All Forum Posts by: Geoffrey Schnake

Sf I like to invest a good 15 minutes before I make my offer 

Yes Brian.  I'm a glutton for punishment  so I have wind exclusion policy's on all my properties.  They are all over 50 years old and have not blown away yet. I'm rethinking that however.  One hurricane Andrew  type event in my area and I'm done. Wind exclusion  reduces the insurance  amount by about  half.

I did that for a couple of years.  My thinking was I owned homes for 30 years and never had a claim. Then one burned to the ground.  It was a 130k loss. I realized I could have paid a lot of insurance premiums for 130k,  plus  it's written off on taxes.  Needless to say,  all of my properties are insured now.

If you are sure you have the energy and the commitment to follow through,  it's virtually foolproof.  Might have to swerve here and there. If you're sure you have those 2 things,  do it. Do it tomorrow,  Saturday deals are lucky. 

No, don't worry,  be happy.  And sic your lawyer on him.

@dmitri korobov. Sorry, missed the fact that you are not local. My way involves only being a local self manager.  I don't understand how folks could do what I do without being local and treating it like a business. Didn't mean to hijack your question.

Actually,  you have hit the nail on its head. Avoiding turns is critical.  I self manage and one of the skills that I have is picking and keeping residents.(I don't like to call them tenants ). Firm but caring.  Gift Cards at Holliday season if they have behaved all year. Don't get too greedy about rental increase.  Stay slightly below market.  Do your maintenance in a timely manner. I especially love my resident's  that have passed the 5 year mark. That being said, I'll evict quickly if I don't feel like a resident is trainable. I think my overall vacancy rate is below  5%, based on 7 years of history 

Don't forget Gulfport and westminster hights.

i know. That's what my ambition screams, but my calm business side says it's cap ex for a reason. Staying somewhat liquid yet earning some kind of return is the balance I'm looking for

Every month I put 10% of all rents collected in a reserve account for cap ex. I don't expect any major system expenses in the next few years, as most of my doors were total rehabs after I purchased them. I have ample credit to cover the inevitable big surprise. The  lost use of money sitting in this account is starting to bug me, it's getting near 100k. Anyone have an idea for a similiquid use for this capital?

Thanks for any input