All Forum Posts by: Scott Ficek

Been there, done that as an investor. Most real estate agents do not work in investment property sales/buys often. They have no clue what makes up a good buy.

Drive around or look on your local MLS and find a Realtor that seems to have a bunch of investment properties listed. That is the guy to talk to first.

Also, check with your mortgage broker to see if s/he knows a Realtor they can recommend that does many investment sales.

Once you find the Realtor, make sure you like him/her. Make sure you have the same goals and communication style. Then, let the Realtor work for you, they are experts, let them do what they get paid to do.

Here is a shameless, but probably futile plug.....not sure where you are located, but if you are in Minnesota, look me up as I only work with investment buyers!

I have always been told that pet deposits are NOT the same thing as security deposits and are therefore not subject to interest or non-refundability.

You may want to check if there is a service or attorney that does evictions for cheap. I pay $88 (plus court costs I would incure any way) for a service to handle the entire process. This includes serving the paperwork, going to court, and issuing the write. I could never do it for that cheap!

Think about what your time is worth.

I am sure any interest bearing account would be fine.

I like keeping it simple and setting the security deposit the same as the rent. The only time I vary from this is when the rent is $1200-$1500. Then I just set it at an even $1000.

Not sure what state you are in as each one has different requirements on holding security deposits.

Legally (in Minnesota), yes, you should deposit the amount in a seperate deposit account. Realistically, I rarely meet a small investor that does that. I am not even sure what government authority would be responsible for auditing that and/or what they would do if you put that money in operating fund.

I come from an IT background and have designed several websites. I initially started out with a blank page on GoDaddy.com and built my first site.

I recently moved to Top Producer Websites to allow me to get MLS search and lead generation connectivity easily. I am more limited on what I can do, but for anyone that is new, you can get your site up in a couple hours.