Archive for the ‘doing business in public’ Category

Keeping a Low Profile as a Real Estate Investor

Saturday, September 8th, 2007

As real estate investors we must be thinking about protecting our properties and our private lives.

A good way to protect yourself and your family from a hostile client or from someone else who may want to cause you harm is to keep a low profile. Always take precautions when doing business with the public. You should have tenants mail monthly rental checks to a post office box instead of to your home residence. You should have an unlisted home phone number. Because you own real estate, you may be perceived as wealthy target.

Its surprising how much of your life is available on the intenet through websites like privateeye.cmo or web-detective.com. Now, all my business and private mail, including rental checks, goes to my P.O. Box. If I have to give a phone number, I give my pay-as-you-go cell number. I just purchase minutes when I need them, without a contract so my number cannot be tracked back to me. If my address is requested on any kind of form, I always give my P.O. Box address. Sound advice comes from J.J. Luna in How to Be Invisible who states, “do not, as long as you live, ever again allow your real name to be coupled with your home address.”

In his book, Luna relates a story about a former husband who tracked his wife down to her job. The husband killed his wife and several other people who worked at the company. The owner of the company managed to avoid the husband because the owner had a P.O. Box listed for a home address. The lesson is, don’t make your personal information available to the general public.

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