All Forum Posts by: Brian Pellerin

Jon Klaus - I lived in Austin for 8 years and don't remember hearing about Franklins. How'd I miss that? And we would even go on BBQ field trips, such as to Lockhart, etc.

My favorite BBQ dish in Austin is Brontosaurus Platter (of beef ribs) at The County Line. They give it a silly name like the Big Daddy Rib Platter. But, I swear, it looks just like Fred Flintstone's drive-in dish in the opening credits. 18" plate and meat hanging off the sides! Mmm-mm.

Jimmy Hong Both Round Rock and Leander (Cedar Park) ISDs are good school districts and sought after by families. The rich folk gravitate towards Eanes ISD. Austin ISD is your typical big city, big politics school district. Some good, some bad. But, to be hip in Austin, you move near downtown and overlook Austin ISD. It's not a suburban flight risk as is our lovely Dallas ISD.

James Vermillion - How are you able to @ mention Tom and I can't? Is there a special trick to pulling in folks not already on the thread? Thanks for helping though. I did try.

Stephanie Dupuis - I'm asking Tom to explain his caution from the other thread. I was just guessing at what he might be referring to.

Tom Goans Rather than hijacking this thread, I've started a new topic on the issue of domain name hijacking. See here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/94465-domain-registrar-hijacking-your-domain-name I'd like to understand your concerns.

In the thread Starting Out : "Website" (https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/94460-website), Tom Goans issued this caution:

Rather than hijack the other thread, I wanted to explore it further in its own thread.

I've not heard this as a concern before, so I did a bit of research and didn't find much of note. What I found was that some companies have security procedures in place that make it hard to transfer service after making Registrant Changes. They start a 60 day clock blocking your transfer. See: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1053992

Tom, Is this the caution that you are mentioning, or is there something more to worry about?

I finally had a chance to read thru this thread. Nice work. It's a great diary and good story. I too am doing my first scrape. It's quite interesting and I see many of the same challenges. However, I never thought I'd be able to say this, but your building department, rules and regulations are WAY worse than mine! And I'm building a new house in a Conservation District in Dallas, which is tougher than normal.

We have basic 3 residential classifications: Historic, Conservation and Others. IMO, you do historic because you love it, not to make money. Conservation generally means keep the period look, but you can modernize some aspects (but each conservation district can have more or less stringent rules). I'm building a Craftsman. I knew that we'd have a challenge with the building department and as a result, we held 3 pre-submission meetings with the Conversation Folks prior to plan submission. From Jan 30 close, I spend 6 weeks on plans, then about 2 months in review and we finally started demo June 29, a full 5 months after closing. I was the source of 3 about weeks of delay at the end with contracts.

In my case, I didn't plan to take on regular construction projects (even though I do flips) and knew that it could be a death of a 1000 paper cuts, so I hired a reputable investor-builder. My total construction costs, sans builder fees and lot purchase is sitting at $95/sq ft for 3760 sq ft. My number is padded a bit and I don't expect to exceed that number. I'm building a low-end luxury home. For fun, I'm going to do a line by line budget comparison to see where we differ. So far, your costs to date seem higher than mine, but I'm sure it's the opposite.

While the typical construction in my neighborhood is Pier and Beam (crawlspace), we're going with a slab to save costs on the foundation. I wonder why we have a difference in cost models that made us choose opposite? And because the typical architecture is Pier and Beam, we're having to build up the pad to give the appearance of that style, so my slab costs are higher than it would otherwise be.

On my project, we've allocated 150 days for construction in the contract, so I'm expecting about 120 days of build time with 30 days of oops. We're currently done with demo and are hauling in fill dirt for the pad.

Thanks for the diary.

Well, consider the fact that the MLS is the premiere marketplace for retail property sales. Most of its employees are experts at retail sales.

Now, do you want to buy at full price retail or wholesale?

Every once in a while, you will find misplaced deals in the retail channel and sometimes you can negotiate non-deal listings into deals. But likely your real estate agent doesn't understand investing, so you're not getting good advice. While we don't tend to buy from realtors, most of us like to sell at full retail value and use MLS for sales.

If you choose to work to work with a realtor, by all means, find a seasoned agent who is also an investor. And find some wholesalers too. Then read everything you can here. Then look for deals.

So to answer your question: Investors will get the good deals from folks that understand investing and best deals from direct seller engagement, if you desire that model of engagement. Don't buy retail if you are investing!! Good Luck!

Jason Patterson Can you clarify your question? Is your deal a tax sale or not?

BTW, if it helps, I'm closing on a house next week that has $40K in taxes due. It's just a private sale. And I'm going to meet with a seller tomorrow on a house that owes $5K in taxes. These taxes are motivations to sell, especially the $40K which is climbing at an alarming rate.

David Krulac I'm in full agreement with you on tax sales! Novices should steer clear!

However, I believe that Jason Patterson highlighted a scenario that is pre-tax sale. In this case, just pay the creditor and move forward.

Jason, this thread says two things. If you are dealing with a tax sale, get professional help. Do not try it alone.

If you are dealing with a homeowner about to lose their house in a tax sale, proceed with reasonable due-diligence and close in advance of the scheduled tax sale, if any.

There's nothing special with this type of closing. Your seller has a lien and/or judgment against the property. Get it under contract and let the title company do their due-diligence. They will pay off the tax debt as part of the closing. You pay the seller via the title company and the title company uses the seller's money to pay the seller's obligations. There is no reason to pay anything outside of closing.

Your only variable is that you won't know your final costs until the title work is complete, as they might find other surprises (liens, etc) that the seller would normally worry about paying.

Congratulations. It sounds like a great deal. I hope it's papered up already!

I don't know about the allowed part, but it happens all of the time. I was beat to a deal last week by a "pocket listing" going to a well connected wholesaler. It was on MLS and off before you could blink. It was still a good deal, so I paid the marked up price and bought it from the wholesaler. I even told the wholesaler the address of the house that he was just about to sell me! And, to top it off, the wholesaler offered to me as a pocket deal before hitting his mailing list. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with this approach, per se, and I both lost and won on the same deal.

The real question to ask is whether or not the listing agent is getting the best deal for his client. In my case, the seller likely got near asking. So, as long as the agent priced it fairly, the fact that he sold it fast is a bonus. And we know that we trade speed of sale with price. Without knowing the seller's motivation, I can't say if he got the best deal for them or not. Certainly, if the seller could have waited, it would have sold for a higher price - not much higher but higher. By the time I pay the wholesaler, I've only got a double-play on my hands. However, the realtor's integrity is on the line and not yours. You don't know what deal they struck and you are not complicit unless you conspired with him beforehand.

I say:ask away. I also say: go find a real wholesaler if you want deals. I have no qualms about asking ANYONE for a lead, including realtors and casual acquaintances.