All Forum Posts by: Allen Brouwer

@Allen Brouwer - I would contact the county/township tax assessor or visit their website. Usually on the website there's a way to look up properties and many times the owner's name and mailing address will be listed there. If the address listed for the owner is the vacant property you could try sending to that address to see if there is forwarding. If it's returned as undeliverable you could then try a skip-trace to track them down.

IMHO forget about pre-foreclosures.  The people living in those "pre-foreclosures" won't sell or move.  They'd rather continue living there, for free, while the foreclosure process drags through the New Jersey courts over the next three years until the Sheriff finally throws them out.  The owner has absolutely NO incentive to sell "pre-foreclosure."

Hi @Allen Brouwer,

Great to see you on here again. I'd like to play the game: If I had a $100K.  : )

If I had $100K I would research local multi family properties and financing options.  I would try to buy 2-3 multi family properties with as little down into each one (if possible - it depends on the purchase prices.) I'd make sure that each property cash flows positive with a cash on cash return at the minimum at 10% (the higher the better of course).  

Then I'd leverage the rest of the cash left over and use that to secure a flip.  

I'd suggest checking out Patch of Land as they have a innovative crowd funding platform and they evaluate each deal to ensure they believe it will be successful (another set of checks and balances especially for a new flipper).  Then as long as you and your project is approved your request is funded.  If Patch of Land isn't your thing, perhaps you can partner with someone on the 1st flip.  You bring cash, they bring cash and you spend your time managing the flip and learning the ins and outs of it so you can replicate in the future.

I believe this strategy is the best of leveraging other people's money to increase your returns as well as having your eggs in more than 1 basket.

(On the other hand, I would never use $100K to pay down a bank loan. If you were to do this, you'd be turning the control of your money over to the bank. Which of course means you'd need to rely on them to approve you to borrow it back. Plus, they likely would only let you borrow back 80%-90% CLTV (combined loan to value) which means you probably won't be able to borrow back the $100K.)

Hope this helps! : )

Those agricultural loans have scary early termination fees if you leave within 5 years, usually.  Smart to stay in and enjoy your house together @Allen Brouwer.

You have every option every other person who has $100k has except house hacking. Your 1% equity doesn't really play into this, except you can't occupy!

 You could... buy - fix- flip a couple times to build more cash, then get a rental every few.  Depends on your rehab skill level and risk tolerance.  If hiring out every task it will be very expensive. If you're wrong and the market sours or you buy poorly - you will lose $.

Buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat (BRRR) - but I think getting money out of investment property is a little more difficult, so you may just leverage from the beginning.

Many many more things you can do, of course.  That's why we have BP!  Look up  "I have money, where do I start?" or something to that effect.  Education is always a good thing, too. Don't be afraid to buy some of that responsibly.  Good luck!

@Allen Brouwer I apologize if this comes out the wrong way, but is the property YOURS or is it your wife's? I think this is a big difference...Do you own any property yet? There is only 1% equity on the home? What can it rent for and how much is your P&I?