All Forum Posts by: William Baumann

I would try what @Roberto Andrade suggested to see if that will fix your noise.  As it sounds like a water knock from the description.  It might keep you from having to open up the wall to fix the annoyance. Water know can get to a point where it will cause cracks in the copper pipe welds over time.

I believe you might have some recourse, for the damages to the units that were not involved.  You would have to file a claim with the APD, you would have to contact them as to what their process is for that.  Some places require you get 3 repair quotes, and they will pay upto the average.

@J Scott @Tyrus Shivers Excellent posts and thank you both for taking the time to go in to detail on this subject as I think it will benefit many. And I think J Scott, you make 2 great points as to why there are not as many investors willing to devote the time to mentoring.  

1)"Respect my time. It's the most important thing in my life. Understand that -- if I don't know you -- I'd rather give you $100 before I give you 30 minutes of my time. That's how important my time is to me. So, don't waste it."

I think many new investors (even myself when I was just starting to learn) don't give this simple yet every important concept the gravity it demands.  And to some it may sound harsh (I know when I was just starting out it would have) but now that I have been marketing, and researching deals, making phone calls, etc. I can't tell you how often my fiancee's little interruptions to my work time, drive me nuts.  We all only have 24hrs a day available to us to be productive.

2)"My biggest fear when I help someone is that they're going to end up as my competitor (actually, wasting my time is my biggest fear, but the competitor thing is a distant #2)."

I think that this is another very hard driving force behind the lack of investors willing to Mentor. I think many investors are afraid of losing a piece of their possible pie to their protege.  However, I am not sure that fear is justified unless you are in a very, very small market.  None of us can find, evaluate, and work on every possible deal out there, and again I am of the belief that that these issues/fears can be mitigated.

I also really like what Tyrus mentioned "....but it really it the burden of the mentee to prove to the mentor why they should help them...."

And while I like this statement, I feel it is a hard thing to quantify.  The mentee, in most cases, really has little to offer in this regard, other than non-real estate skills like J Scott mentioned with website help, or babysitting, etc.  I will however agree that the mentee needs to prove that they are serious, actionable, self motivated, self learning, and already taking action (right or wrong).  In essence, the mentee needs to prove they are not a 30 day wonder that saw an infomercial or went to some guru, get rich quick seminar with a lot of talk and nothing else backing it up.

For $12 a month Wix is a great way to to, LOTS of features for the price.  I went with godaddy as they were having a $1/year special.  Both have WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors.  Remember, templates are just a set of rules that help guide the page, you can change them nearly anyway you want.  Feel free to check out my site for an example of what I mean.  

I have these locks on my personal residence for 6 years now. Thankfully no issues, maybe Quickset is dropping the ball with QA and testing? @Account Closed How long have you been using the electronic locks?  I like the idea of them, just not sure i am comfortable using them.  What happens if the battery dies while it is locked and your outside? How do you regain access then?

@Account Closed Read J Scotts post over 3 times.  I am serious, 3 times.

Walk AWAY!!

Like J Scott said, it sounds like you didn't convey you were wholesaling the deal, the fact the seller is trying to change your contract speaks to that.  -RED FLAG

You said yourself that you offered more than you should and now are not even sure you have a deal anymore. - RED FLAG

Add to that the fact that the seller is now wanting to change the deal for more earnest money, means he is not motivated- RED FLAG

That is 3 strikes on your "deal" and it only takes 1 of these to walk away. Trust me I feel your pain, I have walked away from about 20 properties that I though might be deals only to have them fail.  But I will walk away from 100 "DEALS", then try to invest in something that is NOT a deal.  While you are pulling your hair out over this one NON-DEAL, your missing out on 2 more that could be.

I have been a member of BiggerPockets for a short time here and longer on other sites and on every site I am a member of there is a reoccurring rant with regard to new investors, newbie WS, etc. And I understand where that frustration comes from and it comes from mainly wannabe investors that spent a ton of money on some BS GURU course, and even if it was legit, these wannabes then try to take shortcuts, as I hope these "guru" courses are not promoting that people try to sell property they don't own.

I completely agree that nobody should be trying to sell something they don't control. So I am on the side of the ranter on this point 100%.  

The one thing that does bother me though, and this example is not new, it is a very common statement, and I am in no means pointing anyone out in anyway as I agree with the statement, 

"Some jerk just tried to sell me a property they don't even own, I mean I know they are trying, but they need to start by working with someone who knows what they are doing before shopping deals."

This type of statement is the problem IMO and from my own experience, and I will use myself as an example. I have spent the last 6 months reading, studying, learning everything I can on real estate and being an investor. I feel I have a decent understanding, but I don't believe I have the confidence in the process to be comfortable, but I am pushing on forward. 

I spent 4 months alone on trying to find a REAL mentor, not some BS guru, not some flat foot investor trying to make money off being a "mentor" that knows as much or less than I do, I mean a real bonafide mentor, someone that is willing to to let a real investor (someone that has setup their entity, and are marketing themselves -website, social media, etc. not a wishful wannabe.) learn from them and the steps involved and the process from start to finish.

In those 4 months, not a single "investor" that is actually doing deals, has ever agreed to be a REAL mentor, and I have personally contacted hundreds, HUNDREDS. So those of us that are new, and still trying to get our first deal under our belt, are left to flounder in the field based on the information we are able to gather, and just try to do the best we can and pray we don't royally screw up. Sadly, I feel that most newcomers to real estate investing are interested because of the "GURU" trash that floods the internet, and TV.

BUT!, there is hope. And it can change. And the very things that annoy the heck out of active investors, can go away or at least be minimized. 

However, it will take the experienced investors to elicit that very change they so want to see. And as the saying goes "DON'T LIKE THE WORLD YOU SEE, CHANGE IT!" 

Be the helpful investor and Mentor a newbie investor. Yes, I know there are A LOT of wannabe time wasters you need to ignore. However, there are a lot of truly dedicated new investors, trying like to hell to do it right. Look at the histories of all the real estate experts that you listen to? Guess how 90% of them got their start. And if you were able to ask THEIR mentors, why they did it, it would be for the very same reason you should. Most New Investors have these 3 Yes's check marked next to their name:

YES, they are broke, many don't have a more than a few dimes in their pocket.

YES, they are going to need you to hold their hand, to an extent, through their first deal.

YES, it will take upto an hour a day of your efforts. (You waste that much time on candy crush)

Seem like a lot of work? Maybe, but think about how powerful that network connection will be? How many more deals could you now do, or parts of deals that you now benefit from that you wouldn't have before you helped develope an investor. 50% of any deal is better than 100% of a deal you never knew existed.

So I encourage you, empower you, and I CHALLENGE YOU, for myself and many other real "starving" investors out there, to take the Mentor Challenge, Mentor 1 new real investor this year. Just 1.  There were 28.1 Million real estate investors in 2012 (according to BP). If only 1% of these investors were to Mentor 1 new investor you would eliminate 281,000 rant causers and add that many more deals, that is $250,000 more that investors could make with only a $5K profit margin per deal at a 50% split.

TAKE THE MENTOR CHALLENGE!  MENTOR 1 INVESTOR THIS YEAR!

@Vannak Kann shoot me a pm or an email and I can send you a rental application, then use a tenant screening service like myrental. com.

 He has contacted me as well, however when I requested the documents he referred to, he never sent them for me and my lawyer to review. 

Ok two things I see wrong with this. Why wouldn't you paint the wall behind the toilet before installing it? (The upstairs toilet that was cracked in half has pink paint behind it). And second, near the end of the video it shows that the property has/had an alarm system. Why not use it or get it hooked up if it is not the best neighborhood? Sure a few hundred dollars is more expense but i think that would pay for it'self in piece of mind, prevent the damage that happened (not including turning off the water). Besides, a stolen furnace is not all the break in potential, a flipper I know in columbus, OH had a REO property he bought broke into where they stole all the copper pipe in the house, caused about $8,000 in damages.