All Forum Posts by: Nick Brogren

No. Reason for no agents is that I don't see the need to pay a realtor since the title company does all the real work (and I had my license at one point to know enough about the process). I'm 'marketing' the property myself because there will be a very specific buyer and I don't need it all over the MLS, dealing with multiple showings, etc. etc. May post it FSBO on Zillow if I don't get any takers here. Also - I only bought this a couple years ago, so not enough equity to even break even if using an agent.

Minneapolis regs were a concern at first, but I have had no issues with the city at all - in fact, they have been quite responsive when I have engaged with them. All lease/renter processes are very straight-forward, well defined, and well documented.

I bought this a few years ago, have since had kids, and am now looking to simplify my life. Please check out the craigslist ad link and contact me thought that after reading it thoroughly. It is a solid property and does offer solid cash flow (obviously depends on your financing).

Each unit is ~1800sqft, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, in-unit laundry (currently free). Landlord pays city utilities (water/trash/etc), tenants pay gas + electric. Rents are currently $2200 & $2370. Asking $520k.

Thanks for looking! 

Thanks for confirming my sentiments on this. I'll pass and use that money for marketing ;O)

I'm still a bit hung up on this. The lawyers I am speaking with are saying it will be $3k-$6k to quiet title if no-one speaks up and $20k+ if it turns into a title battle. Since none of the other descendants have put anything into this property I would have a bit of a legal leg-up (as @Davido Davido alludes) if I paid the back taxes (~$4,500). However, one relative with a potential claim has been living in the house since ~2008. 

The crux that I am facing is that the house is certainly worth $25k in it's current state, but will need a fair amount of work (say $50k - 70k... but I have not seen the inside), and would easily sell for $110k-$130k - so it is worth it to me to pursue... BUT there is no guarantee that I will come out on top of the legal battle, so I could potentially invest $25k in this deal and come out with nothing... which would suck. 

At the moment the lawyers are advising me to do a detailed title search (~$250) to ensure that there are no other liens on the property.

With the way the market is at present, this could be a good deal... but the idea of losing the legal battle makes me wonder whether the risk is too high. 

Looking forward to your opinions. 

@Davido Davido Thank you for your thoughtful response! I will let you know the result of my conversation with my attorney, who is pulling the title work right now. 

To my knowledge, the person that would be selling me his interest has NOT paid the taxes. The last person to pay the taxes was his aunt, who died in 2014. Even if the person living there now (a relative by marriage, currently squatting) paid the back-taxes they would only have three years under their belt.

"as long as one of them is paying the property taxes, you will never get this property."

No one is paying the property taxes and nothing is stopping them. They are 2+ years and ~$5,000 behind and I don't have the impression that any of these 20 could come up with that much anyway. To your point, it does only take one of them, but the only reason I am pursuing this anyway is that it is going to the county in <1 year.

If I pursue some method of quieting title is there a requirement that they are all notified? If so, whose responsibility is that?

For example: I buy the "sellers" interest and attempt to quiet the title/convert to Torrens - what, exactly, does that process look like?

Thanks again!

-Nick

Thanks for these responses. My understanding is that there is/was no will, but I am going to have a title search run and will swing in to the county office to see what they have on file. Once I've got that I'll talk to my attorney to see if it is worthwhile. 

If it takes 5 years it isn't going to work out... they are about 10 months away from the county foreclosing for delinquent tax payments.

Thanks again!

Hi y'all - I've got a question for ya!

I recently got a lead who claims that he is the last person on the deed to his grandmothers home. However, no paperwork was ever filed before or after her death (property is titled to the deceased "ET AL").

The gentleman believes that his grandmother wanted him to take care of the property (apparently he is the responsible one) but it doesn't look like anything was ever filed properly, so now we are two generations deep into inherited interests in the property... he estimates that there are about 20 relatives that could have a claim on the title. 

Have any of you dealt with something similar to this? 

I'm really curious if there is a viable option other than trying to locate all 20 parties and motivating them to sign quitclaim deeds. The other thought I had is to get the current "seller's" interest via contract and then attempt to transfer the title from Abstract to Torrens and hope that no one else steps up with a claim... but hope isn't a strategy so I hope someone has some great input!

Thanks in advance!

-Nick

Mike Jacka - MNREIA. He wrote an article about it in a newsletter not too long ago. 

Lots of great responses here, but I'll add my 2 cents as well since I did this nearly 10 years ago in NE MPLS. At that time I needed permits for electric, plumbing, and HVAC - we didn't really do any structural work (until we opened it up, added some support, and the inspector said 'looks good!'). 

Also, and I know you didn't ask this, but do yourself a favor and weigh the opportunity cost (lost rents) of doing it yourself. If you have experience doing these renovations then maybe you need not heed this, but if this is your first time doing renovations this could quickly become a multi-year project and turn your duplex into an alligator property (eating up all of your time and money). I had a 9-5 job at the time and despite being motivated it was TOUGH to come home and put on the tool belt for a few more hours. 

Suffice to say that I ran some numbers when I was done and I would have saved myself a LOT of time and effort ($ about even) if I would have just hired out the work and gotten renters in there ASAP. 

Anyway, that's enough unsolicited advice for now.