All Forum Posts by: Jason Barnett

Wow, this is all news to me (and good news to boot)!

I invited one of my Hawaiian uncles to my wedding coming up in May. If he visits then I will talk to him about this and see what feedback he might have. FWIW he lives on the island of Oahu which is where most of my relatives live.

Hopefully you guys don't want to build around the old leper colony :wink:

My question was the silly one! :lol:

Actually it was a real question because I have heard from relatives that you don't get the opportunity to buy land in Hawaii... you only get to LEASE the land for 99 years. Not only that, but I had also heard that only native islanders can buy the land so that condo developers don't come in and overdevelop the island (no offense intended).

Again this is all hear-say, but this is what my relatives in Hawaii told me when I visited some years back.

In any case, as far as I can tell most of the natives to Hawaii have a pretty tough time making ends meet. Everything is more expensive there either because it has to be imported or simply because of tourism. I don't think low-cost condos are what you're after.

Networking is the key. With a budget of $300 I would probably join one of your local real estate investment clubs and talk with the investors in the group. Just talk with some people, tell them that you have an open mind and a hunger for making deals. Ask enough people and someone should be able to get you started on a bird dogging hunt for them.

Silly question.... do you own the land where the condos are going to be built?

You can try http://zillow.com if you want to get estimates of a house's value. In my area I find that the estimates on this website are too high, but it does give you recent (comparable) sales in the area which is useful.

If you see messages that look like spam, then feel free to send a private message to biggerpo. Be sure to include the link (URL) so it's easy for him to remove the spam. This is a community effort!

Google for SB 2349 Mortgage Rescue Fraud Act

This is a bill that is up for a vote in Illinois. In short, it will cover a broad range of foreclosure consulting/buying and places restrictions on those activities. All of you should be aware of this even if you don't live in Illinois... because state officials will often copy legislation.

Comments?

Perhaps this is what all of those "foreclosure data providers" will give to you, but I got the itch to write some web programs and I've got some ideas.

When researching a foreclosure I would think you would want the following pieces of information:

Land / Parcel ID for the property
Deed for the property
Liens against the property (mortgage, HELOC, judgments, etc.)
Tax records
Contact information for the owner of the property
Court cases against the owner of the property (foreclosure, utility companies suing for past due bills, etc.)
Public health records (e.g. was the building condemned?)

Now mind you, I have no intention of doing all of this on a national scale. I only intend to do this only in my county so this task is manageable. So my question is... as an investor can you think of anything else that is in the public domain that I could / should find out about a property in foreclosure? If that information is freely available then we might as well make efficient usage of it. :mrgreen:

Let's say that I find out about a house in foreclosure and I am able to get the phone number for the owner. Would it be A Bad Idea for me to actually call them to make first contact? I've noticed in foreclosure letters that they ask the owner to call the investor at XXX-XXXX. Do investors have to worry about these telemarketing laws / the National Do Not Call registry?

If a Mexican worker wants to come to the US and do some of the work that I don't even want to touch... then I have no problem with that.

I think most of the illegal immigrants are working at places that are "less picky" about who they hire because you have to submit social security card, brith certificate, etc. for your W-9 at most places. However, an open border policy is going to change that dynamic because the number of opportunities for Mexican workers in the US will increase. What do Texans think about that? The ripple effects of this policy will be less pronounced for the rest of the US.

Also, what would this mean for real estate prices in Texas? I would suspect that low income areas (especially in southern Texas) are going to be the most affected by an open border policy.