All Forum Posts by: Walt Dockery

I do not agree that in practice that's how many/most respond to incentives.  Say a PM makes 10%, market rent is $1,000, pricing under market at $900 costs the PM a measly $10/mo and may take significantly less effort to get it rented. 

Same goes for purchases/sales. If a realtor makes 3% as a sellers agent, they are generally incentivized to get a quick sale at a lower price than hold out for a slightly higher commission  ... IME a sellers agent is ALWAYS more eager to cut the price or accept a lower offer than the seller is. 

You are assuming an agent always wants to maximize commission, IMO that assumption is usually wrong and in reality if that last 10% of commission dollars takes significantly more effort most will take the easy $.90 over a more difficult buck.   

I'm not a lawyer. If you decide you want out of the contract, I think you should talk to one (an attorney) asap. 

The reference is a known liar. They are either lying to you now, or they lied to you the first time. For someone who isn't a liar, lying because "the person was in the room" is not a normal thing to do.  A simple "I'm sorry, I can't talk right now can I call you back?" would have sufficed if they were uncomfortable talking with this person present. Not sure how much weight I'd put on the word of this reference, esp if the rest of the application checked out.  How much weight do you really want to put on the word of someone who has admitted lying to you?

I take first and last months rent in addition to deposit, the last months rent I suppose offers a little protection if someone stops paying after a month, and I think generally deters people who would do such a thing. 

Anything on Amazon with a photovoltaic sensor.

I have done pretty much what you have - use a google voice account, let most of the calls go to voicemail, when I have some spare time return calls.  I would the then have a spreadsheet with a little information about each person, contact info, showing time, whether they took an application etc.  It was a bit tedious but works. 

However in the figure I think I will do something more along the lines of this thread - https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/476...

He outlines a system that I think could work great. 

Rewards card of your choice. Chase Ink business cards have pretty good signup bonuses right now iirc. 

Of course it's a job. You can have your opinions about whether it's a good job, but it's a job. 

If über goes belly up it'll be replaced by something else and it's drivers can drive for that entity or do something else entirely. Job security is mostly an illusion, betcha plenty of people at Lehman Bros thought they had job security up until the end. 

Registered cab companies have existed in their current form as long as they have due to terrible government regulation manipulating free markets, and are now in secular decline.  I'd take an Uber driver over a "registered cab driver" any day of the week.  

Assuming the market returns 10%, of course borrowing at 3% and investing at 10% makes sense. But that's a big assumption.

I'm in much the same boat you are in that the vast majority of my net worth is in stocks. I view rental real estate as a vehicle to build another income stream. I'm not in any way saying I think real estate returns will be superior to (or for that matter, inferior to) equity returns going forward.  But I do think comparing income only on one asset class to total return on another is an apples to oranges comparison, as is comparing returns on two cash flow streams of vastly different risk profiles.  

You know your risk appetite, you know what the rest of your investment porfolio looks like, you know your own cash flow needs and retirement goals.  Nobody else here knows any of that.  Bear markets happen, if returns always equaled their historical averages we'd all borrow at 3% and invest at 10% into perpetuity and we'd all be billionaires, straight line assumptions in a spreadsheet don't always play out in reality.  

Dividend yield on s&p500 is 2%. To compare rental income / cash flow only to total return is apples to oranges comparison. From a risk standpoint, 10% equity mkt return vs a mortgage rate is also apples to oranges.

Artificial cash flow is a made up term. I'd take $4k/month "artificial" cash flow if anyone is offering it.    

Have you talked to her about it?  She may very well appreciate that you take better care of the place, and if the rehab work is stuff she wants would she be willing to pay more and stay?