All Forum Posts by: Allen Mock

I live in the town of Onalaska and own land north of holmen, wi. in town of Holland. I would not say I am an expert on everything but what exactly are you looking for. I am always willing to help and learn more in RE. 

It seems like the the town of Holland has some restrictions on splitting properties. I have not seen it in black and white myself but I have heard that they will not let a property be split into anything smaller the 20?? acres. I am sure you can get some sort of variance but it may take a bit of leg work. The property I own is 5.5 acres and was grandfathered in. I would be interested in following your progress. My wifes family owns 28 acres in the same area. I would think they would ease some of those restrictions since holmen is spreading that way. 

I definitely jumped in with both feet for on my first one.  I am in the process of refinancing and I have a quite a bite of equity in this one. Mainly sweat equity. The bank absolute loves that I have all the equity. As a matter of fact I just came from the bank. I will still have over 50% equity even after the refinance. (nest egg for the next one?) I have a few others on the radar but am still paranoid. I have a cousin that has over 100 units, my dad owns a quite a few and my step sister owns some rentals, so I do have resources to draw knowledge and advice from. I guess I just have a mental block believing that this works that I cant get over. Even though I have seen it work time and time again. I guess it is just something I have to get through. 

I started out like most others on this forum by reading books and taking small steps towards my goals. I bought a duplex about three years ago, but because of family obligations and work it sat for a couple of years. The building I bought had a previous  absentee landlord and as a result the building had much delayed maintenance, damaged floors and burst pipes. The basement had flooded damaging the two furnaces and water heater requiring new. I have much experience in construction and hvac and repaired and replaced everything myself. It was a very long road.  The build took a lot of time and perseverance to get it back into rental condition.   Now the building is completely rented and cash flowing nicely. I love having the extra money coming in and see the benefits of owning rentals but am now having a mental mind block to take the next unknown step to the next project. I thought after the first one it would get easier.   How do I get over this? Anyone else run into this? Thanks guys/gals

I think they need to declare your debt in bankruptcy to be protected from you. If they didn't declare you it is game on for you and no protection for them from you. Bankruptcy is not a blanket protection from all worldly debt.

Sell

Sounds like, as stated above, you need to find a new home. Although it sounds as if the landlord may have neglected to maintain your home, some how the authorities got involve and will now condemn the property. Once that is done, you have no choice but to vacate. Depending on the totality of the circumstances the landlord maybe responsible for some or all moving expenses, but can only be determined by a local civil court if YOU decide to pursue. Notice I said, dependent on circumstances and maybe responsible. We only have your side of the story and don't know any of the details.

It sounds like by complaining, you may have shot yourself in the foot, so to speak.

A handicap, reduced mental capacity or any other disability does not exempt you from the property being deemed uninhabitable, actually it makes matters worse. 

Sorry.

I didn't read all the comments so I am not sure if anyone mentioned it, but just a quick check on Dave Ramsey, he got caught up in the tax reform act of 1986. Properties at that  time were artificially high because people bought at a loss to write them off on personal income taxes. Many people got caught owning properties that were underwater, over valued and could no long write them off on personal income taxes. People really took a hit and this is a reason people are still scared of RE. You can research it on your own, I just did a quick search.

Arnie, it sounds like your mind is made up and you want out. What kind of properties are you looking to get rid of. Single family homes you could offer to sell to the tenants on contract or have them get a loan depending on what you want. Multi family would be a little more difficult to find the right buyer.

Looking back over your posts it looks like 2-4 units and a single. You said you are not greedy so just dump them on the market and see what happens.

LOL, you going to Australia any time soon, I need a vacation and all the above sounds like fun. You sound like you have been there before and would make a good tour guide. lol

One more thing, my wife is very on board with what I am doing. She was recently at a dinner date with a small group of friends that she has had since grade school. The friends were talking about what is new in their lives. My wife is pretty reserved so one of her friends brought up the duplex we are currently working on. When she told them where we stood on it, they asked "what are you going to do, be a landlord?" They all laughed about it,  like being a landlord is some sort of joke. The wife, needless to say was pretty ticked off at them.

The women have varying professions , one is a receptionist for a gas company, one works for her sister in a daycare and the most successful one is an agent for AXA investing. If you look up AXA it sounds more like a insurance company then a investment company, agents rent a office space from AXA and buy a computer and software from them. The little research I have done on the company it does not sound like a great place for the employees or the investor/insurers that use the company.

This is not whining, only putting this out there for others to be aware that you don't always get a warm reception when talking to others about your plans and desires.  Keep your heads up and stay the course.

Thanks everyone.