All Forum Posts by: Mark Elliott

hi william. sorry to hear of your bad luck here. but, there is always one good word of advice. never give up. yes, your property is underwater right now. if you can afford to keep making payments on both loans, please do so. sure, on the one loan, you are basically " paying on a dead horse". there really is nothing you can do about that. over time, with making sure payments are being made on both loans, you will overcome your bad credit rating simply by making the payments. in that time, should the market on your home increase, you may overcome the negative equity also. only time can help you right now. in the meantime, look for other house deals that you can make. maybe they will not be the level of what you were dealing with in the past, but as long as you are making money, thats the goal. keep moving forward. hurdles in life are put there to teach us a lesson. learn all that you can. 

thanks to all for the advice. i really hate to see the property continue to fall into disrepair, but if the bank isn't going to do anything about it, well, there is not much i can do either. at this point, the bank appears to have sold the mortgage to another bank, or financial institution which just happens to be a subsidiary of the first bank. the taxes were paid, but nothing toward the mortgage has taken place. the owner moved out back in 2009 after he filed bankruptcy. he at one point agreed to sell me his interest in the house for $1000, but it sounds like that would be a waste of time and money at this point

i am not having the same problem that you are, but i do have an issue. every time i log on to bigger pockets, it tells me that my email is not verified and asks me to verify my email. EVERY TIME!!!!! this is getting old. i cannot post or answer posts until i re-verify. tech support with bigger pockets says they see no issues

i agree with eric. as a home inspector, i see a lot of issues out there. water intrusion is an issue. it could be as simple as regrading the property, and fixing gutters. it could be as expensive as (re)placing the drain tile around the house as well. it could also be caused from leaking entry water lines ( supply) or a drain line leaking. finding the cause of the problem is essential of course. the fix is where the costs come in. if there is minimal or no damage caused from the water intrusion, the problem is not a huge problem. you MUST, MUST have a qualified foundation expert look at the property. even is he/ she finds nothing, it will still be worth the effort

hi cody. it has been years since i have been to the demoines area. i am now in buffalo new york area. here is what i have found. vacant houses are like deer, where there is one, there is another. when you go to look at these houses that you are putting offers in, do you look around the entire neighborhood? where there is one, there is another. drive the entire neighborhood. i have found that tax foreclosures work the best for me. does your area have a municipal building with a treasurer and or an assessor? go into that building, ask to speak to either one of them or the code enforcement officer. ask if they have a list of the vacant houses in the area. ask if they repossess houses for back property taxes and what they do to get rid of them if they take possession. these, i have found, are the best deals

hi dilyn. welcome to BP and to the real estate world. when i first got started, i wanted to read every book i could, go to every seminar i could attend,   and take  every class i could find. i learned early on that most of these " schools" are shams. if you can walk away from a seminar with more knowledge that you walked in with, great. learn everything you can from every source possible, but it shouldn't cost you a bundle of money paid to a guy who claims to be " making it rich in real estate". lets face it, if he were getting rich by flipping houses, why is he teaching and not doing?? get some books, read, learn all you can from them, then get out there, find your best deal you can, and i mean the absolute best deal you can find if you are starting with little or nothing like i was. then, make it work. do whatever you need to do to make it work. you will learn along the way. my first flips were purchased for $1700 and $500. i still have the first one and i sold the $500 house for $10,000 after renting it for 5 years. you can do, you can learn along your way. good luck

hi nick. i have lived here in the western ny area now for 13 years. i have been investing in real estate for most of those years. i have yet to attend any of the reia meetings but may attend the one this thursday at 7. welcome to BP. hope to meet up with you there

i would work a deal with the seller for say 6 months to a year. take the selling price, in this case, $159k, divide that buy 360 ( months on a conventional mortgage of 30 years) that sum will be the monthly amount it would take to pay off the $159k if you were to sign a land contract with the owner. then, agree to pay the seller that monthly amount for the 6 months or a year, whichever you decide, until the end of that short term contract. the total amount you have paid to the seller by then would be taken off the total selling price, then you finance that amount. 

hi jesse. my parents ran into a similar thing many years ago. they went to refinance their house and the title search showed that the original owner hold note was never really signed off my the seller.  by this time, the original seller had died. his wife also was gone. my parents eventually had one of the kids of the people sign off, most likely the one that was the executor of the will. hope this helps

yes, joe, that would be better than the 20% conventional loan. the trick to the game is to use other peoples money. the more of your money that you use, the less money you will have in your pocket. its true that banks like to see a borrower have some skin in the game, but you can manage just how much that skin is.