All Forum Posts by: Clayton Barnes

Maybe they don't like dealing with bills? I will generally pay my subscription services for a full year, though it often comes with a discount, just to avoid a monthly bill.

If you want to go negative maybe they're up to something and they don't want to give a landlord a reason to come to their rental.

What dimensions are you talking and what market are you trying to rent to? You should also check your occupancy rules. I think minimum room size might be spelled out in some areas.

I think it would make selling very hard, but if you're renting on the lower end, the other amenities are good, or the property is in a very desirable location it may not be as big of a concern.

Mail something to both addresses. If he has forwarding in place it will likely get to him. Did the neighbors know of any way to contact him? If the property is in terrible condition they would likely love for someone to rehab it.

If his name is somewhat uncommon you can probably use any of the skip trace sites out there and get some info on the person for a fairly minor fee. If his name is super common, then it is much harder to use those.

Are you saying that he is storing the vehicles at the property or just that you're seeing them more than a "twice a month?"

I was trying to figure this out for a tax sale property and more experienced people told me that any title company can do a title search for you. You just need to know what you're asking for or they get confused and say things like "We don't deal with tax sale properties!" I called a few places afterwards and was able to get a couple quotes on title searches. It just takes a few minutes for a confused secretary to transfer you around.

The search alone obviously doesn't include title insurance, but in my area it was on average something like $150 to get it done. Not the cheapest thing to do for a whole portfolio of properties, but if you're down to a specific property or two it might save you a lot of money.

I'm a newbie, but I think you're looking at this from the wrong perspective. It is unlikely that a potential buyer is interested in what you need to break even. They aren't evaluating you as the seller as much as they are evaluating the property against other available\recently sold properties. The price needs to be based on your local market. If those numbers don't work for you, then you'll have to determine your best option going forward.

 You should also look into how your state actually handles the delinquent tax sales. It can be completely different between states. I'm a total newbie at this, but I've been digging around trying to figure it out for Indiana. It seems super confusing, but really interesting.

In Indiana it seems that you purchase the tax lien at auction. In my county that happens in person and you pay at the end of the sale. You don't own the property or any such thing, and you have no rights to it etc. You've simply purchased the tax lien from the county government. There are then a series of steps you've got to go through to actually take ownership of the property.

If you want to actually own the property you've got to notify all parties who have a claim to the property within 9 months of the auction. This allows them to pay off the lien you now hold. If they pay off the lien within 6 months of the sale, then they pay you basically the amount you paid + 10%. If they pay it after 6 months, then they pay you the amount + 15%.

Assuming no one pays off your lien within 12 months of the sale, then you've got 6 months to go through another round of notifications. If again no one comes back to contest the property you can petition the county to take ownership of the property.

If the petition goes through, then I believe you still don't have a clean title to the property. I believe you are good to now improve the property and use it as a rental etc, but further action that I don't completely understand is required to get a clean title for purposes of selling the home.

As for the additional liens the county's tax sale doesn't wipe out all other liens against the property. If for some reason there was an IRS lien against the property that would still be in play. In Indiana Housing and Neighborhood Development(HAND) is responsible for managing overgrown lawns and such. If HAND has a lien against the property it also survives the tax sale and puts you as the new owner on the hook.

To complicate it even further the rate of return on the paid off tax liens isn't too bad, so at least in my county a lot of people are investing simply in the hopes that the tax lien they purchase gets paid off by the original owner. This tends to drive the prices up. I've even read that some counties require a rather high amount of cash on hand just to enter the auctions which pushes out the smaller investors.

End of the day it looks like for me in Indiana I would need to pay for a title search prior to bidding to insure that I'm not stepping into additional liens. If I were to beat the other investors and win a delinquent tax auction I would have to pay my winning bid amount, attorney fees to notify people twice, and probably additional attorney fees to handle the petition for deed. That money would basically be sitting dead for probably 15-18 months while the property continues to degrade. At that point it would be ready to rehab. It seems like a business best suited to those with sizable cash reserves and a lot of patience. Those really low minimum bids are enticing, but I think they only tell a small portion of the story of what it is ultimately going to cost.

 I bought them a couple weeks ago and they were still offered at a discount together. Good reads, but I agree on the grammar errors.

I can't imagine how the bearded dragon itself would cause any damage, but you may want to stipulate something about the heat lamps. They are a fairly common cause of fire. You've got a high wattage bulb that is hot enough to make the interior of an enclosure mimic a desert. If it is not properly secured, and they usually aren't, it can potentially fall and if it comes into contact with anything flammable...

@Jim Keplinger So how did it turn out? It looks like it has been a couple of weeks since your offer. 20 miles outside of Bloomington are you talking Bedford area?

I've been looking around there a little and it is an interesting market. I grew up in Bedford. The area is kind of fading from a jobs and immigration standpoint, but rents and property prices still seem to be surprisingly high.

I've not dug much into the commercial market in Bloomington yet, but man the residential market here has been crazy this spring. Seems like houses are just flying off of the market. Everyone I've talked to who was selling seems to have accepted an offer within a very short time.