All Forum Posts by: Bruce Lynn

@Mike Reynolds

Nice going.... fast and easy on your part on the purchase..... can you imagine what you might have had to pay and how much time and energy you might have spent trying to buy them before the sale? if that was even possible.

I don't think this is true....as most foreclosures auctions I have seen start the bidding with the amount of the loan....so the story would be that the loan balance was less than $1000.  If it was less than $1000, it would probably cost them more to foreclose in attorney fees and back taxes, insurance, and other fees to foreclose.  Chances are they would just right off the loan vs foreclose.

You never know though...some banks do dump things....strange things can happen.  Rare, but not unheard of.....sometimes things do slip through the cracks.

I have seen low loan balances get foreclosed on where the value of the house is way above the loan value...but that is not common in my experience.

@Account Closed   Have any idea where they are buying or under what name they are buying?  I don't see anything in Dallas, Denton, Collin, or Tarrant County owned by any name Gaylord either before or after the sale.

@Account Closed 

Please educate us.

@Account Closedundefined

Lots of different strategies work...it's great if they can make it happen...but I think those people are very few and far between.  Probably 1 in 100....or maybe even 1 in 1000.

@Account Closed That's just not true of tax sales in Texas.   Sometimes it is even better to buy after the sale and get even a better deal if they don't sell the 1st time around.

With tax sales it is very very tough to buy before the auction around here and lots more headaches in most cases.

Time is money and it's easier, safer, and much more time efficient to buy at the auction.

Wait for the foreclosure auction......let them foreclose....it will help you clear up the title.

Looks like at this point you don't know who the legal heirs are.  That can be a mess and expensive to find out.   Had one about a year ago that had over 20 different people who had to sign affidavits in front of a notary....you might have to pay and send the notary out to get people to sign off....or have a pool party and offer everyone $50 to come in and sign.

Is there something special about the property?  Why is this one so special?

Chances are they get it back at the foreclosure auction....or you buy it....if they get it back, then looks like you are talking with the right person to make your offer before they put it on the market as REO. You're ahead of the game with a small bank like this, that sounds like they don't have a lot of default experience.

I see you are in WA state, but want to invest in Texas?  How do you do that?  For now in most if not all counties you have to bid in person.  Many check id, but not all.  So sometimes you can have a friend bid, but the way I read the law is it says the bidder must be the purchaser.  Every county is different though on how the administer this law.

Every auction is different.  You see some go over the retail price and you also see bargains and everything in between.  Depends on who is bidding.  You want the house next door so your mom can live there, you will pay more than an out of stand investor looking for a deal.  Right?  All depends on who shows up....auctions only work too if there are 2 or more bidders.  Show up as the only bidder and you get a better deal.   Yesterday there were 60 or so people at the auction I attended in a very small county.   People brought food, drinks, and lawn chairs... I've also been the only one at one auction....so you just never know.

My first thought on raw land is why would you do that to then build a rental.  Might as well just buy an existing rental.  Probably land for most investors should be about 20% or less of the total cost, so even if you save 50% on the land price in the end you're saving what 10% of the overall cost.  Probably way too much trouble for that.   Maybe it works, but I think that's 1 in 1000...to get the right piece of land in the right location at the right price to then build a rental.

Almost no home you buy at tax auction will likely be move in ready.   That's probably 1 in 10000.  I'm making up that number...but I expect rare.  

You can potentially move renters in right away...if the property is vacant and needs no repairs to make it livable.

If you move renters in and the owner redeems, then you have to move the renters out.  That probably means you want to rent on month to month and add a clause in your lease that says if the owner redeems, they'll have to move out.

There are some websites around that can help you do title research or get in relationship with a title company in the county you are targeting and let them do it for you.

Good luck.

and more often than not needs to be cash buyer......less loans available for land....look how long lots sit vs homes.... of course there are a million different factors.....

What I've seen in Texas is that most properties with mortgages don't go to sale.  They'll show up on the list, but seems like more often than not, taxes get paid the morning of the auction and the house gets pulled.

I'm sure that's not always the case and you'll see some exceptions around.  The other thing is that many lenders pay the taxes as part of escrow.   So here were we buy deeds, not tax liens, new deed gets filed and that can trigger a response from the mortgage company in their back office magic and they they get redeemed.  I have not seen that, but imagine it would/could happen.

My guess is it can also depend on who holds the mortgage.  If it is small bank/small mortgage company, things might get missed.  If it was with one of the old banks that got taken over...like Countrywide....I'm sure things might get missed.

From what I see that is the very rare exception though.... most of the properties are old enough not to have a mortgage....that actually get sold....and not paid off before the auction.