All Forum Posts by: Buddy LaRue

3 of the worlds biggest lies:

I'll respect you in the morning

I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you.

The check is in the mail.

@ I search probates constantly (well, not constantly but I'm at the courthouse at least once a week gathering information). It sounds to me like you didn't ask the clerk the right questions or give her the proper information she needed for her to give you the right answer. Often when you go to the courts, the clerks are under the belief that you need to see only one file, not a whole bunch of them.

Try going back to the courthouse and ask the clerk to see all probates filed within the last month. Explain to her that you're an investor and need to go through the files to see which ones have real estate involved and that you will need the personal representatives contact information. If your county is anything like Palm Beach County, the information is all online now, BUT if you search through the computers AT THE COURTHOUSE you can get all the information you need.

When searching through the records, look at the petitions for administration of the estate, or petitions for summary administration. These will tell you if there's real estate in the estate, and usually on the first page will give you the names and addresses of all personal representatives of the estate. If the information is not on the first page, it will state where in the document the information is (if it's not on the first page, it's usually on the last).

I fell behind on my probate research a few months ago and just recently started back up. When I went to the courthouse and explained what I was doing, the clerks were more than helpful and even set me up at a computer station with some privacy. I searched back to the beginning of October and ended up spending about 7 hours at the courthouse searching through records, but it also got me a couple hundred leads.

Let me know if I can help in any other way.

To your success!

have you tried mixing them up? It often takes more than 1 contact with an owner to get a response. Try a letter, then a postcard or two, then another letter.

If this is a flip, and he spent $150,000 on rehab, and he's trying to sell for $260,000.....Lets crunch some numbers.

Lets assume he paid $65,000 for the property (1/2 way between the $40K and $90K he could have purchased the property for), with 3% closing costs...he'd have paid $66,950 for the house, then put in $150,000 in rehab puts him at an all in of $216,950.

If he sold the house for $250,000, he'd be making a profit of $33,050, which would give him approximately 15% return on capital gain. Not great numbers, but a lot better than in a bank!

Could he have spent that much, yeah, but it sounds like he over-improved the property and may have a hard time selling a home for $250,000+ in a neighborhood where a house can be purchased for $40K to $90K. $152.28/sq ft in rehab cost is WAY too much.

What's that smell? I think it's something coming from a pipe, and it's causing the guy to really dream big! Either that or it's just regular BS!

Hard money lenders can make a world of difference in a deal.

I'm having the most difficult time finding HMLs in the South Florida market that will structure the loans the way I need (an was used to working with in Houston).

In Houston, I had a number of HMLs that would lend up to 70% of ARV. This proved quite beneficial to most of my clients, even on a buy an hold strategy. Here I'm lucky if I can find 75% of current value. Too many got burned during the last up market, now all are skiddish. :-(

Anyone have any help on that?

@ Hi Gavin, West Palm Beach Realtor and investor here.

@Aaron M. Greetings and Salutations! You're in the right place. It sounds like you already have a partner in the game, and being on BP will help you a lot as well.

I want CASH FLO!

My response is always the same when it comes to investment properties. I want 100% return on capital gain and minimum 10% cash on cash return with at least $300/month poz cash flow. As for area, if it's not a war zone, I'm game. If it's less than a middle class neighborhood but I can still get those returns, I'll hold the property for a year or more, then take my capital gains and 1031 into the next property.

@ There's often some confusion between a cooperative apartment building and condos, and people will often say they own their apartment when they live in a cooperative apartment building (also known as a co-op).

A condo is when you own the interior airspace of a unit. The HOA owns the building. The owner of the unit gets a deed to the unit and typically owns an undivided interest in the HOA.

A co-op is when the "owners of the units" purchase STOCK and those stocks allow them to "own" their unit.

I've seen people wholesale condos before, but am not sure if a person could wholesale in a co-op. I'm not a lawyer and can't give legal advise, but I would think it could still be done. Just know what you're buying before you get in too deep.