All Forum Posts by: Wendy Hoechstetter

I just saw their pitch at a REIA webinar, and *if* you buy it following that, it's $1,997 for the program, and another $500 gets you the 4 day workshop, too. He said that it "usually" sells for something like $7,997! Which is totally bogus, if you ask me, for the relatively little that is described as being in the course.

He emphasizes that they do *not* do any sort of mentoring. They will answer questions on a monthly group call, and you get one half hour call with them when you first buy the system.

I’m really interested in the system, but just can’t afford it right now. 

@Nick Seginowich A lot of this depends on what your state’s laws are for intestate decedents - and what other relatives might still be around. These can vary widely from state to state.

Generally speaking, property will pass first to a surviving spouse, or to the children if there is no spouse, but some states have weird twists that could transfer everything to a sibling or even parents, if still alive, or even into the spouse’s family. It might allow transfer to just the oldest child, or require an equal split between all of them, or who knows what other possibilities.

You definitely need a lawyer for this, although it’s *their* estate issue.

I can’t even begin to imagine the law giving a darn if the children haven’t spoken for years or not. The only part of that situation that might matter to you is if the sibling cannot be located to sign off on the sale, or refuses to do so - but again, it might not even be up to the children, depending on state intestacy law. There is no way that a sale can go through without *all* of the state-determined heirs agreeing to it and signing off on it.

@Mike Bolen That is complete insanity to allow church services, and to even consider “opening” states.

No, none of us are accustomed to living like this. Yes, all kinds of businesses and individuals are getting hit hard financially. I’m one of them.

But if people start returning to normal activities before this virus is adequately tamped down, better understood, has better treatment options and ideally a vaccine, the consequences will be beyond dire. Thousands more people will die or end up permanently disabled by the virus, and the economic and social consequences will be far greater than they currently are.

That said, at least in CA, I feel sure that once Gavin gets wind of the plans in Riverside and San Bernardino, he will put his foot down hard to stop it.

I just listened to the presentation and a few issues jumped out at me right away.

First, he says you make offers with his offer template - but the fact of the matter is that the law is different in every state, and one template will *not* necessarily be legal in any state other than the one he is in, and I wouldn't even bet on that. There is no mention that there are different templates for each state or anything like that.

Second, the process he is describing is not even legal in some states, including Pennsylvania, where I live. "Wholesaling", where you only find the deal for someone else and don't close on it first *your own self* is selling real estate and requires a real estate license here, and in many other states. Naturally, Jerry has completely failed to disclose this.

Third, as others have mentioned, there was no mention of any of the criteria he requires for the deals you find.

Fourth, there is a place to ask questions on the webinar page, but of course none of the ones I ask (including the issues above) were actually answered.

Fifth, they limited the window in which people would be "allowed" to buy their program to a whopping ten minutes, because that means that those are the "go-getters", and after all, since he doesn't have unlimited funds, of course he can only work with a few investors so it has to be those who are willing to bite so quickly. Sorry, I can see offering a discount for a limited time only, after which the price goes up to whatever the full cost is, but NO reputable seller/instructor is going to literally only give you a total of 10 minutes to make your decision.

Sixth, depending on the market you are in, and the specific deals you find, $10,000 could be a ridiculously small finder's fee. It could also hugely exceed anything even remotely reasonable for some of the properties at the other extreme. You can actually still find deals where I live in the (very) low 5 figures, and in some cases, still in the mid 4 figures.

I'm glad that the other comments here have justified my decision not to get hooked in by this latest BS I'm coming across.

You folks have more patience than I do.  I just sat through half an hour of Ross Hamilton's presentation, waiting for even the tiniest nugget of actual information, but alas, all that happened is his rapid-fire staccato voice repeating the same hype and drivel just drove me up the wall and I had to exit out to save my sanity.

I'm glad to know I clearly am not missing anything.  

I have no personal experience to add, but some 27 threads about Cameron Dunlap seem to show mixed reviews.  Have you gone ahead with either one of them?  I just saw Cameron's presentation last night and am skeptical, for the price.

How do you deal with the chance of tenants letting all of their friends come over and shower and do their dishes?  I mean, you're providing running water for those things, too.

Yes, she's going to sometimes do her boyfriend's laundry if they spend a lot of time together.  So what?  They'll also do hers at his place at times.  A lot of stuff will also go in single loads, hers and his together.

And if she's not a low-life dirtbag, she's not going to want an army of people traipsing through her home just to do their wash, nor is she going to be willing to do it herself for them.

Marissa, what do you expect a contractor to be able to bid *on* if you don't even have a property under consideration? 

Even whatever you may consider to be a "standard" garage (or whatever) is going to vary widely in cost based on things like the specific lot conditions, and *all* remodeling is dependent upon the size and configuration of the building, at minimum.  Time of year, weather, other demand, exact locations, the size of the firm, where it's located relative to your project, and more all go into a bid - and for an actual *bid*, you need to have all of the parts and pieces specified, for a specific property. 

Otherwise, it will at best be an estimate, otherwise known in the trade as a WAG - a wild-*** guess. 

Vary *any* of those parameters and you may as well toss the whole thing out.  Which you'll have to do anyways, since an estimate given without any details specified and not even a jobsite is worth less than any paper it might be written on.

You are *begging* to be taken advantage of by not even recognizing this most fundamental concept, that there is no such thing as a "one size fits all" construction/renovation job, and that it is literally utterly and completely impossible to do what you are asking.  

Since you have zero experience at all with remodeling or building, please ditch the idea of buying materials yourself.  That will end up costing you much more in the end, when something fails, for example, and you don't have the power of history with the vendors (or contractors) to help you through it - and that is definitely *when*, not *if*. 

Good contractors warrant both their work, and in the case of materials they purchase, they will access the manufacturer's warranty on your behalf should a part fail.  If you buy the parts, though, they are very likely to not even warrant their work since they can't be certain what they are starting with, and that will go triple for someone such as yourself who doesn't know diddly about construction and quality materials. 

You also do not have the first idea of what needs to be purchased, to be honest.  Would you know all of the accessories that need to be bought in order to install even just a simple light fixture, tub and shower fittings, or a toilet? 

I can tell you right now that you don't - and that they don't all come in the box with the pretty parts that you see once it's all installed.

You can certainly learn these things, but don't try to wing it without some instruction of some sort, for your own sake.  Fortunately for you, there's a fabulous resource in the Bay Area, the Owner Builder Center in Berkeley, which teaches some terrific classes that help people learn how to do their own renovations.  Even if you never lift a hammer yourself, you will benefit greatly from understanding the construction process and the sheer complexity of what you are undertaking so that you have a better idea of what any contractor you hire is talking about and what they are doing.

@Sue Kelly, just for the record, having moved here from the SF Bay Area two years ago into a rental, and having had to deal with a landlord at one point in Mill Valley who did not return my security deposit (I was renting temporarily because I'd had a fire in my own house), I can tell you that PA landlord/tenant law is *very* different from California's.  In CA, things are particularly tenant friendly, and details about required move in and move out procedures are, as you know, very specific; here, it appears to be exactly the opposite.

I don't remember details offhand of what the laws said, but I was really stunned to find out how little protection renters actually have here when I researched it to find out if certain provisions in my lease could possibly be legal before signing it, because there is no way they would be in CA.  

And yes, I got almost my entire deposit back, in front of a judge who was clearly more landlord-friendly than tenant-friendly. 

Detailed preparation is indeed the key, as is being sure you meet all requirements you may need to *before* you file suit, such as notifications and demand letters to the landlord, if such apply.

For that matter, a demand letter alone may actually suffice, particularly if it comes from an attorney, but properly written, you can still clue the landlord in that you really mean business on your own.