Wholesaling: owner is in jail?

Question

I was driving for dollars and happened upon this house that was obviously vacant in a great neighborhood. I did my research and found out the owner was arrested 5/13/2020 for arson. Yes, you guessed it he was accused of burning his house down with his wife and teen son in the house. I cannot find the wife’s contact info but she is on record as part owner. Im guessing I need to skip trace the wife to gain access to the house. I’m not sure if the property is a crime scene still under investigation. Any advice would be great!

Do I need both husband and wife’s signatures on the contract?

Is it possible to mail the contract to the jail for him to sign?

New to the game, thanks

Do I need both husband and wife’s signatures on the contract?

Is it possible to mail the contract to the jail for him to sign?

New to the game, thanks

Jesse Davis · Answer

@Barry Pekin thanks a lot!

Barry Pekin · Answer

@Jesse Davis,

For skip tracing, I do it manually at TruePeopleSearch.com.  It's pretty reliable, and also gives you access to family members and other acquaintances.  I've found it's pretty accurate.

For something purchased so recently, there may be very little equity in it.  I like to use PropStream for research.  It will tell you the purchase price, what the mortgage was for, and an estimate for how much equity is in there.  It also gives you a pretty good estimate for ARV which you can compare against sites like Zillow, Realtor.com, etc.  If there's little equity, you may need to look for other creative solutions like Subject To.

Jesse Davis · Answer

Thanks for the quick responses! My plan was to reach out to the wife and offer my condolences. Like you both said definitely sensitive subject and I’m not looking to take advantage but love to help them while helping myself. The man is actually in another county several hours away. My plan was to reach out to that jail make sure he still there and not back here in his home county. Then I was going to see if it was possible to speak with him on the phone and if not I’ll write him a letter. I will need to skip trace the wife. I’m not sure how badly damaged the house is. It looks like the owner recently bought the house on 4/6/20. This is quite an interesting situation. The owner has a bond of $100,000.

Questions:

Skip-tracing: Do you all recommend a certain company? Low price? Effective results?

How does my strategy look? Would you all do anything different?

Since the house was purchased a few months ago are comps still functional in this situation? I found 3 comps in the area sold in the last year with average price of $88sqft. This house sold for $90sqft. Do I use recently sold numbers or comps to determine ARV?

In general how do I determine the remaining mortgage balance on a property to determine offer price?

Thanks again guys!

Barry Pekin · Answer

@Jesse Davis,

I'm guessing there's some damage to this house, huh?  Nice find!

I am pretty certain that this wonderful father and husband are going to be prevented from taking action on the house just yet.  Your best bet is to track down the wife and start building some rapport with her.  Come at this from a point of service and find out what her intentions are.  But seriously, be sensitive.  I'm guessing this was a pretty traumatic event for her and her son.  She may need some time.

This is going to be complicated.  Definitely keep us posted.

Will Fraser · Answer

Hi @Jesse Davis, welcome to the BiggerPockets forums and the wild world of RE investing!  Depending on your state's laws you may well need both parties' signatures to be able to close.  If it is still part of the investigation you'll not likely be able to purchase it until that case is concluded, but a call to the sheriff's department should yield the status of the case.  Considering that was two weeks ago, surely the wheels of justice don't turn that fast, right?!

Ultimately there are going to need to be several touch-points with the husband in the process, so establishing some rapport with him is crucial.  Whether it is you or an attorney, it's likely that in-tha-flesh visits to the jail are going to be needed.

Best of luck here, Jesse!  You're onto an interesting one . . . keep pulling the thread and see where it goes