All Forum Posts by: Mark Elliott

sounds like you have a good handle on the matter. one thing you need to check out though is if the city that the house is in will allow you to do the work yourself. some places around here in buffalo, ny will not allow the owner to do the work, only a  licensed plumber. this could lead to additional costs that you are not expecting

hi annemarie. welcome to the wonderful world of real estate investing. please feel free to check out my profile and ask any questions that you may have. good luck to you

so, you heard " no" from one bank. big deal. have you ever wondered why there are so many banks out there??? because there are so many people out there. try another bank, try every damn bank until you get the answer " yes".  one bank will be smart enough to say yes even if wells fargo isn't

throw a few bucks his way, make it worth it. show him that the title company has him listed as the sole heir and sometimes the city will tag the sole heir as the responsible party for the overdue bills. show him that you are willing and able to take responsibility for the overdue bills and get those off his back and still throw him some money on top of it. ask him if there is anything he has always wanted to buy. a play station 4, a big screen tv. everybody dreams of something. tell him you will give him the money to get something he has always wanted. you will be amazed at how fast people get interested in money. ask him this. " if you suddenly found out that your dad had a safety deposit box and the local bank, would your *** be down there looking to find out what was in it"? of course he would. well, this house is his safety deposit box and you already know whats in it. help him open the box

hi diane. seems like the son has some bad memories with that property. i can understand why he doesn't want anything to do with the property, but does he want anything to do with money? offer him some cash for his share of the property. have him sign a quit claim deed and tell him the money is " poetic justice" for whatever his dad did to him. in the end, HE gets the money from the house and his dad didn't. poetic justice. most people will not run away from money

hi michele. the answer is no. you can invest anywhere, it depends on the amount of money you need to invest. after all, $50,000 is 50% of $100,000 the same as $5000 is 50% of $10,000. it all depends on how much you have to start with. its harder in places than it is in others. 

when i talked to the rep at wells fargo, they seemed surprised that anyone was interested in the house, so i think they may have made a deal with me on the house if they had not donated it

thank you to all for the comments. some of the answers i already knew. dealing with banks can be he rabbit hole described, yes, but it certainly sounds like the lawyers are the cause of the problem. here  in western new york, one of our lovely politicians has decided that he will start putting signs in the front yards of the " zombie" houses with the name of the bank on the sign just to embarrass them into doing something about it. a lot of good that will do. all he has done is increase the calls to the banks. it his his profession that has caused the problem with all of the red tape the banks must go thru just to foreclose on a dead beat that doesn't want to pay for the house he mortgaged. what really needs to be done by the politicians is to make things easier for the banks to take back what rightfully belongs to them instead of having to go thru hell to cater to someone who doesn't have the responsibility of a grapefruit. i just really hate to see these houses sit for years and years empty and fall a apart. by the time we investors actually get a chance to buy them and rehab them, the amount that the bank is able to get out of the poor rundown place is pennies on the dollar. thanks again to all the answers

hi erica. william has great advice there. banks and other lending institutions are heavily regulated and will not violate these laws for anyone. these houses MAY hit the market some day but that someday may not be soon. my personal experience with wells fargo involves a house they foreclosed on then donated it to the city in which it was located. i got that info a few days too late to get the house cheap. i would have bought it from them but just missed out on it. keep bugging wells fargo about the house so you don't miss out like i did. that being said, do you know for sure that the houses have gone all the way thru the foreclosure process and the bank now owns the houses???? if they are not full foreclosed on, they will not show up on the websites until they are. they can't auction them until they own them. banks are limited by the amount of houses they can put back out on the market, so these houses literally may take years to hit the market or may NEVER. some banks just write them off their books and give them back to the owners because they are not worth the time and trouble for the bank. but, this cannot happen if the bank has fully foreclosed and now owns the house. you need to do the research and see if the bank has completed the process or not. message me with what you find out and i will be glad to help you figure out your next move

you have a damn good handle on your future. i would follow the advice from all of those people. thats good advice and a great start. GET GOING