Great Property found in Victorville CA... HELP!

[Bryan Collins]

Disclaimer on my mistakes, assumptions, and general ignorance: I have just started learning about wholesaling and this could potenially be my first attempt in any real esate scenario. With that said...

I was in the neighborhood near my house and looking at a trailer. It wasn't for sale but I was going to make an offer to the owner anyways (because you never know). I saw the house next door looked almost abandoned. Dirt lawn with knee high weeds, peeling paint everywhere, fence needing repair. Although, the roof looked in decent shape so I wrote down the address. I looked up the property with the San Bernardino county and found the owner is a 100% sole owner. No tax liens. Next I went to zillow and trulia to estimate the value. This property came up for $132k. The tax assessor put the 2013 value at $89k (I have heard and learned about asking for this value and I still have no idea why). The current owner has had this property since 2002. 

Now the neighbors houses are all valued at $167-$208k. This includes all the houses on this street and, since the street is only 4 houses, I included the 2 streets perpendicular to it. It seems this house is the most undervalued in the lot and it's the same 3 bed 2 bath as the rest but about 200-400 less sqft as the median. The only thing that has really dumbfounded me is that this house is a section 8 property so I assume that it's a rental and the owner is not living there to talk to. I have never heard anyone on podcasts or blogs mention that this could be a hinderance, other than this guy probably doesn't have to pester his tenants for rent, and may not want to give it up. 

So to calculate an offer would I use the zillow estimated value as the ARV or the median comps from around the neighborhood?

Is there a way to find the owners contact information to start a dialogue without going through the tenants? 

Should I even look into this further (of course I should)

Is there someone in SoCal Inland Empire that would work on this with me for a bigger cut of any profits? 

Thanks all!!! 

Looking forward to your insights. 

Bryan & Melissa 

[Account Closed]

Originally posted by @Bryan Collins:

As for zillow use, I only used zillow to get an estimation of value. I feel that a company based in real estate should be able to provide that much to me. (http://www.zillow.com/research/data/)

Zillow really can't help you determine value.  There are too many variables that it's algorithms can't account for.  Valuations are figured by using real sold data and comparing it to the subject property.  Zillow is one of the worst things to happen to newbie investors in the last 10 years.  Even using for a general sense of value can be totally misleading.  Get yourself real comps from an agent or title company (they're free).