helpful, next time you meet me, just remember my favorite drink is a margarita :-)

Find someone with money. Preferably someone that knows you well and would consider you successful as a real estate investor. Ask them to lend you the money that you need. You agree to pay them $xxx for yyy months. Most private money lenders will not want to lend for 30 years. 1-2 years is the norm.

Another option would be to offer them equity in the deal in exchange for their money. If you buy a house for $50k but it is worth 100k. Off them 50% of the profits in exchange for putting up the initial 50k. When you sell they get 75k you get 25k. Great roi for investor. They will expect greater than money market, bank cd rates in exchange for investing in a risky market like real estate.

If you are real industrious. My website is in my signature. Read about me and find the name of my company. Google that to find my company website. On investor tab there is the investor presentation that we put together to attract private money. It is free.

Hope this helps.

I started with SFH. Then I purchased my first quad (4 units) multi-family building. Sold all my SFH and now I have 8 quads. It is the equivalent of a small apartment building. I have 4 tenants but only 1 roof, 1 location to drive to, 1 location to collect rents etc.

Buying a quad you can manage yourself. You will become very keen on the price for all repairs. Once you get there, then you can turn it over to a management company.

When we got to 32 rental units + 2 SFH we turned it over to property management. My property manager is acutely aware that I know what things cost and doesn't try to overcharge me (common issue with property managers).

Starting with quads lets you have decent cash flow compared to house. With house if tenant moves out you pay 100% of mortgage. On quad if tenant moves out, other 3 still cover your mortgage and you have no loss.

Over time you can play monopoly by trading in your quads for a bigger apartment complex since you know the ropes. Like monopoly trade 4 green houses for 1 red hotel.

Do you have other properties that you can get a HELOC loan on them and use these funds to purchase the property?

I would second the comment on using hard money or private money.

I have security deposit accounts at both BB&T and Wachovia. Neither have this requirement.

Last year we had a guy install tile in the dining room and hallway on the first floor of one of our units. The tile is in the room that you enter when you enter from outside. It was 16"x16" tile installed on the diagonal. This guy has been installing tile for over 20 years.

The tenant claims he stubbed his toe the other night on the floor and his toenail fell off. Evidently he told our on-site maintenance guy he laughed at him. Now the guy is calling us complaining about the floor. Claims he lost getting a job because of his toe.

There is a metal transition where tile meets the vinyl at the doorway to kitchen and 1/2 bath. From what I understand that is a normal transition for tile to vinyl.

Do we have potential legal liability for a stubbed toe from a tile floor that is even?