All Forum Posts by: Doug Merriott

Welcome to Bigger Pockets @Greg Martin ! Enjoy!

Hello Mwazanji,

Tampa Bay area is rather big and diverse. Realtors will typically specialize in a particular city or even in specific parts of cities. I know of several Realtors that fit your description in Pinellas County. Personally I do not, I only have one rental.

It all comes down to criteria. What are you looing for? Do you have any hard and fast rules or guidelines?

Doug

Welcome to Bigger Pockets @Sandra Johnson . Stick around, it gets better! Be sure to check out the blogs and podcasts. You get an entire world of knowledge and experience right at your fingertips.

Eric Odum is right. There are some good multis in Pinellas. If you are use your VA you could go up to 4 units. St Pete would put you around 40 minutes or so to work. I just drove to Ruskin on Thursday from central Clearwater and it was a 50 minute drive at pre rush hour.

@Kimberly Anderson my initial thought was that the seller has owner financed the property a few times, will sell to you for a low price, high terms and hope that you default so she can take the property back DIL and keep your deposit.

Reading through the scenario though gives me another indication.

Hillsborough has a pretty powerful records search page, start here. You can search court records on the specific person. This includes deeds, liens and lis pendens. I ran your Pneuma Group and did not see anything but a bunch of deeds to them from Suman Nott, who is an owner of Pneuma according to Sunbiz.org, our Florida Corporation search page. Searching Suman Nott, there is a boatload of court records, mostly deeds and mortgages.

At any rate, professionals are involved and you should really find a good wholesaler in Tampa, a Title Company or even a Realtor could help you look at all the specifics and see if you are on to something or should run away.

Are you certain she owns the house?

@Mandy P. have you given any thought to putting the property in to a land trust? See Mark Warda's Land Trust FAQ for a brief description of benefits.

I do not believe that your insurance will go up. Mine did not, mine went down significantly when I made my house a rental.

Hi @Ronald Cvetkovic ! Welcome to Bigger Pockets. It is a great site with a lot of information. I hope that you might find someone in Croatia that is already successful and can show you how to make deals happen.

I am fascinated by your country as well. I have heard many great things. My wife and I actually have given thought to having a 15 or 20 year wedding anniversary party in Dalmatia, probably Dubrovnik or Split.

@Brian Gibbons that was a great response. Realtors need to always remember their role, which is to work hard to effect the sale and purchase of real property. We act as our client's fiduciary and personally I think every Realtor needs to have that definition memorized and able to recite it in their sleep. Too often we think of our own interests, commissions or lack of desire to actually work! I could not agree more that not thinking creatively is like not using every tool in your toolkit or as I like to think of it being a few cans short of a six-pack.

Subject to existing mortgage just makes the most sense. A double close would cost you $6k in closing fees. Lease Option and assigning the contract might make sense if you have a buyer already RWA.

@Kyle Elmer we have a Dunedin here in Florida. You should have properties in Dunedin in multiple continents!