All Forum Posts by: Leilah Davis

@Braden Smith thank you!! Yes, this is exactly the kind of info I was looking for. 

Hey all! I am a developer in New Orleans. I'm trying to get some real world examples from people who have purchased adjuticated properties through a Civic Source auction (or anyone who has invested in tax certificate sale and actually claimed ownership of the property after the redemptive period) .... generally speaking I understand the whole process, the only thing that really throws me off is the USNTI insurance. 

My understanding is that when you get USNTI insurance through Civic Source there are pre-set rates, but they only insure you up to $12k. If your winning bid is more than that you will need to pay for additional coverage. And if you improve on the property after the purchase (which is what we would intend to do as developers) then you would need to get the policy re-written, in which case the pre-set Civic Source rates no longer apply, and rates are set by USNTI. Is this all correct so far??

For anyone who has done this - how much does USNTI insurance actually cost for a new construction home on a property that was adjuticated? And if you SELL the property (which is what we would intend to do, as we are spec builders) have you had any issues with selling? Did your sales price take a hit? Are homebuyers turned off because of the USNTI insurance requirement? Do you cover the cost of the insurance policy for them?

My biggest concern is that there seems to be a stigma around adjuticated properties, or really any properties requiring USNTI insurance. (I'm seeing tons of wholesalers who are buying properties at auction and then trying to sell to investors, all with the disclosure that the property would require USNTI insurance). So .... Is there truly a stigma? Or is this an unsubstantiated fear that I have?? And please bear in mind I am refering to a stigma in the eyes of your average home buyer, NOT other investors. My guess is that the USNTI insurance just doesn't matter much for rental properties, but I am referring only to vacant lots. We build single family residences to sell on the MLS, not rentals or STRs.

Any info here would be greatly appreciated!!!

Revisiting this thread as well (seems like it keeps getting revisited every few years, haha) 

@Charlie Shew This is my gut instinct. I can't imagine the FTC really chasing someone down over ONE or even a handful of complaints. Thanks for sharing your experience!

@Jerryll Noorden Clearly everyone on this thread HAS looked it up, and we all came up with different answers!! Do you know of anyone who has been sued for this? Did they lose the case? What did it cost them? I would love to hear of some examples if you have them, as that mgiht help to put this all to bed. Without examples, this is all just hypothetical, and it doesn't really help people make decisions about what risks they are willing to take. 

Here's a hypothetical for everyone on this thread (or anyone else who wants to jump in): Let's imagine your next door neighbor has a vintage corvette in their driveway. You are super into cars and you've seen this thing sitting there for years getting rusty. You absolutely hate seeing this beutiful car go to waste!! You don't know your neighbor, and you never see him at the house, so you decide to look him up and call him to ask about the car, thinking maybe he'll sell it to you, since he seems to have no interest in maintaining it .... you're just an individual calling up another individual to ask a question. Is this illegal? To me, this feel very VERY different than Michael Scott calling you from Scranton PA to try and sell you some paper.  

Thoughts??

I live in NOLA as well and definitely plan to attend! Anyone know when they'll be accepting registrations? The website seems to be malfunctioning ... 

Thanks for the advice! The biggest issue I've found with wholesalers so far is that they just pick up property and then try to find the buyer afterwards, which means that 99% of the wholesalers' inventory is irrelevant to us. I think what I was looking for someone who would be looking for properties for us specifically, with our specific needs in mind. 

But I've already sort of decided against it ... at least for now. If a wholesaler comes along who has what we need that's great. But in the meantime I'm just going to focus on making the process more efficient and delegating some of the specific tasks, not the entire acquisitions job. 

@Josh C. haha thanks! Yeah, I don't have any videos on it or anything. I haven't been doing it very long, but my husband has been in commercial construction for 10 years. And before this I did project management, so I'm very OCD with schedules and I know how to keep things on track. It also helps that I am doing this full-time and since we move so quickly we are only doing one job at a time (soon to be 2). 

@Jorge Vazquez - Fortunately for us, a bird-dog wouldn't be able to sell to our clients directly .... unless they also knew how to build a house from the ground up LOL - but yes, training someone to be the bird dog using my methods and criteria is exactly what i'm looking for, I think. 

@Dennis Wayne we don't do buy & hold. We do spec homes. We crank out the projects as quickly as possible to cash out and move on to the next. 2-3 months for construction on each project. Currently working on one project, but I am still VERY new to the world of construction so mostly I am learning a lot. If you want to know which "roles" I currently operate in ... it's all of them (accountant, superintendant, acquisitions, real estate sales, etc) but the construction management is what takes up most of my time. And no, we are not interested in delegating that, as that's where the largest percentage of our profit comes from - being our own GC. 

Yes, there are many! I'd suggest taking the time to fill in your profile, offer some info about yourself, explain where you are in your investing journey (even if you are brand new and just learning) so people know a little bit about you and why they might want to connect :) 

As with door knocking, bandit signs is something I haven't tried yet. Have you had good experience with bandit signs?

I'm currently sending about 5 handwritten letters per week. I'd LOVE for that number to be more ... hence why I'm considering hiring someone or working with someone who has more time on their hands. That's exactly the point - I don't have the TIME to be doing as much as I need to be doing. 

Hoping to get some advice from people who have worked with a bird-dog or hired an employee to help with acquisitions. Again, it's a matter of delegating certain tasks to others in an effort to be more productive with my time ... not a question of means and methods for finding deals.