All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Sorry, it's not worth it. No lawyer can take a case that small on contingency and paying hourly is good money after bad. Next time, get your money judgment during the eviction process, as Rob pointed out. Of course, you could go it alone in small claims court; it'll take some time and effort but you should be able to eventually get a judgment if you keep after it.

Gotcha. You've done some nice homes. I doubt you'll have any problem attracting capital under something akin to your proposed structure (with or without the proposed tweaks). What about a scenario where the investor contributes the lot and/or some capital and you do the work in exchange for an equity share? I ask with selfish motives as I'm looking at a property in Buckhead that needs a significant structural overhaul due to curb appeal problems.

My question is how the heck do you find a $230-280k house in Brookhaven...

The HELOC doesn't not sound like a viable option if you have the property listed for sale unless the loan will be less than the amount of equity you intend to invest, i.e. the HELOC will come due when you sell and you will have to pay it off at the closing table to convey clear title. So, if you have sufficient equity to pay off the HELOC and pay for your next house, etc., then you're fine; otherwise, it likely won't work.

Great news, it was only a matter of time.

Keep in mind that you are going to have to come up with somewhere between $100,000 and $120,000 cash to finance this deal with hard money. I'd recommend starting with something a bit smaller for your first project.

To clarify, since the seller is already listing it, I presume he isn't opposed to selling before the lease is up and I would try to negotiate for that flexibility if I were you.

Good looking house. Overall, seems like a good deal. If the numbers are what you say, I'd forget renting and list it right away.

Why such a large down payment on the option though? I would have thought the standard $3-5k earnest money would be sufficient.

@John Schnyderite I regularly buy bankruptcy assets (but never real estate, admittedly) and have never heard of the trustee's commission being paid by the buyer. Typically, the trustee is separately compensated with a percentage cut of any assets recovered for the estate which includes the proceeds from the sale of the property. Unless the trustee is also a real estate broker, I don't see how he could directly take a commission. Practices differ across the country, of course. I would specify in the offer that the seller pays any commissions and closing costs and see what they say.

The main issue in bankruptcy sales is that any agreement that you reach with the trustee will be subject to court approval and over-bidding. I would recommend including a provision for a 3-5% "breakup fee," so that you receive some compensation for your time if another bidder comes in higher than your contract.

Just suggestions, not legal advice.

I'm not definitively saying that such a website/list doesn't exist, just that I have never seen one. I have never heard of a list (in Georgia) for tax deed auctions, but it would be presumably be easier to create such a database because there is a single seller (the county or other municipality).