Abandoned house owned by dissolved investment company. Deal?

[Hunter Adams]

Hello BP fam,

So driving for dollars yielded a very cool distressed house that looks promising. Tax assessor shows it's owned by what seems to be an REI company based off their name. I've had trouble finding any info on said company and I'm guessing they don't exist anymore. The taxes are two years past due.

After browsing some BP forums, it seems like the house has to be offered publicly at either bank or tax auction. Is this the case? Do I have any chance of putting an off market offer on it?

Also, how can I find more info on the company?

Thanks much!

[Geordy Rostad]

Hi @Hunter Adams,

In Washington State, I can go to the Department of Revenue website and use the "business lookup tool". When I punch in a company name, it gives me a tab for "Governing People". If you click that, it reveals all the members of the company.

Here's the link to the Washington DOR so you can see what I mean. Business Lookup is towards the bottom of the page:

https://secure.dor.wa.gov/gteunauth/_/#1

Your state might have something like this, or it might not. After finding the members of the company, I would use a tool such as Been Verified to find out their addresses and phone numbers.

Alternatively, the better/easier way is probably to just get out of the car on the knock on the doors of some of the neighbors. Neighbors usually know what's going on next to them and they would be happy to share details with someone who could remediate a problem property in their neighborhood.