All Forum Posts by: Rick Wang

kiltz works but you should at least soap and water wash the walls before you do it. A lot of the smells will come off.  If you use hot water sometimes it will re activate the scent. Just a FYI. 

Depends what the smell is from. I already know when going into a place that if it smells like candles, febreeze or ozone, that there is probably weed, cigarettes, or pets that was there before. That or mold. 

Ive ripped out hard wood floors under carpet and the subfloor. That's how far the pet urine was. 

now that's a discussion. What is Fu money to you? Cash flow or net worth?

Do your tenants have report-able income?I find evictions to be less of an issue the more stable work wise they are. If you rent to people who make mostly cash (somehow, I wont ask how, or what they do for money), when it comes time to go to court, they have no assets for you to go after.

If you want to prevent this professional tenant issues, is a difficult matter. There are too many landlords, and too many tenants. The best way is to get references, and speak to the previous owners. I do know of a few land lords who lied to new land lords just to get the tenants out of their old apartment!

 That is a great rate of return. This is the reason Im looking outside of my market; we can't get nearly that rate of return here anymore, at least right now. 

Anyone can make 10k a month, passively. 

Depends on your meaning of "passive" and depends on how much equity and capital investment you have in it. Don't be lured by the 10k a month number. Be lured by the rate of return. 

a 20mm apartment in manhattan will easily net you 15k a month in rental income. 

From a pure "rental" perspective, owning property outright doesn't leverage your equity. So you tie up all your assets which net, say 5%. On 1mm, that would be 50k return. 

But if you leverage your equity, on a ratio of a standard bank loan (20/80), your 1mm capital can borrow an additional 4mm for a total of 5mm.

The same 5% return on 5mm would be 250k.

Now granted, you would have to pay interest rates, etc but you can get loans which are below 5%.

The more your willing to go into debt, the larger the end payout can be. 

If you play this game once only, and no other times (assuming you had 1mm) you would pay off within 20 years, have 5mm in equity, and 250k a year of passive income.

Now, thats the potential. There are reasons that not everyone does it;

1. If you don't have access to enough cash flow and asserts to back the gamble. This is why property gets foreclosed. Lack of tenants, shift in economy, just look at detroit. If you invested 1mm in detroit in 1990, how much is it worth now? But if you invested 1mm in Time square, or las vegas, or san francisco, its worth considerable more than what you paid.

2. You ever hear of the gambling rule? If you double down each time, eventually you will win (for games of chance, not things like poker). The problem is, do you have enough capital to keep doubling down? Lets say its roulette, and you bid on red. Each time it doesn't land on red, you keep doubling down. EVENTUALLY it will hit red. But it could be one round, or 1000 rounds. The problem is the casino has access to virtually unlimited capital, and you don't. This is why people do the "paid off" version; the property is theirs, they have limited their risk. 

3. Appreciated property value will also appreciate your rent roll. If you get into a good "area" before it becomes hip, you will win on two fronts. Take a look at downtown philly by the home of Pats Cheese steak. That area was riddled with prostitutes and homeless back in the mid 90's. Now there are women in yoga pants carrying palates mats. Then there are areas that just haven't grown at all, flooded (Louisiana anyone?), etc etc.

Google voice is very good for this. Doesn't replace multiple phones, or multiple carriers. But it is good for a lot of things, and offers a good physical barrier (as well as tax write off).

How much is rent there? Are these one bedroom units?

ive done it and here is what I will tell you; without the right tools and experience it will look fine from a distance; up close it will look terrible. It's like  race cars; they look great on TV, but once you get close, you see all the dents, scratches, duct tape, rock chips, etc etc. You want to prep the surface, fill in imperfections, High build primer, and aacrylic finish. Rolling on produces a stipple finish and not a high gloss smooth finish. Just depends on what your happy with. 

 Depending on your fire code, you will need at least a faux vent.