All Forum Posts by: Robert Blanchard

If your tenant has a checking account, you could suggest to them to go to the library to use one of the computers there to set up or to pay their rent monthly using your account at Buildium.    

Does Buildium have an app for smart phones?  

If your tenant still wants to send payments in the mail, go get a PO Box in your business name.  That way, they will not have your home address, or even your full name.    

If this continues to be  problem,  you can alter your Tenant Lease contract to state that you only accept rent electronically. 

Congrats Fitzgerald!  You solve problems for people and you got paid well to do so.    

 I thought that battery tenders in RV's needed to be powered for awhile to keep the batteries topped off.  

Maybe they make solar powered ones now which would be really nice for someone that only uses their RV 4 weeks out of the year.

That is another service you could offer..making sure their batteries have a full charge, water tanks filled up, etc...

I would prefer to have a Storage Unit facility but where I am it takes quit of bit of down payment to get a decent sized facility, which would be over 125 units.  Most of the better ran facilities in my area have over 200 units, but also have Managers that live onsite. 

Many smaller storage facilities have some outdoor storage for Trucks, RV's, and other items on wheels.  

How much risk (and type)are you willing to take?   A first time fix and flip property can lead to problems if your rehab costs run over or if your buyer has financing issues and you have to make another payment while you find another buyer.  But, if things go smoothly, you can make some decent money and do it again.  Many investors prefer to only do fix and flips vs being a landlord.  

I would like to end up with 4-10 doors to supplement my income.

Do you have any relatives or friends that have RE experience?  Sometimes going in with a partner when you are starting out in RE is a good option.

I do not know your area but if you can get a duplex or a 4-plex for reasonable down payment or owner carry, you could do a decent rehab on each unit when turnover and thus get more rent for them.  This can be risky of your renters damage your units or if you have a high vacancy rate. Where I am there is a shortage of rentals so a 4-plex would be a very good option if you do not mind being a landlord.  If they numbers look good enough, you could spend the 8-10% for a property manager so you do not have to deal with tenants and have them screen tenants for you.  This can be worth it for some new investors.  

Good luck with whatever you decided, and please come back and tell us what you decided to do.

Here is a thread with a lot of replies re Dodd Frank and Seller Financing:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/30/topics/1636...

John Fredro has given BP a lot of info regarding the Mobile Home business. 

Here is a link to his profile 

http://www.biggerpockets.com/users/Johnfedro

Do a search on his posts and you will get some good info.

I am tempted to invest in MH's, as you can find them for under $5K if you "ride the bumps" and offer cash for one to someone that needs to sell ASAP.

In Colorado, Subaru's are the most registered vehicle.  I bought my 02' Outback in 08' for $6400.  It had 139K on it and currently has 251K.  I prefer Subaru's for the AWD in the unpredictable winters in the Denver region.  If you do the head gasket and timing belt, you can expect to get over 250K out of them.  I will keep mine till it reaches 300K or higher due to health reasons.  Where you are, I doubt the AWD would be a deciding factor so a Honda or Toyota would be a more practical choice.  My father preferred the old DL Volvo wagons.  He could fit a full sized fridge in the back of one, and full sheets of plywood or sheet rock on the roof rack.  Nowadays the Volvo's are not near as reliable and much more costly to maintain.  

I did have a 97 Chevy Silverado which was a dependable truck.  I sold it for $4800 two years ago.  As I am unable to do RE or hauling at the moment, I could not justify keeping it. 

@Bill S. Congrats on your deal.  I have not been by the Sloans Lake area in a few years. I did see that some houses in that zip code that were selling in the $330K range in 2011, are now selling over $500K.  In my zip code, even the untouched houses with kitchens from the 70's are selling for $265K in hours.  This particular house was on a corner lot with a newer detached 2 car brick garage along with a roof that was done after one of the hail storms. 

How long have the tenants been in the house?  I am assuming that they were on a month to month lease.  Hopefully after they do some looking, they will realize that the $1850 is actually a good deal.  

If they do leave, do you think it will take more than $5K to make it rent ready on the inside?

The Multi deals sound interesting. Do you do a HML on those also? Since they are more than 4 Units, do you have to get a Commercial Loan on them?

Have a great weekend!

I stumbled upon this site years ago when it was much different.  Last year, I rediscovered the site and was pleasantly pleased at how much it has grown and improved.

Congrats on reaching the 300K member mark and I expect to see a 500K post soon.  

Word of mouth advertising can be very effective but if you couple that with doing some targeted advertising it will be not long before BP will be celebrating many more bench marks. 

If you do a search for Real Estate Forum, BP is the fourth result on Google.  That is impressive considering there was 212 million results. 

@Brendan M.

 Congrats and thanks for posting such a detailed explanation on how you were able to close the deal.

I had never heard of Debt Relief as part of a closing but I will try and convince a Seller to do this for me as I qualify to get a VA Mortgage.