All Forum Posts by: Gina Shields

Great question! I'm afraid I can't help much as I am very new to this but your idea is a different approach to finding properties. I'm curious how you can find a list of vacant properties? I had thought of that, then contact the owners, but do not know where to find that info our at...county site or elsewhere? I'll follow this and see what great info others give you also. Good luck!

Gina

I'm with Kyle...the boss will hate it but I can wear it on casual Fridays. Thanks!

@PatrickL

I bought this little house for my Mom & Dad who are elderly and disabled but live 2 hours away in Crystal River. It took a lot of my savings to do this but I was so excited that I could offer them a place down here close to me that I didn't do all my homework. I did research it thru the county sites and property appraiser but I obviously don't have enough knowledge as to the process to be confident. Especially after this!

The house needs some work but nothing major...appliances, carpet/tile, a good cleaning. But when the attorney pulled a title search for me last week it shows that they have been in foreclosure for over 2 years. The bank actually sent a service to change the locks last Friday which alerted me to "something is up". No kidding. He said the final hearing could be any day now so renting it is probably not an option and I surely don't want to put any more money into it.

Thank you for all your insight and comments, I am taking everything in. Although this is discouraging, I still want to do real estate investing but I will educate myself and learn what I should know. I see you're in St Pete...if you ever have time for someone to tag along and see how it should be done, let me know!   :-)

Gina

Thanks to all for the warm welcome! But unfortunately it's already time to yell for help! I found out last Friday that there actually IS a mortgage on my foreclosure purchase and they are continuing the process to take the house. I think I've made the worst newbie mistake in not clarifying the existence of liens but I was so excited and got caught up in it. I bought it from auction but it was from the HOA and not the bank. So I have essentially paid the $12,200 in HOA fees for the bank. I met with a real estate/foreclosure lawyer and he said I'm basically screwed, that the bank will win the house and don't bother trying to fight them. I am so pissed at myself for letting this happen but I'm trying to find out what I need to do, if anything, and how does this affect me as far as being on the house as owner with the property appraiser? Does anyone have any thoughts on any way to get any of my money back? I'm just glad I did not get to the point of remodeling and buying appliances and everything else. Any thoughts/suggestions are welcomed! I still want to do this but I will definitely spend more time on my research before the next time!

Thanks for the warm welcoming posts! I am not able to get on here every day with everything else going on but plan on making it a priority. I'm very excited about learning more and attending some meetings to meet others. Hope to meet new people soon!

Gina   :-)

Thanks Paul! That's a lot of good info and I especially want to find a group in my area. It's a little tough to do this along with my job but it can be done, I know. It will be worth it!

Gina  :-)

Hi All!

I just joined BP and am very excited to get going. I just bought my first foreclosure in Nov 2014 and am learning all the wrong ways to do this (really!)! But it is fun and I hope to be able to replace my FT job with REI in the future. I'm looking forward to meeting other members on here and learning a lot more than I do.

Hugs,

Gina Shields