All Forum Posts by: Shaun Steckler

You mentioned the seller filed a Ch 11, do you think it might be a 13 or 7? Just checking.

Once the seller filed for BK, everything stopped. The lender cannot foreclose and you cannot negotiate a short sale.

You will have to wait until the legal dust settles before moving forward on this one.

When I first started out I used Quick Books. I wasn't too good at addition and subtraction (even with a computer program) so I took a chance and hired a part-time bookkeeper. Best move I ever made when it came to accounting for my investment company.

About a year ago, I tried out Buildium and really ended up liking the app. You have access to your data from anywhere. You can also schedule job orders with vendors via email.

Very happy with Buildium.

I would wait for the tenant to move out of the unit. It's not worth the hassle and confrontation. Unless you like that kind of stuff - then it's great. Just kidding.

Anyway, here's a tip. After this tenant moves out and you've cleaned and painted the unit - take some photos.

Then when you're ready to rent the unit in the future you can at least meet with prospective tenants and present the photos. This will give them an idea of what the unit will look like when they move into the place.

Better yet, build a web site and upload the photos and drive prospects to the site. Hope this helps.

I think that in today's market you should acquire property at a 40% discount without a problem. This is the easiest market to do that in.
When it comes to your exit strategy, that should have been decided before you made the buy. Buy low, renovate and rent is really hard to beat.

I hope you're not thinking of selling (after a year and a day) and paying capital gains tax to Uncle Sam. Always look to 1031 into a larger property. This way you can defer your tax obligation indefinitely.

Don't use a GC unless you absolutely have to on a project. It's in their blood to try and extract as much money out of you as possible.

It sounds like you have some cleaning and painting to do on your project. If you make the right agreement with the right worker, your project will go smoothly. If you don't, you'll lose a lot of sleep.

Good luck.

If you're interested in starting your own blog about real estate investing, check out Chris Brogan. This guy has done a fantastic job of laying everything out for us.

Here's the link,
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/my-best-advice-about-blogging/

Get rid of the pool. An above ground pool does not add any value. The first thing a potential buyer thinks when he sees it is, "how much time will it take to maintain that thing?" Toss the pool.

You can patch the wooden floor and refinish them. Make sure you match the new wood with the old. Then instruct your carpenter to "stagger the planks" into place.

Then you can simply refinish the floors.

As far a colors go, find out what's popular in your area and use a Sherwin Williams paint wheel to match the colors.

If you don't know what you're doing when it comes to selecting the right color, find someone else who does.

Have your handyman check the plumbing and water heater. Our biggest repair expenses come from plumbing.

Also, make sure the exterior of each property is litter-free. That's a pet peev of mine.

Top 5 Landlord Mistakes

1. Doing favors for tenants
2. Wanting everybody to like you.
3. Not filing evictions when you're supposed to.
4. Waiting to make repairs.
5. Not hiring a property manager as soon as its it's feasible.

Was the property management firm in place before you made the investment? You should have factored this into your decision.

Many times we don't think about the amount of control we have over to someone else. But we do it all the time.

When you hand over your control, your investment success is largely dependent on someone else. How skilled they are or how much they care about your particular condo units is unknown.

I don't know if you have any real options that work in your favor on this particular investment. The property management company is probably standing on solid ground here.

Just remember that when you hand over control to someone else, your investment risk increases.