Found Vacant Home, but Not Sure Where to Start

Found Vacant Home, but Not Sure Where to Start

Member since 2022 · 22 posts · 6 votes

I was recently visiting my friend and over the course of a few months, no one has shown up to their neighbors property. They informed me that they believe the owner had died and that the property is now in their children's hands. I am not sure how accurate that information is. I looked on the property tax documents for the city which the vacant home is in (lets call this City A for reference) online and there is an address which is different from the address of the vacant property listed (lets call this City B). I looked up the address of city B in the city's property tax system and it came up with a different name than that of the property tax document listed on the documents of the vacant home. Looking at the homes utility bill history that is made available, it seems that the last time there were values for the water meter was in April of last year.

1. I would like to notify the owner that I am interested, get an inspection of the property so I can estimate repairs needed, get 100% capital so I can BRRRR the place. In what order would you do all these steps? I am not sure on the best way to start since this would be my first property.

2. How do I reach out and inquire about the home? How do I confidently know that I am sending the inquirey letter/postcard/ etc. to the correct place? How do I find out if there are any liens on the home? How do I find out who owns the home? How do I initiate the process of buying the home?

3. When it comes to capital, I have about $10k saved up. I would need about $80-100k saved up, but I might be able to ask one of my wealthy friends for a private money loan. I've never had a private money loan so I am not sure exactly how they work? Is it simple interest rate? Compounded interest rates? Do these things get established between the two parties (i.e. me and my friend I would be borrowing money from)? Any tips with getting and establishing a private money loan would be very helpful. 

Have you ever been in this situation when looking for a property? What would you recommend doing? Any advice would help here. Thanks!

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  • Alex BreshearsBusiness Member
    Lender · Springfield, MO · Member since 2020 · 351 posts · 504 votes
    4y

    Hi Andrew!

    There is a lot to unpack here, but I love your enthusiasm! I'm going to recommend reading the BRRR book by BiggerPockets to help answer a lot of these types of questions.

    AS far as finding the owner, you can do skip tracing from the name on the public records search from the municipality the property is located.

    As far as the funding part goes, the lending market is a bit leery right now of any deals that don't meet all their qualifications as lenders are preparing for market devaluation in many places. I say this because 100% of the capital needed is going to be a rare lending experience right now. Many lenders are going on the loan to cost model - meaning they are going to require some percentage of the purchase price to be put down, and likely working with a refund draw model - so needing some capital to get construction started and then apply to the lender to get reimbursed for those funds.

    To get the capital you may need you can also work with a partner that may be more experienced or offer capital into the deal. Really make sure you understand underwriting for a deal like this because of the market conditions our country is currently experiencing. This is not the time to overpay or under estimate renovation costs. 

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