All Forum Posts by: Mark Yuschak

Foremost is the company I use to insure all my flips. Their application does not have a question about previous fire damage to the property. I would get a standard builder's risk policy from Foremost for an agreed-upon coverage level.

If the contract to purchase is on an REO or short sale and you can't change the purchaser's name, you may want to consider a very tight partnership agreement between you and the partner, even though title will be taken in the name of only one of the parties. Trust will be equally important to a tigh agreement if you go this route. Ideally, Allison's advice is the best scenario (if you can change the name in which title will be taken).

If you truly have no cash and bad credit, you may want to consider partnering with another investor. "Sell" yourself to a person who has the cash to fund the acquistion and rehab. Let them be the money partner, and if you have the experience, you do the rehab. Get creative!

No inspection contingencies here. The properties I typically buy for rehab purposes are pretty beat as it is. Even if something changes between the time of the accepted PA and the closing, it won't make a drastic change on my profit. I'd rather forego some profit by not having the inspection contingency and taking the chance of something drastically wrong, than loosing out on the deal completely.

Plus, as already stated, even with a 0 day inspection period in the original PA, it looks good to the AM, but when the offer is accepted, the addendum overrides the PA and you get your inspection period back anyway.

There is no limit to how many wholesale deals you can do in any given period. As long as your not representing yourself or the potential buyer as their agent, no license is necessary. The licensing concerns come into play when you act as a representing agent. For that you must be licensed.

Flipping houses and contracts to buy cars is not a licensed activity. However, as you indicated, it is for vehicles in most states.

Has anyone had any luck with successfully tracking the underbids at Sheriff Sale? Doing so manually is cumbersome. And, local title companies haven't been too helpful with this either.

My goal is to solicit those owners who are in redemption yet have "equity" to sell the house and walk away with some cash in their pocket.

When I've been faced with filling a vacancy during the holiday season (between Thanksgiving and New Year's), I give an incentive for the people to move in... Reduced rent for 6 months, waive the application fee, offer month-to-month, reduce the security deposit, etc.

I try to do things that really don't cost me anything, but are perceived as a benefit to the tenant. They really seem to like the month-to-month option since it gives them flexibility to stay for only a couple months. By that time, we're out of the slow rental period so I like that option too. It's a win-win.

Bleach with water is NOT the best solution. It's actually the WORST solution.

For those claiming to use bleach, what evidence do you have to back it up?

When I remediate a house, I remove all the porous surfaces (trim, drywall, insulation, and in some cases the subfloor). The framing is then treated with Oxy Mold 501 concentrate from Trask Research. If I want to remove the mold staining after the mold has been killed, I use Zep Mold and Mildew Remover. Then I do multiple air quality tests to validate the treatments were effective. If so, then we reinstall insulation, drywall, etc.

Of course, curing the root of the problem has to be addressed first and foremost.

I should have been more clear...I actually have a BLOC with multiple properties securing the interest.

Nonetheless, it was made possible by a local credit union. I'm very certain no other institutional lender would have done what the local CU has.

I have never sat down and calculated a hard percentage, but I would say I'm right around 50%.

The returns I'm earning from real estate are far greater than anything in the stock market. I'm increasing the real estate as much as possible since I know it and love it, and because the returns have treated me well.