All Forum Posts by: Christopher Janney

Also, for exposure issues, consider putting the property in a trust. Banks cannot block you from changing title to a trust. After switching title to a trust, you could switch beneficiary to an LLC, but consult a real estate attorney that's not trying to sell you an LLC.

@Ryan Saulle great work!  Looks really nice.  Here's hoping for a quick sale and close.

In my opinion, any firsts should be close to home, so you can be close to manage the process daily.  When you have the experience to hire the right people to be your boots on the ground, and by having your own experience, you know better what to look for in others.

Good luck!

@Bjorn Ahlblad, thank you for the quick response and the advice. I have no experience with rentals, so I am reaching out for help on figuring out the numbers. I know the electric is on separate meters, so that's tenant paid. I don't know if the water/garbage are paid by landlord or tenants. I have bought the BRRRR book, but I'm only on chapter one when this came on my realtor.com feed. What would be a good resource to estimate the water/garbage? In the end, I'm not confident this is a deal. On the one hand, if I fix only the outstanding issues, I'm probably spending about $15,000, and if that's the case, buying it with a traditional 30 year loan, forgoing the hard money/rehab, refinance idea, this is may be a different deal.

View report

*This link comes directly from our calculators, based on information input by the member who posted.

This was our first wholesale deal, and it would have been impossible without Lisa Hoegler, from the LA South RIEA walking me through all the mines.  Our buyer is a woman I met at Nicole Jaffe's SGV Fortune Builders meetup in Monrovia.  It's a small group, but we've become sort of a mastermind group (or hive mind?).  This was a great learning experience, because many of the issues that could come up in a wholesale deal did.  The seller was a broker, but in my opinion, not a very experienced one.  I was diligent in getting everything in text or email, so we could avoid the he-said/she-said issues which would have arose otherwise.  After we closed, my buyer was very happy, because I staid throughout the transaction, keeping in touch with buyer, seller and escrow and pushing the process forward.  We had a 15 day close, a 5 day inspection period and we were taking over the tenant, which has been given 60 days notice, and is already packing.

It's all about solving problems.  The seller needed to sell ASAP, but had a tenant in place.  Other buyers had seen the property but didn't want to deal with the tenant in place.  I spoke with the seller and with the tenant.  We worked out the contingencies in the contract to protect my buyer from getting stuck with a tenant after the 60 days, and I negotiated a lower price on the property due to the 60 days  of holding time my buyer would have to wait before starting work.  In the end, the seller got a quick close, the buyer got a great deal and the tenant is almost done packing.

A big plus for the tenant was when we told him to only move what he wanted, and to leave anything that he didn't, since we would already have a 40 footer there to deal with the demo.  We also gave him 2 recommendations on movers we've had great success with.  I believe these things helped the tenant move faster and with two big weights off his shoulders; no cleanup and good movers.  Also since we are demoing the interior, we offered his full deposit, should he leave in time, and an extra $1500 if he was out in 30 days.

I agree with @Greg H. You should always vet your contractors:

check license

check insurance (workers comp, and liability)

check at least 3 references

check BBB for any complaints

@Albert Gutierrez the deal is in the numbers.  I know it sounds over simplified, but it's true.  I live in SoCal as well (Pasadena) and we're finding deals, but they aren't falling in our lap.  If you want a MFU, you are going to have to do some research, and @Aaron Poling is right, use the BP calculators to analyze your deals.  It's a numbers game, and we'll go through 80 leads to fine a couple worth following up on, and maybe one of those turns into a deal.  Don't be discouraged by the "no"s and the unaccepted offers.  It's par for the course.  *Do* be consistent, meaning if you follow a lead and get no answer, go back to it the following week until you get a YES or a NO.  Everyone here doing business successfully knows the fortune is in the follow up.   Decide how many leads you are going to follow a day, and track every one on a spreadsheet.  You'll find a deal within 100 leads, if you are consistent.

@Kyle J. that's the ticket.  I know I was missing something.  They will have to go to the assessor's office.  Thank you for your help in teaching a man to fish.

I have a platform for getting this info myself, but a member of my church was asking who they could look up the mailing address of abandon houses they drive by.  I went to the Los Angeles County Tax Assessor's site.  I see where you can look up a property, but I do not see where the taxes are mailed to.  Perhaps this is a paid system as well.  How can someone with no finds find this info?  Thanking you all in advance for any help.