All Forum Posts by: Isaac Guzman

@Chris Benitez - Welcome to BP. I too am from Chula Vista. I would recommend reading the free BP guide to determine your investment strategy (Dmitriy has the link in his post). Flipping doesn't necessarily require a large amount of money to begin with.  

Welcome to BP. Stay active and be bold @Tareq Khreim

Sorry to be so brief but I saw this post on my way out of the office and figured I'd help.:

http://www.meetup.com/Inland-Empire-Real-Estate-In...

http://www.meetup.com/realestate-996/

http://www.biggerpockets.com/meet

 Solid advice. Couldn't have said it better myself. 

@Breanne A.  Not on Hilltop but very close. K and 1st Street. It is most likely the same one. Definitely a strange situation. 

Welcome @Rob Z. 

 - I'm from Chula Vista as well. Depending on your needs, I'd for sure setup some keyword alerts. Also, check out the biggerpockets podcasts. They have a ton of active investors who go over deals, share stories and provide great info. 

Welcome @Brian Lo ! Being that there are so many investors in SoCal, you may not need as much of YOUR OWN MONEY as you would think. Depending on your niche, you may be able to do deals using other investors' cash. Living in SoCal gives us a unique opportunity to connect with a high volume of funding sources. I'd take up @Karen Margrave on her offer and get networking. 

Yes, it is a bit more involved than just speaking with the seller. In short, if you get the seller and the bank to agree, you could have something. 

Thanks everyone. I will be a bit busy for the next few hours at work but will read all this and continue to check on your advice. This is a great learning experience. 

So I contacted an owner of a house in my neighborhood. It is boarded up so I figured I'd call and see what she would want for the house. Within a few days there was a sign in the yard with an agents name and a brokerage. So obviously (or so I thought) it had been listed and I lost my chance. 

Interestingly enough, the owner called me a day later and said that she needs help. She said that the people who are selling her house are doing so illegally. She sent me all kinds of paperwork and even a reconveyance letter from 2004 showing the payoff of the house. Additionally, some paperwork she obtained from the city showing some fraudulent paperwork with her and her husband's signature from 2013. However, her husband died in 2008! 

I was very transparent and let her know that I have no clue what to do. When we called the agent who has the listing and inquired as to how she obtained the listing she was speechless and hung up on us. 

There is two reasons I would like to help. (1) The neighborhood has homes ranging from 360K-500K and she agreed to sell it to me for 120K (remember, it's a total gut job).  (2) It is obvious that someone is taking advantage of this widow and I feel convicted to assist in any way I can. 

That being said, I have no experience dealing with this type of fraud, or any for that matter. Any advice would be of great assistance. There is much more shady stuff being done by a particular broker here in SD on this house and I'm sure on others. 

Can anyone chime in on what they would do or have done is such cases?