All Forum Posts by: Steve Porcello

@Steve Bracero,

Steve, it was written in the offer in the contingency. On that, the sellers were very motivated and didn't give us a hard time, and were very helpful on their end by working with us to schedule a time and date to go through the property. It can be a process trying to coordinate a seller, their broker, myself, and all of our guys to do the walkthrough on the same day, especially on short notice. It actually happened on two different days (one guy came this day, another contractor came a few days later, etc...). I won't say it's easy, but if you have contractors in your team that you trust, then their word is worth hearing! Also, if we didn't like what we saw, then we had the ability to walk away and not go into a P&S.

-Steve

Our last two (2) acquisitions weren't inspected in the tradition of hiring a "home inspector". Instead, I scheduled my team (plumber, electrician, myself, other team members) to do a complete walkthrough for ourselves. My guys have the experience to know what it's going to take to make a property work, or not work. So far, so good. There must be someone in the BP world doing something similar! Chime in!

-Steve

I used a Home Depot Project Loan card on one of my last projects. Interest free payments at first, and then the interest rate kicks in at 7%, versus your big credit card company's 20%+ interest rate. It's super convenient if you have multiple projects going on at once. It makes keeping track of expenses much easier rather than looking at a credit card statement and saying, "hmm, what property was that can of paint for?". You will know much quicker when it's time to pay bills and track expenses.

-Steve

@Katherine S. I'm on it! 

We're in good shape right now. My team is moving forward with the rehab. I will let you all know where we are in the near future on this one. 

-Steve

Quick update on this:

We had the property surveyed, and the neighbor actually has a huge stone wall in the middle of the easement, totally narrowing the right of way by over three feet. It's set up a certain way where if I wanted to put a fence up, legally, on my land, the right of way would be too narrow for anybody to fit through because of this guy's stone wall.

We are considering making him move his wall after all his snotty behavior. The surveyor even told me that he is probably just mad that he didn't buy the house when it got listed because he could then 'dominate' every house on the right of way on his own terms.

Does anybody have experience with having a neighbor building stuff on easements/your land and requesting to take it down? We have every right to make him move it.

@David Dachtera

I'm interested to see where this goes. He owns the property that he lives in, and selling another one across the street. It's for sale by owner, and it's incredibly overpriced, not that it matters. Maybe he'll list his own house soon and I won't have to worry about him.

@Christian Wathne 

Ah. We literally just closed on this property, and we are still moving forward to getting some great tenants to live in it. My team is doing everything in our power to attract respectful tenants to live in our property. I suppose we'll see how we feel about this guy in a short period of time.

@Thomas S.

I'm not too interested in answering any more of this guy's questions. I'm there to do my job, not get harassed. I'm communicating with my attorney to get an opinion from the pros.

Keep the experiences coming. I want to hear from someone who was able to hold onto their investment without being forced to sell. I know you are out there! 

Hi BP,

Hope everyone is doing well as we get ready for summer. 

Let's cut to the chase- my team recently acquired a two-family home in my area, and we do a lot of our own renovations and all of the management. The property is on a small street, and three other houses share my driveway to get to their homes. The first day I was there, the neighbor, this guy, in his fifties, couldn't wait to jump all over me and borderline interrogate me with question after question. I introduced myself naturally, and he just kept hammering me with questions alongside a HUGE attitude. Without saying hello, he asked me who lives here, are you licensed, do you know where the property lines are... Sure, I just showed up and began working on this property, but the guy went further on by saying "Everybody's watching you. I'm watching you. I'm calling the police the first peep I hear out of this house." He was incredibly rude about the entire thing. And to say everybody is watching me? Man, I'd like to meet them! This guy couldn't speak for himself. If we're being real here, he had a pretty threatening voice and body language. The next time I saw him he was literally waiting outside in his yard for me. He then went off again about all of the same crap, and he even recited my home address to me, which I never gave him (anyone can find out where you live on public records). Every time I voiced back to him, I was polite, (don't you think you would want to have a good relationship with neighbors to only benefit you and them both???) He was literally trying to scare me into playing by his rules. I'm not going to let this guy make up his own rules and tell me what I can and cannot do with my own property.

I am yet to meet the other two neighbors that use my driveway. I want to know what they are like, because they must know that this guy behaves like a total idiot. I am concerned for a few reasons. The first being that as soon as I start renovating this guy is going to complain about noise all of the time. Secondly, he's going to call the police on whoever I put in there, no matter who they are, harass our tenants, and hurt our investment. He's an incredibly nosy person. At this point in time I had never had to deal with a neighbor like this guy. I do this for a living, and I know how beneficial it can be to make good with neighbors right from the beginning. This guy wasn't even considering it. Opinions? I've considered filing a complaint against him. I've heard that usually the first person to file a complaint against another is usually the one who has the upper hand in court.

Also, I'm having the land surveyed to get up-to-date property landmarks, because it hasn't been done in over 30 years.

@Ally Kumar

We are closing on a building in the heart of Plymouth in the upcoming weeks that was built before 1900. However, we did our homework, had a structural evaluation done to make sure the thing wasn't going to fall down. Things that a home inspector probably wouldn't pick up on. We had a plumber and an electrician go through the entire thing. We liked what we saw. Also, no lead, but this property is going to need quite some rehab! So to answer your question, I wouldn't completely walk away from older properties until you get a feel for its potential. Also I feel that it's important to note that the seller in my situation has been incredibly motivated to sell by allowing us to perform all of these duties.

@Rick Santasiere I appreciate the post! Your message was definitely not interpreted as negative by any means. You made some great points. I will definitely take your message into consideration, even if it means making changes to my approach to this whole thing. I definitely do not want to come off as "only in it for myself", because I know with involvement and giving back to the community it will only help everybody in the long run. Like you said, if I want to be completely "in the know", I may have to discuss with a broker my intent and find the right amount of balance. Again, I appreciate the alternative response!

-Steve

Thank you @Brad Kelly. Everyone does seem to know at least one real estate agent these days. 

@Tim Wilkinson Good luck on your exam! Don't overthink it and just read the questions carefully. I found that there were a lot of double negatives, ex. "Which of the following is not illegal" (aka, LEGAL). Look out for silly things like that. Also I hear you on the KW and Coldwell, they could potentially provide me with leads and opportunity to work with sellers directly. I do plan on working with a broker and getting my 25 hours a week in, as long as I am getting a decent amount of networking.

@Justin Benster Great approach, Justin. I really need to compile a list of quality questions to present to a broker stating what I want, what they offer, and ultimately decide who is going to be the best fit for me. I think one thing I am mainly after is seller leads before they go public. If you held onto any sort of list that you used as a tool when interviewing, I would highly appreciate it if I could give it a look-over, and of course with your permission apply anything to my own case.

@Doug Seabury Thanks for the feedback, Doug. If you have any golden, particular questions that you think I should ask a broker I would love to hear them!

Again, thank you all at BP for the feedback! Hopefully other members in a similar situation read this and can benefit. 

-Steve