All Forum Posts by: Shanti S.

Tough to say no to under $100. That one only goes to 36mm though. Sometimes even my 24mm isn't quite cutting it for interior photos, especially in small rooms.

I have a lot of still photo experience and basically no video so maybe I'm mentally stuck in a rut here - since the point of video is motion pictures and/or sound, maybe the wideness isn't so important, since you can pan during the shot.

HD seems to be the new thing - does it help to film in HD if you are going to make videos for the web, or will I just have to reduce the file sizes so much for the web that I could have started off in standard def anyway?

Maybe I'll be happy with a simple flip video and a $20 homemade steadicam

If it makes it easier, blame someone else -

"Sorry, but I checked with my insurance agent about tenants doing a little work and he/she said it would void the terms of my policy."

Same reason it's easier to be the "property manager" than the landlord (the man)

8 units for around $100k must sound pretty exciting Uwe, but I'm wondering why, if you want to purchase U.S. property while living in Europe, you'd be looking at Cleveland.

There are areas in the south and southeast that are doing reasonably well in the recession, and even appreciating. Still with bargains available. Many people are purchasing and remotely having them rehabbed and managed.

The median home price where I live is upwards of $200k, yet only 20 minutes away from me is a depressed area where I've seen houses under $10k. Nearly everyone that invests there loses money. Some do OK, but they know the area intimately and I think are very much present at their properties to keep an eye on them, plus know exactly what marketing works to resell or get paying tenants in.

Even Florida has got to be better for long distance than Ohio - there are lots of cheap properties in Florida at the moment, and it may have bottomed out. I don't know anyone who thinks of vacationing in Ohio :-) Maybe Mike staycations there?

Looking for suggestions for a video camera for documenting and marketing real estate - don't want to spend a lot of $

Wide angle is most important here - for a still camera, you want at least 24mm wide (35mm equivalent) to be able to take good interior pictures. Most point and shoot cameras don't even come close. I use a Sony DSCR1, overkill for the purpose but I didn't buy it for real estate - I've been into still photography for decades.

I know much less about video cams - can anyone suggest some cams that go very wide for not big $?

Yes I could spend some time researching but thought this might be of interest to the community.

It always amazes me how most of the pictures I run across for houses / cars / big ticket items people want to sell are just not good. My ebay and craig's list stuff always seems to do really well because I provide a lot of very good photos. I know somehow this will help in my real estate as well.

Technique and basic knowledge of lighting and composition are of course very very important, but in this case there's no substitute for a nice wide angle piece of glass.

People really seem to love their blackberries. I had a windows mobile smart phone for the last year and was deliriously happy to go back to my basic flip-phone. It always works vs. the windows being constantly flaky, crashing, and needing to be charged mid-day.

The smart was a cool gadget but an awful phone. iphones are sexy but don't have good enough reception for many areas I drive through.

I'm thinking the modem speed must be like my 'aircard' for my laptop - acceptable but nowhere near as fast as a home cable modem?

Pending tax lien on the same $12k of back taxes? Not sure what you mean by the taxes are not a problem but the pending lien is.

I'm assuming they're the same thing, and that therefore the owner is really asking for $107k.

Month to month is a concern for me, have you contacted any property management in the area to check it out for you and give you some feedback on how long each type of unit might be vacant if someone up & leaves?

I don't know a lot about commercial, but some tenants make significant investments in the unit to customize it for their business - they'd be less likely to leave, but I think they'd also have longer term leases to protect their side of the investment. Month to month, they may be businesses that are a month or two of poor returns away from closing

Originally posted by Brian Haskins:

All realtor get the same deals.

Sorry but I would not agree - listing agents know about their own listings before they hit the MLS, and before any other realtors know about them. They may know about them even weeks or months before, as sellers contact them for advice or comps before actually listing.

If you have a relationship with a realtor and they know you will make an offer that you will be able to close on without any drama or frustration to them and their clients, you may well get a crack at that property before any other realtors are aware that it will be listed.

Listing agents are also privy to a lot of information about the property and/or the seller which will not be in the listing itself.

On the realtor's end, they may not get the same deal either. They can deal with a stream of unknown sellers, or deal with you where they may know they'll get some bonuses perhaps in the process.

You can only push me so far before I'll drop out myself, and focus my formerly productive talents on bartering, working under the table, collecting benefits due to my 'poverty', and milking the system that's been sucking off my paychecks for the last 20+ years

Wouldn't take very many of us at all to build a critical mass, that camel's back will break sooner than later :-)

Sigh, a man can daydream can't he?

it's kind of funny because when I was a renter, I ALWAYS got reduced rent in exchange for doing work on the property - I've put in tile floors, done plumbing, painting, treework, landscaping, you name it...

But I did quality work, left the places much nicer than when I moved in, and the landlords got very lucky in my case.

Don't expect the same! I sure won't be rolling the dice with my hard earned investment dollars and my tenants

I do think it's fine, however, to do occasional nice and not-necessarily-required things for good tenants, to build and keep a good relationship. There is such a thing as normal wear and tear, and improving your property. But these should be on your terms, not theirs.

A fire extinguisher is under 20 bucks, I might bring that as an offering to the table, but I wouldn't let them paint - painting cabinets requires some skill and patience - what if they do it very badly you may end up spending a lot of time reversing the job, or buying new hardware....worst case new cabinets. or they've spilled paint on the floors too...

I might give the extinguisher (it's safety related and cheap), and offer to have the "annual" cleaning done - maybe do some touch-ups or cheap cosmetic items at the time.

Remember if you give in to something make sure it's on the condition that you get something - otherwise you will just be expected to give more and more and in fact nobody will be happy. You need to train them that you're fair but firm.

$400 reduction in rent is HUGE - what can you afford, and if you dropped it that much would you be able to easily rent that apt to a fresh lease do you think?