All Forum Posts by: Timothy W.

 Foreclosure isn't hopeless.  It's a reset.  It might be wise to get an attorney now while you can take in some rental money to pay him/her to guide you through your options.   There's all kinds of legal advice in here from nonlawyers but none of it matters if you need to initiate legal proceedings.

It's worth nothing that Robert Kiyosaki credits his Merchant Marine education for a lot, which is a degree granting institution.  From my understanding, he was also eligible for West Point and the Naval Academy.  He went to the military equivalent of college.  His opinion could be that civilian college is a waste of time while intentionally not extending that opinion to military education.  A lot of military guys think that way.  When he wrote Rich Dad, Poor Dad it was also popular at the time to denigrate traditional college because we were right in the dot com boom, where a certification to write html paid more than a college degree.  Colleges have caught up.  Case in point - the online degree.  Of course, we do have another game changer in AI.  It's a powerful tool.  I tested it's knowledge on a very high-level legal question and it was remarkably accurate.

I think it's a good idea even if you don't have a plan and your first degree is a little hokey.  I first got on this forum 17/18 years ago when it first started.  I literally purchased the first lifetime pro level membership here, which is kind of weird that it hasn't been honored since I'm still alive but whatever.  I was not as pro-formal education then even though I had a B.A. in English.  It would have been nice to get a degree in Biology instead but it worked out.  My bachelor's degree got me started in insurance adjusting.  The money I made in that bought me industry designations.  The industry designations paid for my J.D.  Now all of my credentials combined make me about a quarter of a mil a year part-time from home for relatively easy work with no overhead and little real risk.  That's the complete opposite from real estate where the overhead is monstrous, and you'd have to own millions of dollars in real estate to make that kind of return.  All this happened while I was concurrently flying and crashing in real estate.  It's a lot more chill now.  I can drop 10-20k into an investment when I feel like it because I don't consume a quarter of a mil a year in my lifestyle, and I can afford to wait for investments to turn now.  I don't have to cannibalize something to keep something else afloat.  Did I have a plan for any of this?  Heck no.  I just kept moving forward and finding the next step.  More steps materialized as I kept moving forward.  I'm contemplating a PhD right now.  I already have one doctorate, so acceptance is easy.  Because of the educational background I have I can just write a check for it as I go.  Education gives you choices.

Here I am in Florida looking at Vermont for STR, lol. Not because I'm convinced Vermont is a good return. It's just beautiful there. Anyway, Florida is really high right now in general but there are some pockets where you can get a decent sized almost beachfront house for 500kish. You get into a SFR with no HOA anywhere near the beach and you can STR that all you want. It's usually not the actual municipality creating issues except for that one that I think was near Clearwater/Tampa where they codified in zoning something anti-STR. I wasn't watching it closely when I lived there. The HOAs and condos are the ones that you really have to watch. Condo Karen is much worse than some former builder retired into a code enforcement role.

 I will always concur on hiring legal counsel now.  :) 

Tim Wieneke, JD

In my case my unscrupulous former partner tried to change her position from a partner to a private mortgage lender at a rate of 25% per year.  Had we used a lawyer at the beginning she'd have a hard time explaining why this alleged mortgage was never recorded and why an attorney wrote an unconscionable mortgage contract at a usurous rate.

Yeah this is a year old but I only come in here once every 6 months or so.  Anyway, I used it every time, but that's because I already have Xactimate for my regular business.  The software costs $1,600 a year so it's not a cheap investment.  If you want something cheaper you can do it using the Paul Walker book that costs about $100 a year as long as you have an understanding of what the scope is, having the measurements you need, and have a calculator to multiply it all.  Symbility is an alternative that has a lower fee per estimate, 10-20 bucks per if I remember correctly, but make sure you include every little scope item if you use Symbility.

Got a local bubble here.  My Tampa house darn near doubled in value in 3 years, most of it last year because the rest of the country is losing its mind on covid.  I don't know what kind of crash comes from a bubble that seems tied to local leadership unless the leadership drastically changes.

Hunter Biden and I do art together.  Besides that I have a consulting business.  Make more money in an hour than my rentals used to net in a month.  It's good to have a cash business going.  It gives you the freedom to slow down and buy smart.

We actually have laws in place about rate increases relative to hurricanes.  Where you have to watch yourself is condo assessments for hurricane damage.  That can get you bad.