All Forum Posts by: Alissa Wersal

I know this is an old thread, but I thought it worth pointing out that land contracts are still an excellent time to screen people as well as you would a rental tenant.  My dad has sold homes on land contracts in MN for the last 15 years, and out of maybe 10 properties he's gotten back 9 of them at least once, and some multiple times.  He's also a lawyer, so it doesn't cost him AS much, but typically the people leave the property in terrible condition and inflict more damage than their original down payment could cover.  The fact that it takes so long to evict someone is actually a great attractor to scammers -- people who get in with a down payment, then never pay another cent.  And you either have the option to pay them to get out (incentive for them to do this whole process again on another unsuspecting seller) or lose 3-12 months of your time and cash flow.

Caliber Real Estate is another group performing similar tasks to Vestus (Caliber also has hard money loans and a construction crew) and probably John L. Scott when it comes to auction bid servicing.  Same fee structure, too.  The best thing is just to find a group that you feel comfortable with.

I've tried searching RealtyTrac, Foreclosure.com, Auction.com, and others, and none of them have data as comprehensive as what the bid service teams can provide.  Of course, you do pay a hefty fee for the bid service teams.

I realize that this thread is really out of date, but just wanted to add my 2 cents for anyone else searching through this info - Redfin.com is updated within 15 minutes of any changes on the MLS, so there's no lag-time issues like those other sites. You can save homes as your favorites (and get auto updates on those homes) and also get alerts from saved searches. I haven't, however, figured out how to add personal notes about the homes.

Thanks for the welcome, everyone!

Hi all!

I'm new to the BiggerPockets forum - I found this site while trying to decide if I wanted to follow a guru program, and realized that this website could help me learn so much for free! Since then I've been listening to the BiggerPockets podcasts nonstop while I commute for my job as a broker.

I started my "investing career" when I was 14, when I worked for my dad cleaning and painting homes he purchased from HUD bids, and continued through the summers of my college education. I've learned a bit from that process, but haven't yet been able to step out on my own.

I'm living in Kirkland, WA, and would like to begin my investing career in King, Snohomish, or Island counties. I'm hoping to meet other successful and beginning local investors on the forums.

-Alissa