Caleb McLean

Thanks for posting this Josh! Is this something your REIA teaches or is this a personal method? Have you tried this yourself? If so, mind filling in the blanks (with some reasons behind them) for us to give us a good example?

George Skidis‍ Nice detailed answer! So many things to consider that don't at first pop into mind for the newbie investor. While I personally was wondering about the bathroom/plumbing situation, I hadn't even considered some of the points on power you made. Nice contribution!

Duncan Wierman‍ is that Air BNB's are making super good cash flow or container home Air BNB's are making super good cash flow? Just curious.

x post from r/real_estate: "Hi Folks, I just placed an order for my first shipping container home. It will be done in about 30 days but I just received some horrible news from a family member who had previously agreed to let me put it on his property. Long story short, he cant help me out and i need to figure out something to do with this container. Its 40ft container home that will come complete with pretty much everything i need for a nice place to live. What states/counties have friendly building codes for containers? How could i find cheap land in safe areas to place it on? Any and all suggestions and ideas are greatly appreciated." What would you advise this investor?

Spring is a popular time for tenants to move out of rental homes and the perfect time for owners to upgrade and refresh investment properties. Here are tips and techniques that will help you get your properties ready for the rest of the year: http://www.unitinginvestors.org/blogs/6/43

Check out the new blog from our friends at Home Depot: https://www.unitinginvestors.org/blogs/6/50Ever done something like the recommend? Or perhaps a different upgrade?

Looks like solid advice, George, thanks for the input!

You have experience using HouseCanary and previous experience investing as well; would you saythat HouseCanary takes the quality of the neighborhood into account when calculating or not?If not, how do you personally get a feel for the neighborhood then?

How accurate are sites like Zillow, ReMax and Trulia for house pricing? Also, where is their usual bias? Higher than the real world? Lower? Which is the most accurate?

Thanks for sharing Duncan! I can't wait to see what everyone else has to say!

Haha George Skidis‍, what a gem of a tenant.

As a tenant myself, I'd guess repairs?

Love it. The first four hit home so hard; what I would give for knowing an outdoor rug would have been better for the dogs getting used to the apartment.

Both concepts sound wise to me; sometimes people need to lose a little to value what they have more. Further, I've read several articles recently that suggest that people are more willing to pay smaller, more frequent payments than one time, larger payments (see Netflix, for example).

Ellen McDonell‍ when you say, "step up our inspections", do you mean the frequency or the scrutiny? If it's scrutiny, how do you feel that will help stop damage from compounding?

That's so crazy to me; I cannot imagine moving somewhere that wouldn't allow me to keep cat. Those places just wouldn't even be looked at. But hey that's just me. I've talked to other tenants in my own apartment complex that have said similar things had happened to them in the past.

Good question; I read a statistic the other day that something around 80% of millennials own at least 1 cat or dog. And it seems like the trend is only continuing to increase.On the note of the article, that's upsetting on multiple levels. That poor vet. I'm glad he got it settled in the end.

If the landlord doesn't have any clauses in the lease specifying the care for the pipes during the winter, are they still justified in having the tenant bear the cost of maintenance, due to perhaps a general negligence clause or something like that?

Joining a REIA is always a good first step!

4 Imperative Steps Real Estate Success (If you are Starting Out) You are Not Alone in Your Real Estate Ambition. Every single person in real estate completed their first deal with huge trepidation. Over the years, I’ve asked many real estate pros about their 1st deal experience. More than half go into great detail about everything they did wrong. So here is what I’ve learned and I’m sharing with you. You can avoid all the frustration. If you’ve have made it this far, there is a pretty good chance you will succeed. There are no roadblocks, only speed bumps. Remember in the Karate Kid where Mr. Miyage made the kid “wax on” and “wax off” for weeks before he actually began to teach him martial arts? That’s what this is. You will thank me forever. Forget about the deal you are looking at right now. STEP 1: Get the acquisition pipeline moving. You can’t truly win in real estate investment (any property type) until you have an established acquisition pipeline. The deals come to you. Don’t wake up in the morning looking for deals (like everyone else). Your time is not scalable. PROBLEM: DO NOT buy a property that is listed “for sale” from any source including the MLS, a Bank, your mother-in-law, or any other source. It’s too late. Someone got there first. Find your own acquisition directly from the seller. No exceptions here. Properties are “for sale” for a reason. Nearly all of the problems in real estate investment come from “not buying the property right.” SOLUTION: Spend the next 60 days researching how to use direct mail to establish deal flow. You want to put yourself in a position where you sit down at your desk and review several new acquisition candidates directly from the seller each day. Direct mail will get you there on ANY real estate product type. STEP 2: Never pick up a hammer. Decide what you want to spend your time on (what you want to be when you grow up). I mean nearly all of your time during your typical day and consequently your career. PROBLEM: Many beginners in real estate believe that they can do it all. They can buy a house cheaply, finance it, renovate it, and sell it and everything in between on their own. When they fail or it takes several years to complete, they get down on themselves. In reality, they expected way too much from themselves right from the beginning. SOLUTION: Here are your specialization options (choose one and be great at it): Acquisitions – Finding undervalued property (Private Investor). Sales – Finding buyers for the property you control (Private Investor). Managing – Looking after your property or other people’s property (Property Manager). Representing – Helping others buy and sell their property (Licensed Real Estate Agent). Renovating – Fixing up your property or other people’s property (Contractor) Financing – Helping people get financing for their property (Mortgage Broker) Lending – Loaning people money to buy property (Lender) Orchestrating – Directing all of the above to build / renovate property (Developer) I chose acquisitions a long time ago. Everyone needs the undervalued property you find. Without it there is nothing to Sell, Manage, Represent, Renovate, Lend on, or Orchestrate. That’s great, Steve. “How the hell do I do that? I don’t have time to knock on doors or call property owners all day just to see if they are interested in selling.” Develop a well thought-out direct mail campaign targeting owners who don’t want their property any longer. “Does that even exist? Why would anyone no longer want real estate?” The tax bill comes. They have two choices. Pay or get paid. Pay the $2,000 in taxes or get a check from you for $4,000.00 5-25% of the people who get our letters choose the $4K way. Step 3: Don’t buy the unwanted, undervalued property you find (in the beginning). Get someone else to do it and pay you for finding it. PROBLEM: New real estate buyers make inexperienced decisions. It’s not their fault. Here’s several things I failed at the first time I tried them: Kissing a girl, changing a diaper, painting a house, pouring a glass of milk, changing a car tire, doing a podcast, buying a property, taking a math test, talking, walking and eating. You get the idea. You will fail at some significant part of your first real estate deal as sure as I’m writing this. SOLUTION: Your first deal will suck. Get someone else to do it and pay you for finding it. Look for a few entities (5 – 😎 in your geographic area who buy your property type. If it’s houses, find successful flippers or renovators. Look for dumpsters, check craigslist, put a posting in craigslist etc… How many times have you see some version of this advisement: “We buy houses – any condition – any size – we make cash offers.” Make a big list. If you are buying land, put me at the top of your list. Find a property for a great price by sending an organized direct mail campaign. Find one and add $10,000 (for yourself) and contact the people on this list. They will say “Yes, the deal rocks” or “no, you have a lot to learn,” or something in between. No matter what, you win. Keep moving forward. “That’s great Steve.” “I don’t know where to start.” “You are leaving all the details out.” “I don’t know what to say when they call me.” And on and on… First of all, you have already started your real estate career by reading this. If it scares or confuses you, then keep your day job and work for someone for the rest of your life. (A full list of what to do is at the end of this posting.) Like my mother always said when I came home with a report card “Well Steven, the world needs ditch diggers, too.” By now, the people you are wholesaling properties to, can’t live without you. They stare at the phone all day. They beg you to tell them where you finding these deals. After several deals, start buying your own property. Not every single one. Only the best ones. Let’s say the ones you know you can make twice as much on. Rent those out. What will happen is this: A deal comes in. You review it and because of its attributes (this one only need paint), it’s perfect for your buyer “Fred.” The next one needs a full renovation, its perfect for “Joyce.” The next one needs nothing. It’s owned by the daughter of the recently deceased mom and she is a super busy attorney who lives in Maine. She just wants to close the estate. She will take nearly any price you offer her. You keep that one and rent it out. Step 4: You have tons of money coming in, decide what you really want to do in Real Estate. Now take a step back. You have all the control. You are able to find undervalued real estate. Apply what you have learned to apartments, strip centers, land, houses, etc.. People will line up to buy undervalued property from you. www.corelogic.com is where you get the best data. posted from reddit Thoughts?

Oh boy. Sounds like that investor is in for a tough time. Thanks for the sound advice and the reasoning behind it, George!

XPost From r/Real_Estate:" Back in the middle of November I made an offer on a house that was accepted. It was a contractor flip on an old house. A complete renovation job including new electrical wiring and plumbing. By the end of November I had the inspection done. It wen't pretty poorly. I gave the seller/contractor a list of 25 items to address and he agreed to all of them. This list consisted of some serious issues like the main support beam/girder in the basement being replaced because it was badly cracked and also being held up by temporary support columns. Fast forward to last week. The seller tells me everything is completed and to bring the inspector back out so we can close. The inspector comes out and we see that 90% of the items haven't be completed and the few that were completed have been poorly done and didn't pass inspection. Also the seller created new issues. One of the original request items was to put a cover on that main sewer clean out line in the basement, but instead of capping it he cemented it up. This work looks like it's been done by someone that has never worked on a house before. I had very mixed feelings about this house after the first home inspection, but the seller assured me that when we first had the house inspected he was still "working on it." My inspector had pointed out all over the house armature work, short cuts, and inconsistency in everything done to this house. It's a big house, an old house, and I'm in for almost 500k and I feel like this house is a potential disaster. The main support girder in the basement wasn't repaired properly and we noticed new cracks in the walls on the first floor in a newly renovated area. Now I officially have zero faith in this guy attempting to fix this stuff again. My agent thinks I should request the seller put an amount in escrow and have the repairs completed by a contractor selected by me. I am starting to think I should walk away because who knows what else is wrong in areas I can't see. What would you do in this situation? The only other point I should note is there currently isn't another house in this neighborhood like it. We've eyed this area for awhile and watched a lot of the good eyes go, but I'm trying not to let that influence me." What do you think? Would you do it?

Spring is a popular time for tenants to move out of rental homes and the perfect time for owners to upgrade and refresh investment properties. Here are tips and techniques that will help you get your properties ready for the rest of the year.Check out the blog for more!http://www.unitinginvestors.org/blogs/6/43

Thanks George Skidis‍ ! Even from a standpoint of someone who has never personally invested before (myself) that situation seemed to have a couple of red flags and too little information to solve the equation, so to speak. Here's what other's have replied to the post on reddit (and you can see, the original poster, u/tastes_like_chicken has included some more information at the bottom):

XPost from r/realestateinvesting: "Hey all, I've found a deal in FL I'm considering. The seller wants $239k for six duplexes. I've run the numbers and everything meets my parameters. And then the agent lets me know it's a cash only deal... Le grrr. He says he can get private lending for 10% and 30% down, interest only payments. I've said I can do $220k at 25% down. This will leave me with decent reserves. Has anyone done a deal like this? What are the pitfalls. Near as I can tell , not being able to refi in a year is all. Not going through a bank is terrifying but my gut says go for it. Thanks in advance!" What do you think, given only this information? Would you go for it?