All Forum Posts by: Mark N.A

Four years ago I wrote the owner of an empty duplex. A daughter of the recently-deceased owner called me back very eager to sell. Unfortunately there was no will and the heirs hate each other.

Four years later the estate is still not settled, and the empty duplex has fallen into massive disrepair. The estate has easily lost money amounting to the high five figures.

I bought a house last year from a very nice little old lady whose husband had died several years earlier. He had no will.

Because he had no will ownership of the house went to her and to her 3 kids in equal shares which was a surprise to them. Of course they agreed to let her have their share of the money.

Unfortunately her worthless son had previously walked away from a mobile home purchase and racked up a $17,000 judgement.

You know where the money came to settle that judgement.

If I had a desirable college degree or trade or existing career to fall back on per chance the proverbial black swan paddled up I would act differently than I do now.

Right now I sort of wonder if those by-gone T-bill rates of 16+% might be around the corner.... Now THAT'S my kind of passive income!

If the house is paid off your holding costs are not that great relative to evictions, tenant damages and so forth.

To paraphrase Warren Buffet about investing in stocks -- you don't have to swing at anything, you can wait for your own pitch.

Along with knowing what you're doing, there's also a correlation to population and demographics.

I do not live in a 'big city', and many wannabe rehabber/flippers around here are now reluctant landlords or undergoing foreclosure.

One point not often considered involves the MANY and DIVERSE risks inherent in holding real property, even for a short time.

Generally speaking, if you buy a stock you can only lose the amount of money you invest. That is not true with RE, and presented with the right combination of catastrophes, no amount of LLCs or other 'corporate veils' will assure a guaranteed protection for you personally, or your other assets in excess of the cost of the property.

Which leads me to continually evaluate my 'profits', which often don't seem commensurate with the risks.

As for so-called 'low ball' offers more RE investors should make them: let's encourage distressed sellers to more fully understand that this is a BUYERS MARKET, and that we truly don't care if they take our money or not.

Michael:

If I ever EVER start whining about managing my low-income properties I will read your post again and count my blessings...... PRICELESS.

I have, in the past, called the Magistrate and politely asked what I did wrong after losing.

It's my feeling that Magistrates, if in any doubt, will err on the side of the 'little guy'; and that Magistrates rule their kingdoms any way they damn please.

Personally, as a LL I would hate to face a Magistrate in court trying to keep a tenant from breaking a lease after another tenant shot into his residence.

I would much rather face the Magistrate explaining why I was evicting the shooter.

And I would really REALLY hate to deal with some ambulance-chasing attorney knowing that I might lose or, just as bad, that my insurance company would settle and then bend me over the nearest barrel.

If you came to me wanting to leave, Tori, I would make sad noises and quickly send you on your way, along with quickly giving the boot to the upstairs tenant.

Hire an English major or, better yet, a professional copywriter, to write the copy on your site.

Look at it this way: if you were recruiting someone to work for you, and their resume had mispellings, bad grammar, incorrect syntax, run-on sentences, and so forth -- would you be confident enough of their other abilities to hire them?

JMHO.