All Forum Posts by: Craig Tomlinson

@James Smith if you’re interested in wholesaling the property, please reach out. I would definitely be interested in taking a look at the property and seeing if we could make something work!

Anything north of Avenue I I would say avoid. It’s a very rough area. The east side in general is typically less desirable in Palmdale/Lancaster than the west side. With prices where they are currently in Palmdale/Lancaster, I’m not sure it would make sense to buy and hold in the area. And when the market downturns, you will see massive drops in prices. I too was looking to purchase some properties for purposes of buy and hold but the numbers just didn’t make sense. If you need any help in looking at properties or simply would like to discuss the area, feel free to reach out! Best of luck!

@Drew Eldridge ER RN here in Ca. Currently in the fix and flip game but looking to transition over into buy and hold once I’ve built the capital. I work with a few ER Docs and Nurses that are in the real estate game as well!

I should have clarified, Both her and her brother, also the executor of the estate, are on title. The executor is now transferring title to both my grandfather and his son.

Hello all, 

I had a quick question and was curious to see what you all think. My grandmother recently passed away and left her home to be split between both her husband and her son 50/50. The son wants his money out of the home now and my grandfather has agreed to sell the home. My grandfather and his son have stated that they are working on having title transferred to both of their names (details of this unknown but I would assume they will be taking title as joint tenants). My question is, once title is transferred into their names and the home is sold with proceeds split 50/50 between the two, how will they be taxed on the proceeds from the home. My grandfather has lived in the home with my late grandmother for the past 30 years and is still currently living there but never held title to the home, so I'm not sure if that makes any difference in regards to how he will be taxed on the proceeds in comparison with his son whom has NOT lived in the home for 2 of the last 5 years. Thank you in advance. Any feedback is appreciated! Hope you all have a great day!

@Jeff G. In terms of the process, we filed the form with local Sheriff's department and showed identification and proof that we did in fact hold title to the property. From there, you essentially list whom is allowed access to the property and anyone whom is not on that list and attempts to establish residency within the property can be forcibly removed on grounds of trespassing. 

As to your second question, oddly enough it appears she worked a deal with the Sheriff's to become an informant for them to help them catch others whom might be trying to pull the same scam on other property owner's.

Hello all,

The house is now vacant. We ended up filing a letter of vacancy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department which allowed them to forcibly remove anyone that we considered to be trespassing on our property. This is now something that we will be filing for all of our vacant homes. Turns out the trespassing parties were indeed the scammers as we originally thought. They had broken into the lockbox, used the keys to access the house, and changed the locks. They use this tactic to obtain cash for keys and then move onto the next. Good news is the property is now back on the market! Thank you all for your input and knowledge regarding the situation and I hope this information can help anyone who might find themselves in caught in these unfortunate circumstances!

Thank you guys for the input! I definitely feel like they might be doing the scamming but I could be wrong. When we met them at the property, they made the statement, "I'll be living here for the next 90 days before I move out. I'll just wait for the courts to kick me out." So I got the vibe that they have done this before. The PI is actually a great idea. I'll keep you updated as to what happens! We are in contact with an attorney now!

Hello all,

My name is Craig Tomlinson. I am 27 years old, a registered nurse, and fairly new to real estate investing. I am fairly new to BiggerPockets, hanging around the forums and soaking up all the knowledge I can. I am currently fixing and flipping but my end goal is buy and holds. I have been a partner with a mentor I was lucky enough to work with on 2 fix and flip projects thus far that were a great learning experience. We are focusing primarily in antelope valley/palmdale area. Our most recent flip was listed on the market just about a week ago in Lancaster. We got a call from our agent who states that his lock box appeared to have been broken into and the keys were gone. He went to get his spare keys at the house and when attempting to enter the home, all the locks had been changed and someone had moved into the home, furnished it, and turned on utilities in their name. They reported that they had seen the home listed on craigslist and walked the property the day before with the supposed "property manager", with whom they signed a lease agreement that they have thus far been unable to supply to us. Sheriff's were called out and essentially, we were told that we would need to go through the eviction process, even though they essentially broke into the home, furnished it, turned on utilities, and established themselves as tenants by trespassing. Anyone else ever dealt with an issue like this? It is so frustrating to see people take advantage of the system and live off of others hard work and hard earned money. Just one of the risks of investing in real estate I suppose but hey, if their was no risk involved then everyone would be doing it and the reward would be much less.