All Forum Posts by: Dan Mahoney

@Sheikh Umer The challenge you will find is that the mortgage foreclosure sales are decentralized.  Unlike the tax sales, there is not a sheriff presiding.  If you show up on auction day, in front of the courthouse there will be a big tent from auction.com (they are probably the biggest seller) and they will give you a schedule for when they'll auction each property.  There will also be a half dozen lawyers milling around the steps who will auction off a property whenever they are ready.  The process usually takes less than 5 minutes per property.  It's a bit unpredictable and there can be multiple auctions going on simultaneously.

Here are some suggestions for research:     

1. You can find foreclosure notices at dailyreportonline.com but this is one property at a time research so probably not what you are looking for.

2.  You can get lists from the websites of the bigger sellers like auction.com, Brock & Scott, and Albertelli Law.  But they will only give you the properties they are selling.

3.  There are commercial vendors on the internet selling foreclosure lists but I have not tried them so I can't vouch for their accuracy or value. 

@Shiri Manor Nisenbaum  Nope, not normal for a nicely-kept single family house.  I only have one 4BR but I got probably a dozen inquiries within a day of listing it on Zillow, maybe half had vouchers and half were unsubsidized.  In case you are new to the AHA process, it will take at least a few more weeks after you find a tenant before they actually move in, since you have to go through the inspection and underwriting process.  

Hey @Chris Schoonhoven, congratulations on taking action and good luck on your deal!  I wish you the best.  I know very little about Columbus other than I enjoyed it the one time I visited for an OSU football game ~15 years ago.  College towns and state capitals often make for good markets and you have both.

At the risk of being a nag, I'll encourage you to keep enough liquid cash for emergencies, whether personal or business.  The whole thing about surprises is that you don't know they are coming.

@Sharon Evans Because Vesta bought the tax lien (the fifa, not the tax deed) from the Fulton County Tax Commissioner and is the current owner (transferee) of the lien.  The sheriff is now preparing to auction the tax deed for Vesta's benefit - the County and City already got paid.  The minimum bid at the auction will be Vesta's unpaid balance plus some fees.  If the tax deed is sold at the auction, Vesta will receive its unpaid lien balance from the auction proceeds.  If the tax deed is sold for more than the minimum bid, the Sheriff will hold any excess funds for distribution to the mortgage holder, other lien holders or property owner in order of priority.

@Sharon Evans Here is how I understand it.  Current record holder is the current owner of the property according to the tax assessor.  The defendant in fifa is the person or entity that owes the taxes (which could be from a few years ago), so you'll see this differ from the current record holder if there was a foreclosure or quit claim between the years the taxes were assessed and the time of the auction.  The tax transferee is the buyer of the tax lien, in this case, Vesta.  Don't worry about the trust and custodian language - basically they have multiple funds they manage for investors and they separate the servicer (Investa Services) from the lien owner (various trusts).   

@Damir Kamber I agree with you!  Sometimes we understate the worst case if only from a lack of imagination of what could go wrong in the future.

I'll admit that some of the westside Atlanta investment going on is speculative but I'd challenge anyone who suggests that any form of real estate investing is NOT speculative.  Some of the analysis I see on these pages assumes that rents can never go down, floods will never happen, rates will never go up, etc.  

In better news, upside surprises happen, too.

@Greg Moritz Good luck with this!

@Damir Kamber With a 5-10 year timeframe, Greg will have a chance to see the impact of the redevelopment of the nearby Bellwood Quarry into Atlanta's largest park.  See below:

Jan 2015 piece from NPR about the plans for the park

Aug 2016 piece from NPR about beginning of work on the park

@Shiloh Lundahl I get what you are saying.  Here is my take.

Each project takes two resources:  capital and labor.  Because you have limited capital relative to your time, you want to find projects where someone else puts in all the capital, and you will put in all the labor.  With you taking all of the upside and none of the risk, I think you are overpricing your labor and underpricing your partner's capital relative to the risk.  It sounds like your prospective partners feel the same way.  

What if instead of taking the upside of the deal (which by convention belongs to the equity investor) you charged an hourly rate as a consultant?  This way you are explicitly paid for your time and skill but the owner is compensated for her capital at risk.

I agree that there are a lot of entitled people in this world, but it doesn't seem the right label for someone who is willing to take ALL of the financial risk in a real estate deal and wants to at least share in the upside.  There are lots of people hanging around that want to contribute neither capital nor (skilled) labor.  I'd save my ire for that lot.

@Robert Gilstrap In my admittedly limited experience, Section 8 prospective tenants in Atlanta don't care about the asking price, since they will only have to pay what the government's formula says they can afford based on their income and family size.  I realize you have way more experience so let me know if I am missing something.  I've just never had a voucher holder even ask about the rent level (and they have asked about the deposit, the utilities, the background check, etc).

@Joshua Feit I only have 2 Section 8 tenants but I can tell you that I had an RTA signed within a week of putting each house on zillow during 2016.  I usually got 5-10 inquiries for each house on the first day of listing.  These are newly renovated single family houses in the City of Atlanta.  I also notice there is a pretty nice looking duplex next door to one of my houses that has been vacant for at least a few months.  Maybe section 8 tenants prefer single family houses?  I think I would prefer a single family house to a duplex if the government were paying my rent.  That said, I have never owned or lived in a duplex so I don't have firsthand knowledge.

@Trining R. No, I don't think they do as a matter of course, but I don't think there is any law against it.