All Forum Posts by: Mark Elliott

hi kevin, congrats on your decision to get into RE. that being said, there are several ways to get into RE. tax deeds and tax liens are all part of a bigger world. you will find your niche in that world somewhere. i started with just $2000. i actually bought a house that had been repossessed from a city for back taxes. fixed it up, and i rent it out and have for about 10 years now. my niche in the RE world is flipping houses. tax deeds and liens are ok, but there is a lot of competition in it, so at the auction, you will find yourself getting outbid many times or paying too much for the deed. most states have a one year right of redemption for any tax lien, which limits you to being able to do anything with the house for a year. why would you want to sit idle for a year? my advice to you would be to take a drive, several drives around any and all neighborhoods you would like to invest in. look for houses that have obvious signs of being vacant and/ or abandoned. high grass, papers piled up on the porch, boarded up windows, general trash around the area. in the winter, its houses with driveways and sidewalks not shoveled. find the owners and make a deal. you would be amazed at how many of these houses you can find and how cheap they can be had. your local county clerks office should be able to help you find the owner and tell you about any back taxes owed. good luck

hi nick. i would do it for one good reason. the college across the street. why would you rent it out to a single family? rent each bedroom to a college student. do you have any idea how expensive those dorm room are? some are $600 a month. you could rent each bedroom for $400 a month and make a lot more than you could renting to a single family, and you would be saving some college kid $200 a month. thats a lot when you are paying your way thru college. keep in mind, conrad hilton of the hilton chain of hotels started out that way

 no, there were not special forms needed. the canadian couple did not, of course have american social security numbers, but they were able to use canadian i. d. in place of that without issue. they purchased the house i sold them and others that they currently own in much the same manner as an american citizen does. i would have to agree with josh, it would be best for your friend to invest in an area of the U S that he can travel to easily. here in buffalo and the western new york area, the couple from canada that i speak of live in toronto which is about 90 miles away. pretty much an easy trip. of course you have to go thru customs on a regular basis which can trigger intrest from them because of the frequent trips, but once they get to know you and the issues that are a part of the reason for the frequent trips, its not a problem. 

 george berbary, 716-842-6350,  i used his services on an eviction. he did a fine job

you are being pretty vague, mike. what are the numbers? the back taxes exceed the CURRENT  value of the house or the future value of the house? that makes a difference. send me some numbers. 

not sure in NY if you need a license to wholesale. if not right now, it will happen soon. one thing about NY, if they can find a way to tax it, they will. and making you get a license would allow them to tax it. right now, i think you can wholesale without the license, just use the proper contracts and do not promise to find a buyer. that makes you an agent. get the house under contract for yourself and make sure it has a clause allowing you to sell the contract to another. no promises, just a clause that allows you to do it. trust me, if the state of new york requires a wholesalers license to do that, they will let you know. 

hi john. here's a " food for thought" slogan. do you know what the word JOB stands for? just over broke. thats right, most employers will give you just enough to keep coming back, which is, just over broke. you can't afford to quit, you really can't take a chance on going to another job, and you get just enough to keep yourself alive. no one ever lied on their death bed and said " i wish i would have spent more time at my job". sounds cruel, but hey, its also motivating. your plan sounds great to me. you have to give a little to get a little. its a start, and one day down the road, if you do not give up ( and thats a second piece of advice), you will find yourself thinking " that was a damn smart thing to do". never give up. no one ever got anywhere without getting started somehow and no one ever got anywhere by giving up. get on with the plan and stick to it. you will make it. good luck

hi erik. congrats on getting involved in real estate investing. that being said, and no real money to get started, you have to look at bartering. you are an electrician. have you ever heard of anyone who is flipping a house that didn't need an electrician??? how about a landlord? i have never known a landlord that didn't need an electrician sometime. barter the education. finding properties is not the hard part. i find some everyday just driving around. i would imagine most investors in your area are not going to be willing to educate you much because it takes away from them. but you can ask all of us here on BP and i am sure we would be willing to help. granted, things are different in jersey compared to buffalo, and such, but we might still have the answer you are looking for. ask away. bigger pockets is all about educating you. good luck

all good advice, sasha. but don;t give up. i know the california market is rediculously high, but you can still do it. you need to start small and work your way up. no one hits a home run their first time at bat. look for other places that are a little cheaper and work up from there. good luck

hi zion. let me give you a quick education on how you can do this. first, let me say that doing it yourself is not a great idea. yes, you can learn how to do a pretty good job, but the experts are the experts, thats why you pay them. that being said, here is a basic education. go to the record of deeds office or county clerk or whatever you call it in your neck of the woods. sit down on a computer and plug in the address. look for anything and everything to do with that house. look for liens especially. after you find any open liens for the last, lets say 50 years, look forward for lien releases for each and every lien. if you find the releases, then those loans/ liens are finished and will not be a problem, unless something stupid comes up on them where someone signed in the wrong spot or the date is wrong or something like that. anytime someone places a lien on a house, be it a mechanics lien or loan or back taxes, they have to file paperwork with the county to do so. it will be recorded. anything that is open and has not had a release of lien, is still a valid claim against that house. simply put, the complications involved here, especially if you have never done this before, is exactly why you pay an expert to do it for you. good luck