All Forum Posts by: Cary Donham

Yes a move-in move-out sheet is what you need along with pictures. We learned the hardway on this just as you have. Your move-in sheet is to be signed by the borrower and will have all the serial numbers to all appliances.

Of course that doesn't stop some tenants from moving out and taking the A/C condensor, the refrigerator, the dishwasher and all of the light fixtures.

I forgot to mention how I learned the numbers side of the business. I called a few of the we buy houses ads in the paper and asked to meet with them for lunch and said I was buying. I picked the one guy who I felt had more I could learn from. We met and I said I would birddog for him if he would show me what to look for in a home and how to calculate the repairs. I wen to 3 homes with him late that week.

I started looking for properties and found 3 for him and made about 1K to 1.5K on each one.

Then I said it was time to find my own homes but I knew that my repairs might cost me more or less depending on my contractors. I started writing down the phone numbers for every contractor i saw drive by. I would ask them to meet me at a few HUD foreclosed properties that needed tons of work.

I created a spreadsheet that I then used to estimate repairs. Took me another month or 2 and I located and closed on my first rehab property.

First off you don't need to know everything before you get started. I didn't even know how to fill out the contract on my first deal. I just read through our Texas specific contract which is not really necessary to make a purchase and filled in the blanks. Once at the title company I just asked them to review it and go over the contract with me. I knew what to look for in the numbers to make sure I had a good deal. Once you have that all of the other things will fall into place.

Do you know a realtor? If so I would get with one and ask them to walk you through each section of a standard contract for sale and go from there.

But I would learn the numbers side of this busines FIRST. You get this down and the rest can come later.

There is nothing illegal about a deal like this. There is no federal or state law I'm aware of that would prohibit a person from helping someone out in a situation like this. In essence you are helping the seller in that you are taking over the property subject to the existing financing because he is in a situation where he needs to sell quickly. Yes there will be a due on sale (DOS) clause on each loan you run into now-a-days but if done correctly you don't need to worry about the lender calling the note due.

I would study up on landtrust if this is the type of investment scenarios you want to go after.

There is way too much to a landtrust for you to get in one post but I'll hit some key points. It works only as well as you set it up. There are different ways to set up a landtrust. All you are doing is holding title to the property in a landtrust until you find a buyer/renter.

Benefits:

Let me explain about setting up a simple landtrust.... you find a seller who doesn't have enough equity to make it work for you buy the house outright. So you have them deed the property to a landtrust with a 3rd party trustee (preferrably someone you know and TRUST or an LLC owned by someone you TRUST). The beneficial interest go to the owners. You then have the owners assign the beneficial interest to you or your company. The only item that is filed at the court house is the new deed. You get a power of attorney (make sure it's a durable power of attorney - that means it continues to be in affect should the person die) so you can act on behalf of the sellers to change insurance etc.... You do want to change the insurance so you are on the policy.

Does it work? Oh yeah..... I have done many of them and been paid at closing with the paperwork I submitted to the title company showing my beneficial interest in the landtrust.

Ditto on what Tony said.... thanks for serving our country!

Hey Mark - Welcome! I just found this site myself and when I first got started in the business about 7 years ago I learned how to invest from forums just like this.

That's okay - I'll catch you guys next time.

Here's what you need to keep in mind: