All Forum Posts by: Nick Albin

I don't have any exact advice or deal terms that me and a partner agreed on. What we did to start off was we had a tic sheet (not sure what other people call it. I was told to do this at the advice of a good friend and mentor) and we basically wrote down all the terms we wanted included in the partnership. This way you can work out all the terms in laid back setting and then once you've ironed out the terms you want (take your time when doing this. Don't be in a rush) you can talk to your attorney and have them put it down in a legal doc. We put our tic sheet on gmail and used the share document option.

Hope that helps

Yeah. I use white vinegar on my tile floors and it does wonders and is dirt cheap.

Just buy the book and save your money.

I have a couple of rentals that I got in decent shape. Not sell worthy shape though. I am planing on staging in. I have all the rented furniture ready to go. I also have a friend who is a decorator. She is going to come over and give the house a womanly touch in exchange for dinner and a movie :P

I have a realtor that is a good friend and have done business with before. He did his thing and we both came to the same conclusion. (I went out int he area and checked out the houses to see where mine stood)

Thanks man. All in all its coming together nicely. Next time I get into one I will come bombard you with questions lol.

Yea if your doing squats your fine. What are you squatting right now?

I would still see if you can get a MRI done. I know that I tore my meniscus(sp?) from wrestling. It was fine in a couple of days and a brace made it better. I never had anything done and then it tore all the way and I had to have it scoped and completely removed. Once the rehab is done get a doc to do a mri on it and see if it might just be a slight tear that they can repair .

I am actually in the end of my current rehab. I bought the place as a residence last year and I am finishing it up and getting ready to sell. I bought it for 65k and right now I am 4k into it and I will have the house on the market next week. It was a great deal actually. It didn't need to much work. I bought it a year ago from a couple. They had started working on it and their friend had given them one of my business cards. They had a home out in the country and just didn't want the house anymore. They had a lot of the flooring and carpet re done but after that they just stopped and wanted out.

I put in tiles into the kitchen, bathroom floors and the tub surround. Had some carpet in one room. Paint throughout the house. Landscaping. Well. . you get the idea. right now its just time to put some elbow grease in and clean it up. Its in an area where the comps sells for about 93k-98k.

I live in Louisville, Ky btw. Any tips you might have or want to discuss please feel free. This was my first real rehab and I learned a ton!

Where do you live at? I plan on doing another in the year if your anywhere close to Louisville.

Yeah I don't think you have to be a complete cut throat. Be stern

All of the people in the rental business that I have met personally. Including my mentor. Very nice people. Good friendly relationships with most of their tenants. Even some of the bad ones are really nice to him. Just they have no money and have to move out. He has his bad tenants too, but they are very few.

That was one thing he actually stressed to me about when I try to get big into rentals. Be kind to the tenants. They pay your bills, and if you work with the good ones. You can keep good tenants who will take care of and in some cases improve your property.

Again he has his sit outs and evictions, but he has a good number of tenants that have been with him for years now. I guess its all just preference or outlook. Obviously I am still young in the whole game so I could change my perception of everything down the road.

That being said, I remember very vividly as a kid my mom telling us not to mess things up because it was Mr Mattingly's house. Maybe for some people having that nice tenant gives them incentive to be good to the property and with others it doesn't matter.

Just sharing a story. For some reason this afternoon I was thinking about a landlord my mom used to have. I was fixing a loose gutter for my tenant and her son was outside talking to me. He is about 7. Cute kid.

When I was a kid my mom had a land lord that she rented from for about 7 years. The guy was super nice. We were good tenants. Took care of the house and rarely asked for anything. He would come around on my birthday or on christmas and give us gifts. Nothing to crazy. Heck even after we moved he sent me a graduation present. He was just a good guy to the family.

I recently past by one of his homes that I lived in as a kid. It was up for sale. I called him up and we are going to try and work out a deal on some of his properties. He is getting older and is down sizing a bit. It was really neat talking to him again and telling him what I have been doing.

Does anyone here have any similar experiences?

It can be somewhat difficult to buy a house with poor credit if your getting a conventional loan. You would work out lease option or have the owner hold a note.

You have not found a deal yet, so why not take the time and work on your credit score while you look for your first deal. You have time and it will make things much easier down the road. Not just for real estate investing. Also this will give you a bit more time to save up funds to give you more options down the road as well as have some cushion for any expenses you didn't plan for.

Its kind of hard to find a place where an investor hasn't gotten ahold of yet.
At the same time your not the same person.

For instance. When I go to areas or neighborhoods I am interested in. I will just talk to random people working in their yard or what have you.(assuming they don't look to busy or come off as angry or irritable) I tell them I am interested in buying property in the area and then just chat for a minute and give them my card.

My most recent deal worked out this way. I had one woman tell me about her and her husband getting a divorce about a year ago and was looking to get a different home. (too many bad memories) She said that she had talk to a few people about selling the house but stopped because they seemed "sleazy". She took a card and we sat down and talk at her house the next week. We were able to work out a deal and are closing on the home in about 2 weeks. Obviously I am not the most seasoned of best investor out there. However, me and this woman were able to work out everything just because I seemed genuine and simply took the time to talk to her while I was in her area.

Let everyone that you know, know that your an investor. Talk to bankers, realtors, brokers, handymen, even other investors! Anyone that might help you down the road and develop a relationship with them. If they know your serious they will be sure to help you down the road. Go into the neighborhoods you drive in. Talk to people give out cards. If you are genuine it shows and people will take to that.

Also how much money do you have to invest with? What is your credit looking like? Want to make sure to build those up so that when you do start to make relationships with agents and bankers they know you can close on a deal. If they know that they will be more confident to call you with possible deals.

Theres a lot more, but in short don't focus on other investors so much. Deals are out there for everyone. Focus on yourself and your relationships with professionals and other investors and go from there.

Good luck!