All Forum Posts by: Mark Elliott

hello to all. i am working on a deal right now. 4 bedroom house in the buffalo, ny area. needs minimal rehab. the numbers are as follows: purchase price, $25,000, rehab $5000 ( i will do this myself), arv $60,000 ( professional appraisal done recently).  

i am a handyman by trade, a licensed home inspector, and i have been flipping houses in this area now for 12 years. what i am looking for is someone to fund the project for me. please contact me with your terms and lets see if we can put this deal together.   thank you in advance

no, you aren't doing anything wrong. i can't imagine getting 40 leads per hour. not possible. one of the best ways i have found to do the driving for dollars is go to hud.gov, select several houses on there, even if you are not really interested in those particular houses, and go look at them. trust me, where there is one vacant house, there is another one close by

hello to all. just a quick description of myself. i am a real estate investor working in the western New York area. i have been doing this in this area for 12 years now, with many successes. i am a licensed home inspector, work as a handyman for a local property management company, and currently own several investment houses. i can safely say that i know the area quite well. 

given my home inspectors experience, i feel very confident in my ability to judge the condition of a house and evaluate the rehab to bring it back to a marketable condition. having a degree in accounting, i feel quite confident in my ability to manage the numbers part of the transaction as well. having recently passed a course in furnace installation and repair, i feel i can safely replace appliances such as the furnace if need be and a water heater if need be, saving large sums of money in the rehab. 

he is what i am looking for. i am looking for a HML to fund my latest find. a 4 bedroom, one bath house with two stall garage in a family neighborhood that i currently own 2 houses in and have purchased more in the same neighborhood in the passed. the necessary repairs are as follows: water heater missing, furnace looks old. paint all rooms, new flooring needed in most rooms, ( something i can do myself), recondition kitchen, replace entry doors. the house already has a newer roof and newer vinyl siding, virtually no work necessary on the outside. given my rehab skills, nothing will need to be contracted out, so i am able to save a tremendous amount of money on the rehab, which is why the following rehab number is so low. the numbers are as follows:

purchase price: $ 25,000

rehab costs:      $   5000

closing costs     $   3000

ARV $ 60,000 ( professional appraisal)

projected 

profit              $32,000

I have purchased several houses in this city and currently own 2 right in this neighborhood, in fact, one right on this same street. the code enforcement officer in this city and i are literally on a first name basis and he has never, ever set foot inside any of my rehab projects because, in his words, " i trust your work". i feel greatly confident in my knowledge of this neighborhood and its ability to sell quickly. i am looking for someone to be a HML for this project and would like to get some feedback as to your offers asap. thank you in advance

thank you for the answers. i have an update on the house. i spoke with the owner. i had her call the lien holder that i found thru my research at county records. the lien holder told her that the account was now in collections thru a place called nationwide collections. she called them. they claim tohave a lien on the property, which i have found nothing. they claim that they will not release the lien until the account is paid in full. they were fine with me buying the property, but i would have to call them to make a deal. i looked up some information on nationwide collections and they seem to be an agency that practices very unethical practices in their collection efforts. it would seem to me that they would have to file a lien with our county court house here in buffalo, ny to have a legal lien on the property. i have found nothing of the sort. the most recent lien i have found is from the lender that filed the lis pendes over 3 1/2 years ago and has done nothing since. this is the case that their lawyers say is closed now. it sounds to me like we have a collection agency that has purchased a note from the lender, and will do just about anything to collect, but does NOT have a lien. i suppose they could tag a lien on the house if they choose to do so, but only if the house was still in the owners name. otherwise, all they have is a note with a persons name on it. can anyone out here in the bigger pockets world clarify this matter for me? do they have to file a lien within the legal system to have a lien, and in purchasing the note from the lender, did they purchase the lien that was on the house?  thanks for any help in advance

i have a question for foreclosure experts, lawyers and just about anyone who may know. i have been watching a house in my area for about 3 years now. the start of the foreclosure is dated 4/19/13, by US bank national association tr. i have contacted the last known owner, and she has agreed to sell me the property, dirt cheap. the problem i have is that i do not know which bank holds the mortgage, nor do i know the status of the foreclosure. 

US bank national purchased the mortgage from JP morgan chase a while ago. JP morgan chase has told me that it belongs to US bank. I called US bank and they claim that they do not hold the mortgage, but they did file the lis pendis on that date, on behave of chase bank, for whom they service the loan. i called the attorneys who filed the lis pendis, and i had my attorney call them. all they would give her for information is that the case is closed. 

since the april 2013 filing, ( which case is now closed), there has been absolutely NO further action on this house in any court, nor have any property taxes been paid. 

my feeling is that this mortgage lien has been written off by whichever bank holds the mortgage, but no release of lien has been filed within the county courts regarding the matter.

can anyone tell me what is going on with this house? any ideas? i would love to hear from a local attorney or real estate professional on this matter as to how i could or should proceed on this one. like i said, i can  get this dirt cheap and i would like to. any information would be greatly appreciated.

hi enrique. there are several ways to find flip houses. i do a lot of driving around and looking. even when i am not necessarily on a real estate mission, i look around. in summer, look for the houses with high grass, papers piled up on porches, and a general look of " not lived in". go to www.hud.gov. this is the website for the hud houses for sale. one good rule of thumb is that where there is one house abandoned, there is another. go look at each house on this list. then drive around the neighborhood. my bet is that you will find another one in the same neighborhood. go to you local municipality. ask them if they keep a record of houses that are vacant in the area. then go look at those houses. finding the owners to abandoned houses can be tricky, but not impossible. i an doing a flip house in buffalo, ny right now, i can tell you of 4 houses in the same neighborhood right now, that are NOT listed on the MLS. keep one thing in mind......" your best deals are the ones not listed".

there are lots of them in the buffalo, ny area, rich. when you get back, we should attend some of them

hello daljeet. please check out my profile. as you can see, i am a real estate investor and a home inspector in the buffalo area. i have been doing this for quite a while in the buffalo area. i think the market is great, however, if you don't do your " homework", you can get hurt. i know of a couple of properties out there right now, and i always seem to have a " knack" for finding others. please keep in touch if you are interested.

i am in. someone please remind me a couple of days prior. i might forget

i don't have a list for you but i can tell you what i look for as a home inspector. first, look at the ridge line on the roof. if there is a bow or a dip in the roof line, there are structural issues. run the other way. look for cracks in the foundation walls. some cracks are normal, but any large cracks with a matching crack on the opposite side of the foundation, is a structural issue. put a level, preferably a 4 foot level, on the outside walls of the house, vertically. move the level in or outward until it shows level. if the house is tilting in any direction, this will show you. a tilting house is not a good thing. look for windows or doors that have cracks above or below them in the walls, usually a diaginal crack. this indicates a house that is settling. all houses settle a little, but these are extreme. next, open and close a few doors and windows. when a house settles or has structural issues, windows and doors won't work the same.