All Forum Posts by: Mark Elliott

all good ideas. digging around the house and installing drain tiles would also be a good idea. run the drain tiles to a drain system a good distance from the house so the water travels thru the drain tiles and into the catch basin and away from the house. the key here is to get the water away from the house. you cannot stop water, but you can redirect it. these ideas are expensive, yes, and should be factored into the overall costs associated with the house. if the numbers don't crunch right, run the other way

hi gary. i would be happy to meet with you. i live in bufflo, ny, however. lol. i do get to grand rapids often, but i do not have any plans to be there until hunting season in november this year. my brother does still live in the grand rapids area. i am sure he would like to meet with you as well. i will let you know when i will be in town. see ya then

hi gary. i am originally from michigan, the grand rapids area. i still have a brother over there that does a lot of real estate deal, especially around the muskegon area. there is a tax sale auction that he goes to every year and he actually has purchased houses there for as little as $20. thats right, $20. of course they are not in the best of areas, and usually in pretty bad shape, but if you can do the work yourself, who cares? the big issues there........ the government is corrupt as hell. especially in the muskegon heights area. my brother has had no end of trouble with these people. also, other areas of muskegon, such as the city, they hire out their inspections process to a place called safebuilt. these people are worse than the government over there. my brother sells a lot of his houses on land contract. these people simply refuse to accept this as a sale and call his houses rentals. they claim this gives them the right to issue him tickets for repairs needed because he is the " current owner of record". they use a portion of the government system that is outdated and has inaccurate records to claim he is the owner. consequently, he winds up in court all the time with new " violations" on these " rental houses" that he has full proof that he sold years ago. as of yet, he has be able to beat them in court just by proving that he no longer owns them, but he is going to court almost every week with them. i believe they hope he will just give up and pay the fines. that is not gonna happen with him......lol. but, just so you are informed, muskegon may appear to be a good place to invest, but you will have serious hurdles to jump over on a regular basis. 

hi john. yes, you need to keep in mind the cost of the repairs. if you can finance the entire purchase and then use your $20k to fix it up, then it would work. keep in mind one very important thing. do not let yourself become short on cash. there is nothing worse than not being able to finish the flip because you have run out of money. take a lot of time to look around and find the right deal. there are a lot of deals out there right now, but that doesn't mean they are all good. another must. form an LLC. you do not want your contractor coming on site and getting hurt. protect yourself. good luck

ok, joe, here goes. i bought a house on hubzu.com 2 days later, they send me the paperwork in my email to start the close on the house.  seemed pretty legit so i signed them and sent them back. a day later i get a warning from them that they needed these papers signed and the proof of funds letter sent in or the were gonna cancel the deal. i re-sent them, and told them that my financer was out of the country at the moment and due back in 2 days and i asked that they hold off until then. they sent me back a letter that said that they got only 1/2 of the paperwork i sent back to them and they demanded the other half or they were gonna cancel the deal. well, i had my lawyer send them back again. this time i got a letter that said they got only 1/2 of them and this document was the wrong one anyway, and if i did not send them the right one, they were gonna cancel the deal. i sent them a letter stating that they need to send me the right ones and from now on, they can deal with my lawyer. after several attempts to get them to understand that they need to converse with my lawyer, they started talking to him. they made several threats about cancelling the deal. we got all the necessary paperwork into them as requested, and they still accused us of not having what they needed and once again threatened to cancel the deal. i finally ad my lawyer talk with their lawyer out of new york city and we got everything into them as requested including the proof of funds letter and the 1/2 documents that they said they got. we had to send them certified mail just to make sure that they got them. after they got all of the papers they wanted, the deposit check and everything, they cancelled the sale and told us it was because we failed to get them everything they needed within the required 2 days after the sale. they later resold the property on hubzu at a $4000 loss in compared to what i offered them. even my lawyer said to never deal with them again because they were the biggest ******** he has ever dealt with. he actually told me that if i buy another house from them, that i need to find a different lawyer to work with them. 

i would get some color on the place. paint the trim, put some shutters on the front, landscape around the trees. it needs curb appeal. it looks like the plain white car on a lot full of colored cars. 

banks can be real pains in the *** sometimes. especially when trying to get some information about any houses they own. it would seem to me that the bank would welcome any and all offers to get these houses off their books. but then, at times, they seem like they are in the business of collecting houses and holding on to them. personally, i would make offers to the banks, stand your ground on the offers and hope for the best. if it doesn't happen, then it wasn't meant to be. move on to the next house. there is always another one anyway. 

i would just sit on your offer. it sounds like the bank accepted another offer. they are really under no obligation to notify you when they do this. if you get it, you get it. if you don't, you don't. move on to the next one. there is always another one out there, but always stand on your final offer. 

not sure about illinois, D J, but here in new york, you have to store the tenants belongings for up to a year in the event of an eviction. however, this is not an eviction for you. you need to look at the lease. if it includes the two sons on the lease, they are legal tenants and will require to be evicted, in the event they do not pay the rent. if they are NOT listed as tenants, then they virtually do not exist. there is not right of inheritance on a rental. once the tenant has passed away, any leases, i. e. contracts with that person is null and void. the first rule of a contract is competent parties. if one is dead, they are not a competent party anymore. it all hinges on whether or not those boys are on the lease. if not, throw them and the stuff out. who is gonna sue you for not storing the stuff???? they wouldn't have a legal right to sue you without a will and certainly no rights of tenancy.

hi deurward. thats a tricky issue there. the kids of the brother would actually be the owners now because of inheritance rights. that is, if the mother actually deeded the house over to the son before she died. if she did so, then of course his heirs would have legal right to the house. case closed. however, if the son did not have a will at the time of his death, then the house and his assets would have to go thru probate as he has more than one heir. if i were the sister, especially after 5 years, i would push for the probate. its gonna cost her, but she has a good case simply because the kids have made no effort to aqquire the house house themselves and made no effort to pay the taxes or upkeep on the place. hence, they have proven to have no intrest. i would push the issue in court and see who stands up to claim their inheritance. if any of those kids stands up and says " its mine", then at least she can hit them with a bill for the taxes she has paid and any upkeep.