All Forum Posts by: Jenny F.

This has got to be the most OVERLY reported election I have ever seen. I cant even bear watch anymore and I am a NEWS/talk radio JUNKY.

Between Obama and Brittany Spears I just cant take it anymore! :goofy:

The media is most definately liberally biased. No question.

This is a very personal thread to me so forgive me if it sounds grouchy, because it IS.

i had a fire 4 years ago and our insurer was State Farmed. I was 5 months pregnant at the time the fire hit btw...

Here was our experience.....

We were told to get OUR own estimates to repair the damage (by the :badwords:er who sold us the policy in the first place). so...

WE Called- 7 builder/remodelers who came out and told us it would cost 150k to repair our home back to the condition it was prefire.

THEY called- 2 State Farmed contractors came in and said it would cost 65k to repair our home back to the condition it was prefire.

I had been living in a trailer on my property for nearly a year (state farmed was about to quit paying for it at 1700.00 per month so it was going to come out of my pocket) They took their sweet assed time getting anything done, meanwhile my coverage period was ticking away....

The TWO contractors from State Farm were 'not available' to do the work for ONE year because they were 'so booked up'. Of course they were 'booked up' because their estimates were BS!

I had a public adjuster. I had to pay him 10% of the 65k (that SHOULD have been 150k) that the insurance company was coming off of to fix my house. AND 10% of my contents which didnt amount to much either. Certainly no where NEAR what i was actually insured for!

To answer your question...should they get a private adjuster? Well, a private adjuster didnt do squat for me but cost me 10% of what i was going to get anyway. If your friend does hire one INTERVIEW several and NEGOTIATE the hell out of the contract! Get free consultations from all that you interview!

Tell your friend GOOD LUCK! Dealing with the insurance company (the ONE i dealt with anyway) was the WORST experience of my life. The actual fire didnt feel as bad as the screwing i got because of it. Financially we lost about 200k on the whole thing!

In the end, we tore the house down and built a brand new one right behind it that is worth 410k and we did it ourselves (we did hire people to help). It cost us 150k to build it. We remortgaged our property to get it done. When we sell the house we are in, we will make up for the difference.

oh, right after the fire the adjuster sent out by the insurance company kept repeating "I am here for you, i work for you..."

I was wondering about that myself.

WOW! Wheatie! Thanks for the info!

My financial planner suggested this very scenario to me last year but he didnt tell me all of that!!! I am glad i didnt do it! what is UBTI or UBIT?

BINGO! (yes, i said bingo, i know)...

Research on your own FIRST. I have seen way too many investors fall into this only to lose their shirts.

It IS a lot of work but when you get a good property really cheap all that research pays off! Good luck!

i have purchased two properties at tax sale and here is what i have learned....

RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH...every so often you will come by a real gem but ask why this house is going into tax reversion...you will find there is generally a GOOD reason why the owner just stopped paying taxes. (aside from death, etc..)

Start your research at the township hall.

I am embarressed to say that one of our properties that should have been grandfathered in was sitting on a non conforming lot and the township would not let us rebuild on it. We could have pushed the issue, gotten an attorney and went to several townhip appeal meetings but it would have been a waste of our time. The building inspector was insistant that he didnt want another house there PERIOD. (you have to have the respect of the building inspectors or they can make your business VERY difficult)

Luckily, we didnt pay much for it and we were able to sell the property to the neighbor so we didnt lose either. It was a break even type deal.

Once we had the property we found out about the non conforming lot. I did do my research but who knew what a non conforming lot was? I didnt and the townhip didnt offer up that bit of info either. It was non conforming because back when the subdivision was planned, a road (that never materialized) was running right in the middle of the property where the house was. It could have been a really big mess.

so i stress DO YOUR RESEARCH. ask many questions.

have you considered selling your property land contract or renting the property instead of selling it right now. Selling land contract is a good way to get the full value of your property.

Renting it out is a good way to keep an asset and let someone else pay the mortgage. Just a thought....

That is what i plan to do with my house really soon.

ditto...

are you looking for rentals, flips, residential, commercial and in what areas....

our luxury home market is suffering quite a bit. million$ + homes are sitting for years when they used to sit for days.

Many of the builders that have started buildng the luxury homes are just getting the shell of the home built until it sells and those are sitting even longer.

This is our current project though it isnt finished yet. i wanted to share and i would LOVE to see what others have going on.

Also would love to give and get feedback....

I will post the dimages later after i rez them down.....