All Forum Posts by: Jim Viens

I don't know that I'd get too worried about that little bit of moisture. Crawlspaces aren't airtight so that's to be expected...especially after heavy rain. That's what the vents are for is to allow air to pass through and dry out the moisture to keep mold from forming. What I would be concerned about is the lack of rain gutters. This could cause problems down the road with soil erosion near the foundation and that would be bad. It also can be uncomfortable during a downpour as you'd have to walk through a waterfall to get in or out of the house. :) 

There's actually already a Cerner campus across the street from there (I work for Cerner as my day job). The area has gotten rougher over the last 20 years (my sister used to live off 87th & Eastern) but if that can get turned around you'd have a real good potential to market to the folks Cerner is going to populate with. Remember, though, that it's planned as a 10-year buildout. Not sure when during that time they'll start populating buildings. I don't know that they've even broken ground on the property yet. Here's the latest on the project from the Kansas City Business Journal:  http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2014/06/02/cerner-adds-acreage-to-three-trails-campus-for.html?page=all 

Cracks like that are typically a sign of foundation settling. Here in Kansas City it's actually been really dry (in spite of the winter snows) so a lot of the problems are from the soil drying out and shrinking from the foundation, removing the support from the sides and bottom. Too-wet weather can cause problems too as the soil swells and pushes in on the foundation and up from the bottom. I'd examine the cracks really closely. Probe just inside the crack with a piece of wire and see if it's any wider in the middle of the sheetrock. That could indicate it's a bigger problem that's been patched over. If the crack is bigger than about 1/2" or if doors are sticking I'd have the foundation checked.

FYI to anyone else looking up their own info in Wyandotte County, it looks like you have to go through the County Clerk's office and sign up for a free subscription service to get the owner info to go with the Assessor's info. But, of course, it's not working correctly tonight and I can't get logged in. Our tax money at work. 

Took you long enough! :) 

Sorry...forgot to tag @William Robison on that last reply! Noob mistake. 

That's actually where I've been getting a lot of my info but the WyCo appraiser's page doesn't show the owner info, where the JoCo appraiser's page does. I contacted the appraiser's office and they said to get the info I'd have to call the clerk's office. I'm checking with them to see if the clerk would be ok looking up a dozen or more properties at a time and I'm trying to find out why they don't have it on the search site like JoCo does.

Thanks!

I'm starting out in Kansas City, KS (Wyandotte County) and I've got my eye on several properties that look like potential deals. My problem is that I can't find an easy way to determine the name and address of the current owners. Johnson County (immediately to the south) provides that information on the County Appraiser's website, but for Wyandotte County the only solution I have at this point is to do an online search to find the last deed of record to get the name (and sometimes the address) but that costs $5 per property to look up. I'm on a pretty tight budget and $500 for 100 property owner names and maybe address is too pricey for me. Anyone doing investing in this area that has any ideas on how to track these homeowners down without spending a lot of money?

I'm new to BP and REI in general and am interesting in getting started wholesaling. I plan on going to the next MAREI meeting but that's not for a couple of weeks. Are there any investors here that buy properties in western Wyandotte County, KS that I could chat with and see what kinds of properties are being bought right now and what prices they're going for? Or even other wholesalers in the area that I could possibly work with? I'm already building a list of potential properties to look into.

Thanks!

@dev horn One activity I've seen with pre's is to purchase the property then do a lease option back to the original owner. In effect rescuing them. Not sure if this is the aim here but it's a viable option. And not all pre's are low on equity. Could have been in the house for a while and had a temporary setback.