All Forum Posts by: Sharon Tzib

Welcome, Drew! Top wholesalers will tell you it takes about 5-7 touches before your yellow letter campaign will take off, so don't get discouraged initially if you aren't getting the response you want. If you haven't already, listen to Sharon Vornholt's podcast and check out her website - she's a wholesaling marketing genius!

Any reason you're only targeting one zip code? Is that a cost saving measure or the only place you really want to invest?

Good luck to you - I'll be seeing you in Houston soon (moving there later this year). Sharon

"PITI is $815/month. The houses next to me rent for $1,250 and $1,300."

Actually, I would have preferred just to see what your mortgage payment was, without the taxes and insurance included, so we could do a quick analysis w/ the 50% rule. It says:

Rent x 50% - mortgage payment = cash flow

Taking the low rent number of $1250, your P&I would need to be $625 or less for you to be cash flow even or positive. I think you're very close. Given the great shape of the house and the fact that you have equity and could walk away with a decent amount, sans cap gains, selling seems prudent to me.

As you said though, you're emotionally attached to this house, so what seems logical to us may not feel so to you. Good luck!

In the most simplistic terms, 4 or less units are valued by comps.

5 units and above are considered commercial and are valued by the income the property generates.

There is a ton of information on this forum to help you understand multi-families better. Search the term or go visit the multi family forum. You'll see deal analysis there all the time - it will help you get a handle on how it works.

"The bottom line, at least for Mitchell however, is this: “I’d say do both—and keep working longer.”

OMG! This article is so bad in so many ways I don't even know where to begin. First of all, most people nearing retirement age do not have enough money to sustain their current lifestyle when they do retire. So his answer is, oh, just keep working longer - arghh!!

Second of all, these so called "financial planners" assume people need 85% of their working income after they retire in order to maintain their standard of living. Oh great! Just what I want to do in retirement - downgrade my quality of life so I can get by.

The fact that this article seriously believes that people's only two options for surviving post-retirement is by either contributing to their 401K or paying down their house just shows how misguided most of the information out there is, and it's why these strategies aren't working!

Instead of paying down your mortgage and being a sitting duck for the bank to pick off when you can't make your mortgage payment in retirement (after all, who do you think they'll want to foreclose on first - the person with no equity or the person with a ton of equity?), take those extra payments and invest in real estate.

Instead of contributing the max to your 401K, whose returns are historically low after all expenses are taken out, only contribute what the employer match is and use the extra money to invest in real estate.

The fact of the matter is, the rich and super rich in this country have a portofolio of over 80% in real estate. If you want to be secure in retirement, do what they do and start finding ways to earn passive income.

Thanks for sharing, Jimmy. Articles like these amaze me!

My father always said, "Consider the source."

If this info is from someone who sells mutual funds or is anti-American and thinks the end of the dollar is near, there ya go!

Real estate has been around much longer than the stock market. I'd err on the side of history :)

As a wholesaler, you rarely take title to a property, so I think this is an unnecessary expense. However, once you start flipping, absolutely get an LLC and title your houses into them for the duration of the hold. This is not only good for liability but tax strategy as well.

As always, you should be consulting a CPA in your state for the final word.

Contractors/handymen aren't employees, so it's not like he lied on an application. And I'm sure it never came up in conversation or you would have mentioned it in your intro, so it doesn't seem like he was hiding it intentionally from you.

Everyone makes mistakes in life. The fact is, he's being doing fine work for you before this. He probably has learned his lesson and just wants to move forward. Stopping his livelihood will not help him do that.

I would, however, do two things. First, let him know what you've found out and get his side of the story. At the very least, he is now on notice that you know so that he can be sure to perform even better than before if he wants to keep his job. Second, make sure he is bonded/insured. If anything should happen, you don't want it on you.

If you just can't sleep at night over this, then keep using him on the flips only and not the student projects. Let us know what happens.

Well to be truthful, an experienced landlord would have never bought the building without conducting a unit by unit inspection, at which time they would have discovered the obese tenant and existing damage. At this point, all they can do is proceed as Andrea above so competently outlined.

I'd tread very carefully here. Attempting to evict anyone due to their weight could be considered discrimination in some states.

One idea that pops into mind is perhaps if the tub area does have water damage and needs to be pulled out anyway for repairs is to perhaps install a shower with a seat instead. Easier for the obese tenant to access and use a shower than a tub, I imagine, and eliminates the strain his weight is putting on it and future risk to tenants below, as long as it's not too cost prohibitive. Having one unit with a shower only I'm sure won't be a total deal breaker for future rentability.

Good luck.

Awesome advice, Robert!

@Michael Power where are you finding Theresa's book for free?