All Forum Posts by: Chris Gerstner

I'll add my two cents as well...

I've been in the Family Syndication Group with Mark and @Tamiel Kenney for almost a year now. I'm about to close on my first 145 unit deal and working through my second (267 doors) as well. There is absolutely no way I could have achieved 412 doors in about year, on my own,or without the guidance of Think Multifamily. Especially in 2020!

Don't get me wrong, their are a lot of great syndicators out there. The passion, attitude, and culture of Think makes the difference though! 

Let me know if you want to chat on the phone for a bit or if I can help any other way! ...and best of luck to you! 

TLO is a great product for that. I had access to non-public data through them and depending on whether or not you have permissible reason to pull non-public data, you should be able to use them to find almost anything someone is connected with. I'd use them to find other known associated entities as well as aliases and then run a search using that info on the county sites where you see past addresses. 

It's amazing what these databases can do by just connecting the dots with people. Still some leg work but worth it in my opinion to go that extra mile if you're lending to them. 

Hey Neil,

I've used TLO in the past which is a Transunion product but even then it's not real accurate on judgements. A judgement creditor (winning party) has to report it basically for it to be on a credit pull anyway. 

I've ended up just searching county records myself and found that to be the most accurate. More time consuming but most counties have easy search tools. Depending on the state I suppose. Texas seems to be better then most others in my experience.

Another thought, maybe find a lawyer with a good research team and make a deal for them to do the search. 

Good luck!

Alright, I'll bite. I'm fairly new to this as well so maybe I'm showing my ignorance on this one but...

How is it better to buy a property at the top of the market that you intent to hold for long term?

I'm not for trying to time the market either but you guys are saying that buying when a market is at or near all time highs is a good thing for the buy and hold strategy.

The scenario plays out like this in my mind. I BRRRR a few long term rentals, land at roughly 70% debt load and the market tanks. If rents fall, which seem likely, then maybe my cash flow doesn't go negative but doubt it would stay the same since rent price should somewhat follow market pricing.

A few of you have said buying in a hot market is actually a good thing. What am I missing here?

Thanks in advance!

@Tom Shallcross Thank you sir. 

I'll be sure to dig through and learn some more. Very interesting concept. 

Howdy Folks. 

I ran across this article from D Magazine on the South Dallas Opportunity Zone and its overall possible impact. I have been keeping an eye on these neighborhoods as there appears to be some good SFH flip potential but this might peak your interest in some of the commercial project potential.

Just wanted to share and see if anyone has any other input or suggestions on how to take advantage of this. 

Pretty intriguing stuff. 

https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-ceo/2019/october/dallas-opportunity-zones-fair-park-cedars/

I once paid a specialist on fiverr to do almost this exact thing for me. Cost $15. It's amazing the world we live in! 

@Nettles Mason

Great Post! 

The fact that there has been nothing but crickets in response to this for four months is pretty telling. 

I'm just starting in the DFW market and looking for some flips locally...well in the far suburbs of DFW anyway. I haven't done any direct mail or other cultivation but just looking on the MLS and some wholesalers, I'm not seeing any deals that even work on halfway decent numbers. And these non-deals are still being sold.

I'm going to spend the next few days researching the iBuyers and learning more about how they're gathering data and building their book of business. 

There is obviously something going on here that very few investors are actually seeing and as an almost complete newbie, I can see that most people are missing this. It's very concerning to be at the precipice of jumping into REI and see bad deals getting purchased, at above asking, and not see the rest of the picture.

-Are individual investors just too green to know any better and just losing their rear?

-Are iBuyers buying up everything and losing money in the short term to gain market share?

-Are owner occupiers just buying up everything with cash and making it work because they just need a place and prices are crazy? (lots of California transplants) 

Certainly lots to learn still. 

?Anyone else with comments or insight? 

Also, a few have mentioned here that a unit should be able to keep at least a 20 degree temperature difference between the outside temperature and the inside of the house.

That is false...but a common misunderstanding.

The reference to a 20 degree temperature difference is usually from what is called Delta T. In the HVAC field, this is the measurement between the air going into the system and the air leaving the system. 75 degrees in should be about 55 degrees coming out. Google "Delta T" for more.

This in no way determines how cool you can keep the home. There are MANY factors that go into figuring out how cool a home can get down to.

Also, while those of you up north or in drier areas are happy at 78, you'd most certainly find that 78 in the coastal region of Texas feels very warm to you. Humidity plays a very large part in comfort.

This tenant is paying rent and not getting what she wants. Reasonable action to ensure a system is working properly is expected. The outcome of that action is that the system is almost certainly undersized. Back to square one. How did that happen? Who's responsible for it? Fix the problem.

The next tenant isn't going to be happy about it either.

@Julie Walker

If the system is working properly and it truly only gets down to 78, then it is not sized properly.

Let that sink in.....

The companies that tell you it is sized properly per a Manual J are not well versed enough to tell you the truth.

The truth is that a Manual J is HIGHLY dependent on assumptions about the house. How much insulation is in the walls and ceiling, how much ventilation is in the attic, how air tight is the home.....and so on.

If it is still not cooling to the low 70's, then the system is undersized. Plain and simple.

Did they replace it with the same size there before?

When I had my HVAC company in Dallas, if I would have ever had a customer complain about it not cooling to low 70's, I would have had to of replaced it with a large system. That's a HUGE expense, which is why we always spent so much time making sure the new system was the correct size.

I'd push the installer to replace it with a larger unit as it is certainly undersized...if working correctly.

Best of luck!