All Forum Posts by: William Baumann

 You mean Gunpoint don't you, LOL  I remember when they changed Pittsburg to Baypoint as part of their "revitalization plan", Everyone just starting calling it "Gunpoint".  I lived in the East Bay for 10 years before moving to Clearlake 1hr north of Napa.  

I can tell you from my own personal experience that the further away your property is, the harder it is to manage.  I live in north central Indiana and my rental property is in Milwaukee, wi.  about 3hrs away.  The property was my fathers home (and my childhood home).  My property needed a lot of rehab.  So we purchased Arlo cameras to keep tabs on the property, and got electronic locks for the back door for remote access for contractors, and had ADT install an alarm system with remote access.  (keep in mind technology can glitch and requires a internet connection, anything happens to your internet, you just lost all that technology)

The technology saved us alot of time, effort, and money as we were able to keep tabs on work being done, the property (it even alerted us to a water leak when the camera in the basement detected audio!).  However there were 3 times when the technology did an update and failed to reconnect to the internet and required human intervention to get everything re-established.

The investment of the technology was about $1000.  But the best part is that it is reusable for the next property and the alarm system (1 year contract) we made a mandatory item as a part of the rental, the alarm stays in our name, but the monthly service fee is added to the tenants monthly rent.

The biggest downside to long distance properties is not always being able to be present for work being done by contractors.  For example, our electrician missed installing a light in the entryway.  We were not able to be there for a week after the work was done and our re-hab contractor already started on repairing and fixing the drywall before we came back to inspect.  End result, no entryway light without having to re-do the drywall work in that area at an added expense of nearly $300.  

Hope this helps.

Talk to a local real estate agent about listing that long, see what incite they may have as to the why.  Could be the house has serious issues and is only worth 40K but they as asking 100K, and are willing to let it sit till some fool gives it to them, or in a recent case I ran into, the owner has no intention to sell unless they get a rediculous offer.

@Lynn Currie LOL, that is the exact reason I have refused my fiance's attempt to get me to upgrade my home office.  Yes it is a little dated, paint is dingy and the floors need to be redone. But then OMG, she goes on about new baseboards, retexturing the ceiling, and while where messing with the ceiling, we should do a lighting upgrade......

@Shawn Torsitano Always remember one thing. People can price anything for any amount of money, and often for no other reason other than they can.  You as an investor could care less what they are asking for (to an extent) you only care about what numbers work for you, nothing else. They can list it for 12M, doesn't matter, if I am only willing to offer $300K because that is the amount that works for my numbers, my offer is going to be $300K. They can reject, great, I will offer them the $300K again in 6 months.  

With that said, make sure you are not making the same mistake in your reason to buy. Do your due diligence, estimate your rents, costs, fees, etc and your ROI.

just my personal preference is the curved rods, that little extra does a lot. I hate the cold shower curtain billowing in and touching me.

There should Be Studs IN The wall, If NOT You Can Use Drywall anchors. 

(Sorry about the caps, my phone is misbehaving)

@Nicole A. You are correct, I did not quote the portion of your post that was not dangerous advice, The second half of your post was valid, and I think you will find ANY business attorney will completely disagree with your position that I quoted.

@Jim Gramata You will be amazed at just how many holes there are in umbrella insurance policies in the face of lawsuits. Sadly, when people do find out, it is too late and can lose everything they own. 

But please, do not take my word for it, pick up the phone and get a free consultation with a business lawyer. Find out what liabilities your exposed to.  

 This is very dangerous advice, and draws a faulty conclusion. 

Firstly, you need to understand the purpose of an entity is to protect assets, and insulate your personal assets from your business assets.  I have written about a dozen posts on this topic, and before you take anyones advice (including mine) please take a little time and consult a business attorney that specializes in real estate transactions, many will do this for free or a flat fee.

Some things to keep in mind:

1) Any lawsuit against a business/individual that is awarded, (meaning the person suing wins a judgement), places ALL assets available in that business/individual to fulfill the judgement.

(Example: You/business is sued for $600K. Judgement is awarded for that amount. Everything in that business/personal assets, will be seized/liquidated AT MARKET VALUE, to pay the judgement. If you have 20 properties in a single LLC or personally, the judgement is against all of them, if you have only 1 property in an LLC they can only go after the 1 property. If the judgement is not fulfilled, the remainder is held against the entity sued, nothing else.)

2) A lawsuit can only be against 1 person/entity. So if you have 5 properties 1 in each LLC, a lawsuit can only be against 1 of them. Now this does not stop someone from filling multiple lawsuits against each one, however, how would they know about them?

3) There are tons of ways to get property financed through banks or lending institutions and still protect your property in an entity.  If the bank your talking to doesn't or won't, find another.

4) There are dozens of real estate strategies on how and when to use an entity for asset protection, more than I could list here or am qualified to do so, and also will vary based upon your risk tolerance and type of transactions your doing. 

5) Insurance and Entity's are totally separate things and work completely different. Proper use of both insurance and entity asset protection are needed to properly protect your investments.

In closing, I am not an attorney. And nothing I have said should be construed as legal advice. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you consult with one BEFORE making an decision that could expose you to serious legal and financial liability. 

Also make sure of your banks seasoning requirements.  Some banks make you own a property for 6-12 months before your eligible to refi.  

An LLC's purpose is to protect your personal assets from claims/lawsuits against your business.

I have done a few posts on this topic, you can read one of them HERE