All Forum Posts by: Justin Pierce

Cap rates are real low in DC for the most part.  You have to really buy right.  It's not real landlord friendly either so going to places like ward 7 or 8 might really be problematic.

Here's the textbook answer on how you do it.  It's a bit tough in our area.  There are a lot of people looking to jump into the rehab market.  There is still quite a bit of opportunity in the Baltimore area if you know the neighborhood.

This is a blog post I wrote for bp years ago.  Check out the blog and the forums for more.  Search the 70% rule.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2009/10/18...

Good luck

Our market here in the D.C. area is a bit different.  Finding seller financing is possible anywhere but I do think it will be a bit more challenging here. 

-Most real estate professionals in our area are not open to any creative financing.  In this area they pretty much just want you to have a preapproval for a loan or cash in the bank before they'll talk to you.  That makes it tough to communicate with sellers.  You can skip the realtor and go direct to sellers but everyone knows a realtor so they'll ask for advice.  Most realtors around here couldn't even tell you what seller financing is.  I went and got my realtor license in Virginia because it's really hard to find a good investor's realtor around here.

-The market is pretty hot and high end.  Most people want out of their homes completely.  If they can sell it out right they will.

-If you do find someone who is open to seller finanincing it will most likely be tough to get the home at a good price.  And rents here are fairly low in comparison to purchase prices.  Bewary, just because you can get a home with nothing down doesn't mean you should.  If you can't cash flow it then it's probably not a good deal, seller financing or no.  

You can find the deals but you will have to look far and wide.  You're probably looking at 1 in 1000 homes will be workable with seller financing.  That's no problem.  Just identify that subgroup of home owners that will be a better ratio.  Maybe absantee landloards that have a lot of equity.  It's like finding a good fishing hole, keeping your line in the water, and waiting for the right bite.

Steve,

I might be confused here.  So you rented a home out to someone and now they're suing because they're claiming the home has lead based paint in it?

Did you provide lead based paint disclosures?

Darron, sound like you have a couple good deals there.

I think the higher end market is the place to be right now for the home flipper.  

Find other active flippers in the area and look at their deals.

If it's an established neighborhood he'll probably have some luck hitting the probate records.  If grandma bought the home in 1970 for $50,000 and it's now worth $1,000,000 then jr. might be real happy to get a quick $500-600k for the home.

Paul,

My best source for legitimate real estate players are real estate lawyers.  Not title attorneys but the law firms that get involved in the full process.  I know a couple excelent attorney's in MD.  Let me know if you need the contact.

That has always worked far better for me than loopnet or anything else.  Who new lawyers could be useful... right?  Haha

Chris, you don't want to let anyone take advantage of you but also keep in mind that a good real estate education is literally worth 10's of thousands of dollars. Keep that in mind when you're negotiating with the investor. It may really be a good deal for you to do the initial work for free just to get to see the process and soak up the experience.

Just make sure you're dealing with a legit investor. There are a lot of posers out there and then you're just wasting your precious time.  

Welcome, Matthew.  And, Semper Fi, Devil Dog!

That's always the an issue.  The location doesn't get much better than this, however.