All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Garrett Hayes

Another thought is to talk to a small local lender and see what kind of money you can borrow.  Based on your monthly expenses to your income you will get a good understanding and it will help you focus on homes within your known budget.

Just to follow up, that is why I buy 30k homes.  My personal experience is that independent of the amount I purchase a home for, I always make about the same.  Not that I would not mind bigger deals more often, simply because it adds to my availability of deals to be had.  I just need $500k. Anyone?:)

@Paul Altman

In my opinion while a contractor will out perform an inspector in their area of expertise, you will do better overall using an home inspector.  In addition they well probably get you a better deal on the house by identifying more issues and doing an excellent job in conveying t hem to the seller.  In many situations money spent on a home inspection is made up in tangible action items identified.  Does the purchase agreement you signed specify a minimum dollar amount before t he seller has to take action?

@Garrett Hayes

Have you reached out to any other investors in your area, on bigger pockets.  You can search for them within bigger pockets can send out some friend requests.  I would also suggest seeing if there are any local real estate investment clubs in your area.  That is a great way to jump start your business. 

@Shawn Connors

As an investor you are limited to what you can expense.  As a real estate dealer you are not.  Are you planning on paying self employment tax on your earnings, or treating them as capital gain?  I am also assuming you doing flips based on the use of the term marketing.  In general if you are marking your own property and not using a broker to sell them, you would be on your way to being a dealer.

Absolutely J.  Thanks.  

Just to follow up and not creat any unwarranted fears on the second appraisal, the buyers bank came back and said the appraisal is already done. I can only assume they did a desktop appraisal. I could not imagine it is going to come in light One final note on the one deal where the second appraisal came in 13k light. In that deal the buyer actually worked for the lending bank. I often wonder if there was some colluding going on there. I ultimately ended up talking to that second appraiser and when I told him I didn't understand the value the bank told me the second appraisal was at, he told me that wasn't his number but he wouldn't share the actual value. It was as if the bank decided what they were willing to lend and it didn't matter what anybody said J The following is tongue-in-cheek but let me take you back to a time when you didn't have as much money and you had to get the most out of every deal. I can't use that 65% rule. I have to find select deals by covering large geographical areas to maximize my return:)

Here's what I've done to improve my title search skills Created a form which has entries that should be captured during each search. Such as who is served notification of the sale as a lender or judgment creditor, List of all the current unsatisfied liens, list of all the unsatisfied mortgages and for both of these capture their dates. You should be able to cross-reference who was notified and what you find during your own search. As pointed out some liens may not be on County record so you need to call those departments, such as sewer and water and possibly tax collector. Number of the attorney, plaintiff information, defendant information, sale date etc. I print out a bunch of these forms go to the courthouse and perform searches on sales that resulted in third-party buyers. Like anything the more you do searches the more you're going to learn, so I would practice and ask questions There's something called a current owner search, at least where I'm at and they only cost about $40. Good luck

@Chris Mason

I cover a large area when investing and what I can tell you is the communication between agents and appraisals vary greatly.  My real estate agent in NY near the Albany area interacts with the appraiser in a similar manner, as you are suggesting.  My agent down in the Scranton area says it is extremely frowned upon and will not.  I have done multiple deals with both agents and their attitudes have been consistent for years.  Ny seems to be much more lenient with agent appraiser interaction.

BTW, I lived in Ballston Spa.  Yeah buddy.