All Forum Posts by: Anthony Portugal

ok. so, generally, if i were to purchase a property for much less than the previous sale (such as in a short sale or reo purchase) the taxes won't change much unless an assessment is completed???

after looking at the appraisals website...they assess the land and the building....the land is what's a lot more "valuable" and driving up the assessment value. so does the land value change much since its land??

so i multiply the assessed value by the millage rates??

regarding the assessed value...wouldn't this GENERALLY be the same as the last sale's appraisal value? so, would the assessed value decrease if i were to purchase the property at a much lower price than the previous sale?

is there a way to research projected tax on a specific property?? my city will allow me to search a specific property's tax for the past year...but how relevant would that value be if i were to purchase the property much cheaper than the previous sale??

i was told that it usually equates to about 2% of the purchase price....so if i bought a house for $200K, then based on this rule, tax should be around $4k/year. but in my area, it seems that its much more than 2%.
any insight?? btw, i live in South Florida. (deerfield beach to be exact).

thanx, -Anthony

hey everyone,
i've been reading up on short sales and had a question. I'm actually interested in a property that is on the MLS as a short sale. It's been on the market for 160 days now. Originally bought for $340,000 in '05. Now listed for $225,000 short sale, with multiple price drops within the pat 6 months. I did a public record search on the homeowner and did not see any default on the mortgage payments or notice of foreclosure. Now my questions is this....is it not true that banks will not usually agree to a short sale unless the seller shows distress in making the mortgage payments??? if this is true, and the homeowner is indeed making the monthly payments without much problem...why would the bank ever agree to a short sale??? if this is the case, would the seller have any hope of actually making a sale for less than what he owes on the mortgage?? (ie would he have to actually own this house until current market value catches up or something dramatic happens where he can't make the payments??) thanx, -Anthony

anyone know of any realty companies/groups that represent only REOs? i've found one, but wondering if anyone else knew of others?

thanx, -Anthony

just wondering if foreclosure auctions are cash only or is it possible to finance? if so, what kind of financing program would be needed?...would a conventional 30yr fixed work even though you normally have to get an inspection and appraisal prior to purchase??

basically, if there is a property i'm interested in that's going to public auction in 2 weeks, how would i go about obtaining it without personally having the cash?

thanx,-Anthony

thanx for the info wheatie

hey everyone,
just wondering how i can find out if a property is REO through computer search. there's a specific property that just listed on the MLS that i believe is a REO. I've come to recognize minor signs on MLS listings that may signify that it's a REO (i.e. no pics, descriptions, or historical information on the listing). I've tried to run a public search through my county clerk's website, but with no luck in finding specific information on the property...actually i can't find out how to find out public info on the property...rather i usually just run public search on the current/previous owner's name and see what shows up. this time there were multiple people with the same name, so i don't know if some of the official documents are for the person/property i'm looking for.
any help or suggestions is appreciated.

thanx, -Anthony

I didn't intend to get off on the wrong foot. To be honest, I didn't see this as an opportunity to fraud the system...but i can see how this situation can be viewed as so. I do plan on living in the property for a number of years before renting out, but what i'm scared of is if when i'm ready to move on into a larger home, seeing how the market is performing, I may actually lose money when i sell the property and repay the program (if the value of the property continues to depreciate below the buying price). Therefore, I wanted to see if I could rent until things evened out.

I'm sorry once again to come off in a negative or fraudulent light. I guess i was looking too much at the "opportunity" aspect and not what it actually meant.

Though, still this is an opportunity and having an ambitious drive, i will find a way to capitalize on my position. Perhaps i can attempt a minor flip...that way i can gain some capital as well as repay the money borrowed...freeing myself of a guilty conscious.

Thanks for putting things in perspective for me wheatie. Didn't mean to come off in a bad light.

-Anthony

Hello,

I'm a newbie to investing, but have been doing much reading in this forum and would like to get started in REI.

I've recently applied for the First Time homebuyer down payment assistance program with a local city here and had a few questions on how those programs are ran, if anyone is familiar with them.

If everything goes through, i will be eligible to receive $25-30K in down payment assistance (as a forgivable second mortgage) to buy a property within that city. The catches are that the property must be my "primary residence" for at least 10 years in order to make it "forgivable" (meaning I don't have to pay the money back provided by the program). If I sell, refinance, or rent the property within the 10 years, then I will have to pay back the city.

My plan is to use the money towards purchasing a property near a local college and renting out to students. But, obviously this would cause conflict with the homebuyer program in that it would require me to pay back the money, which is what i want to avoid doing.

So, my question, to those that may be familiar with these programs, is how will the city know whether or not i am still residing in the property? do they perform random checks or have a systematic means in finding out?

Also, what is the process of renting out a property? would i have to report it to the city or can i just rent my property "under the table" so to speak that way I can fly under the radar??

Or perhaps someone can come up with another method in using these funds creatively in REI...??

Any suggestions and advice would be appreciated?
Thank you,
-Anthony