All Forum Posts by: Ruben Aguirre

CatmanD,

I was also considering TCS. If you do a search on them within this site, there is another thread that has a lot of discussion about them. In my opinion, they are legit but overpriced.

how do you wholesale a deal that is going to be a short sale which the bank may not accept? I assume you assign the contract with the seller who has agreed to sell the property below the balance on his loan, then your assignee does the short sale negotiations, closes on the property, and you get paid from the proceeds of the closing. is this correct?

I don't know them first hand, but these guys do a lot of advertising around town:

Rental Network
5400 N Mesa St # D
El Paso, TX 79912
(915) 581-4900
http://www.rentalnetworkep.com/

the guys owning the we buy ugly houses franchise in el paso started a club. it doesn't meet consistently every month, but every other month usually. give them a call, ask for Stephen.

as a follow up to my previous reply, banks CAN finance under the name of an llc, but they can only do it as a commercial loan, so you will be paying higher interest rate and origination fees. the reason for this is because mortgages under an individual are sold and resold on the open market through freddie mac. an llc is disqualified to be sold through freddie mac (or whatever the name is) and so there is a smaller pool of buyers, driving up your cost.

bigger banks such as wells fargo or bank of america have policies that make it almost impossible for them to issue loans like this, but smaller community banks are able to do it. the banks will still require that you personally guarantee the loan, but the loan will be under the llc's credit report, not your personal credit report. i think they are also going to look at your financial situation very closely to make sure that you can back the loan and that they can come after you if you default.

i am in the process of completing a loan like this and i spent several hours with the banker grilling him with these questions because the whole issue of showing up on a credit report had negative implications for our investors, although they didn't mind guaranteeing. the llc that is borrowing the funds isn't even fully formed yet, but the bank doesn't mind because of the personal guarantees and the strength of the entity that will be leasing the house as a model home/sales center.

that said, i'm not sure how you are going to get around a personal guarantee, but it is possible to get a loan in a llc's name and not show up in your credit report.

I work with a real estate development company. My job is to get our projects approved by city and county reviewers all the way thru public hearing. I learned what right of way means (ROW) by talking to a lot of these guys. There are basically two types of ROWs. The first one is where a landowner (usually a developer) deeds a tract of land to the city/county for use as a road. The actual paved road may be 40 feet wide (including median), but the actual ROW is 60 feet. This allows the city to access underground utilities, provide for parking, sidewalks, landscaping etc. This is city owned ROW. An example of a private owned ROW is when a developer builds a neighborhood. He deeds a ROW to the city/county, but then the actual residential (or commercial, industrial, whatever) lot has an additional ROW (5-10 feet)deeded for utility company and public use (access underground utilities or walk your dog on the sidewalk) and is attached to the property forever. This allows public companies access underground utilities, can destroy any landscaping you have within your ROW, and not have to pay you back for the damages because your property title clears them. A lot of residential sidewalks are actually part of the lot with a public use ROW easement.

Here's a post I put out elsewhere: I’m a newbie and just bought my first set of 200 bandit signs. Last night, Friday, we placed our first 30 signs at key intersections of our target area and at a couple of on ramps to the freeway leading into downtown, so I’m positive they are getting tons of exposure. I’m a little discouraged because I haven’t received a single phone call and I’m under the impression that the life of a bandit sign is mostly weekends. The signs I put up are 18x24, white letters with a red background that read:

WE BUY
HOUSES!!
1-800-BUY-KWIK

We purchased a license to use the vanity number in hopes that we could generate more calls. To be quite honest, I’m feel discouraged that I haven’t gotten a single call, but I don’t know the effectiveness of bandit signs and approximately how many calls they generate a week, I would love to hear from experienced investors about their stories with bandit signs and what kind of responses they get. Also knowing where you place at intersections, as in telephone poles or stakes, facing traffic as it leaves to work from the target area or facing traffic as it comes home from work, what is too many signs and what isn’t enough, etc.

I really look forward to hearing what you guys have to say.

Very interesting article, although I think it was geared at how onerous some laws are in this state. I know Farrell Thurston because my day job is in the real estate development business. That said, I live and work in Las Cruces, but doesn't necessarily mean I am starting to invest in Las Cruces. In fact, I'm investing in a completely different state, Texas.

How is it that realtors and politicians always use signs? If they have special privileges, it reminds me of a law which an older lady refused to obey by sitting in the front of the bus, passed the white (no pun intended) line. This happened 20 or 30 years ago.

I didn't really appreciate all the negative comments! And thanks to those that came to the defense. I will look into the laws in my city about bandit signs since I really hadn't given that much thought. I've seen bandit signs around town so I didn't think to look into the legality of them. I've read that other cities just take them down.

Also, while we were out placing the signs, a cop stopped right behind us (it was late, dark, and our car hazard lights were flashing) and asked us what we were doing. I almost took a dump in my pants. I was only able to get in, "good evening officer," when he realized what we were doing and he responded, "You guys just putting up signs?" I responded yes and he turned his red lights off and said, "You have a good night and be safe" as he drove off.

That said, no one really has answered my question. In fact, it seems like the only ones that posted comments either have never used or no longer use bandit signs. That's like me trying to get good advice on my new real estate investing business from people who have never invested or sort of tried it but didn't really go anywhere with it.

I've done some online searches regarding bandit signs, and although I didn't see comments directly addressing what I had questions over (thus my reason for posting the question at BiggerPockets), it seems as though there are legitimate investors using bandit signs.

So if you have negative comments, please refrain from posting. Now, if you have had negative experiences with bandit signs, please do share so that we can all learn, which is why we are all here. I really hope someone does put more useful information such as, "check to see if they are legal in your city".

I’m a newbie and just bought my first set of 200 bandit signs. Last night, Friday, we placed our first 30 signs at key intersections of our target area and at a couple of on ramps to the freeway leading into downtown, so I’m positive they are getting tons of exposure. I’m a little discouraged because I haven’t received a single phone call and I’m under the impression that the life of a bandit sign is mostly weekends. The signs I put up are 18x24, white letters with a red background that read:

WE BUY
HOUSES!!
1-800-BUY-KWIK

We purchased a lincense to use the vanity number in hopes that we could generate more calls. To be quite honest, I’m feel discouraged that I haven’t gotten a single call, but I don’t know the effectiveness of bandit signs and approximately how many calls they generate a week, I would love to hear from experienced investors about their stories with bandit signs and what kind of responses they get. Also knowing where you place at intersections, as in telephone poles or stakes, facing traffic as it leaves to work from the target area or facing traffic as it comes home from work, what is too many signs and what isn’t enough, etc.

I really look forward to hearing what you guys have to say.

Nevouis Newbie