All Forum Posts by: Tom Sylvester

Well, bad news. They owner is selling to someone else.

He called me today @ 3:30 (I was in a meeting at work) and left me a voicemail saying to call him back by 4. I got out of my meeting and called him, and he said he had just sold it to someone else for $26,500, without even coming back and asking if we would offer more. Seems like the guy wasn't too bright. He had two people who wanted to buy his property, and did not even try to work them against each other to get the price higher.

I told him to give me a call if the deal fell through for some reason.

Well, I just put the offer in for $25,000. When I did, I told the guy that I had talked to my partner. I gave my partner some information about the property, and some of the things we had discussed (the utilities were not split, upstairs would need some updating when a tenant moved out, etc), so my partner ran the numbers and we can offer $25,000 for the property. The guy seemed receptive and said he would have to talk it over with his wife, and as long as she was ok with it we could move forward. He said he would call me back tomorrow night.

Thanks for the responses, and I will keep this thread updated.

My partner and I are going to put an offer in on this duplex tomorrow, and just wanted to have some others look at it to make sure we analyzed it correctly.

The owner purchased the duplex 1/12 years ago as a foreclosure. One unit is 2br/1ba and the other is 1br/1ba. He inherited both tenants and they have been their the entire time he has owned it. Him and his wife just purchased land to build a house, so they need to sell so they can begin building. While he has owned the place he as put a new roof on (tear off, so it only has 1 layer), put new doors on and some other misc stuff. The water heater is new, and the furnace is older but my father (a contracor and also a landlord) inspected it and said it should last at least a few years.

He is asking $31,900. The rents for the two apartments are $450 and $550, so $1000 gross rents. The utilities are not split (so they are currently included in the rent), but once a tenant moves out we plan to split them and make the tenants pay them.

We plan to offer $25,000 and assume we can negotiate to $28,000.

Using Mike's 50% operating expenses, that leaves $500 for NOI. Subtract a mortgage payment of $266 (10 years @ 8%), that leaves $233 left, or $116 per unit.That is based on a 20% down payment and 5% closing costs, leaving an approximate ROI of 40% (based on $6986 out of pocket costs).

I have attached analysis sheet that I created for this. Please let me know if my numbers are accurate and if this look like a good deal.

Any ocmments are appreciated. Thanks!

I am currently taking the advanced courses through Rich Dad.

At first I was excited, but if I had to do it again I would not have taken them.

I first took the three day course with my cousin, which cost $250/piece. I think this course was totally worth it. It gave me an overview of all the possibilities, and some great ideas in some aspects.

This was all that I personally needed. From there I began reading books, ordering audio course off e-bay and meeting with other investors at my local reia.

There is some good information, but there are several problems for me.

1. They throw some much information at you. You don't need to know how to do every strategy in real estate when you begin. You need to pick one strategy any execute it, and then learn another.

2. They are not local. You will learn general information from the courses, and you will have to figure out how they apply locally.

3. They are expenses. I spent $7500 to go to 4 advanced trainings. Add on the cost of starting my business and other expenses, I am @ around $9,000. Add on the cost of creating my LLC when I purchase my first property, and I'm over $10,000.

If I had to do it again, I would not do it. I would learn as much as I can on my own, and find someone from my local reia to mentor me.

Another things is that you can have all the knowledge in the world, but if you don't take action it is worthless. Also, much more than knowing different strategies is knowing how to talk to people. If you do not know how to talk to people, your strategies are worthless.

I just ordered both of her books, so I will try to post up my thoughts once I am done. Thanks for the review!

I am new into real estate as well, but anytime I want to learn something here is what I do... find someone who does it well and offer to work for free. You will be helping them, and you will gain the invaluable education from them for free.

I have several agents who send me daily listings (one only sends foreclosures, the other send a mixture). If I find were to find a deal on one of these properties, put a contract on it and wholesale it - how does this all work when a Realtor is involved (the one who sent me the listing)?

I have a Realtor who send me daily listings of foreclosures. On one of the descriptions, it said seller financing available. How does this work if the property is already in foreclosure?

Check your pms.

Well, I attended the training and was very impressed. There were several pieces of information that they gave which are worth it by themselves (paying off your mortgage early, smart use of credit cards, etc). It also opened my eyes up to how many different types of investing there are.

I will agree with others though, they do push a lot for their advanced training. The three day course was basically an intro course that gave you a little bit of info on each topic, and they recommend you sign up for the advanced courses to learn more.

My cousin and I signed up for an extra 4 courses together. Once you sign up for the courses, they stop pushing you to buy more stuff. they also then promote networking and provide you with a plan to start, and contact info for your instructor. It cost us each $7,500. I am looking forward to the additional training.

And I believe that you get as much out of a training course as you want to. I will keep everyone updated as I begin taking these courses.