All Forum Posts by: Jim Viens

You could also see if you could work out a short-sale with the bank that's about to foreclose.

Well THAT stinks. The letter I sent to the owner of a vacant home asking to buy their property did generate some results....an MLS listing with an agent.

Thanks for the quick reply @Nilesh Makhija . Right now I'm looking to partner just on this first deal to help me overcome the inertia of just sitting here looking at "potential" deals. If the relationship works out I would consider working on further deals together. As far as the "why" I'll answer with my short- to long-term plans: I'd like to build up some cash savings as a buffer against financial emergencies for my family...then pay off some debt, followed by paying for college for my 6 kids..then funding for my wife's and my retirement...all while having enough money left during that time to do some fun things with my family. To get there I'm wanting to build up cash from flips/wholesales in the short term then transition into building a rental portfolio for passive income.

Bummer...looks like this thread has kinda petered out. I'll see if I can jump-start it again. I sent out individual letters to absentee owners of two off-market vacant homes in my area and looked around at two vacant REO's and drove by a FSBO that I may contact the owner on to make an offer. Also attended my first REIA meeting! This is actually for the week but I'm working a full-time job and have a major ongoing family issue that requires my time and attention. Most of what I'm doing is on my lunch breaks and some evenings. Charge on, BP Nation!

I'm having a little trouble getting my first deal under my belt and am thinking about partnering with a more experienced investor. As experienced investors, what do you look for in a potential partner on a deal? I know I'd have to bring something to the table but I don't have cash. I can provide labor, perform some due-diligence checks (I have 10 years experience in the title industry), check up on progress/contractors, etc. What advice do you all have? Thanks!

You could also look into probates, divorces, pre-foreclosures,  etc. for wholesale leads.

It'll be difficult, first of all, to wholesale anything off MLS (there are MANY comments along these lines in other threads here on BP). There are too many end-buyer investors that have access to the MLS and are seeing the same deals you are. Second...to wholesale a REO you pretty much have to actually purchase the property as most banks require you provide proof-of-funds (POF) at the time you make your offer. That being said, it's not impossible to work these types of wholesale deals providing you can get a good enough deal from the bank and have funding set up to show the bank when you place your bid. Good luck!

Ewww...@Christian Carson . You just reminded me why I don't miss researching commercial properties. Can't tell you how many convoluted legal descriptions I had to map out. And they almost always had some sort of overlap due to bad surveys.

Sounds like you were directly affected...he in effect stole your property! You could have threatened a Quiet Title suit. That may have lit a fire under him! (May have even gotten him disbarred!)

My weird title story doesn't actually involve me. I was working as a title officer for a title insurance company when a guy ("Joe Blow") was trying to refinance a property he had inherited from his grandfather. The issue was, grandpa had bought the property and sold it to his buddy on a Contract for Deed. (Married) buddy quit paying and grandpa foreclosed on the Contract, got a quitclaim deed from him (NOT signed by his wife) and booted him out. Grandpa then dies and Joe gets the property. Problem is...only grandpa's buddy was on any of the deeds and Kansas is a marital-rights state (spouse automatically has interest in the property whether they're on the deed or not.) Remember, grandpa's buddy was married while he had interest in the property...and he and his wife had died. So we had to sort out whether he or his wife had died first and if she died first, whether she died before or after the foreclosure action. Reason being...if she died before the foreclosure we're all good. If she died AFTER the foreclosure then their kids still have her 50% interest in the property (as she hadn't signed the quitclaim deed.) Good luck getting them to sign a deed considering the falling-out their dad had with grandpa! So Joe is freaking out and drives from Kansas City to Topeka to get certified copies of the death certificates to determine who died when. Turns out the wife DID die before the foreclosure and all was right with the world...but MAN that was some work to go through to close that loan!

Owner information is typically available through the Appraiser's office. A quick internet search shows that for Tarrant County you can go to www.tad.org (Tarrant Appraisal District website). On the left is a link for Property Data Search. You put in a search by address and up pops the property detail record including owner name and address, county appraised values and the date/instrument number of the last deed filed of record. I'm sure the same type of info can be found for Denton County (try www.dentoncad.com).