All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Adam Rego Buying an investment property with tenants in place should always include an Estoppel Agreement. You can read more about it here:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/06/1...

As far as getting the current tenant to sign a lease, forget that. If they haven't paid the last owner rent, they're not going to pay you rent. You can:

1. Make the sale of the property contingent upon the property being vacant. i.e. tell the heirs that if they want the house sold, they need to evict the current tenant asap.

2. Buy it with the tenant in place and offer them cash for keys OR eviction. Carrot or the stick, their choice. 

@Shaun Palmer Nothing is tenant proof! Tenants can/will destroy anything and everything. The key to "tenant proof" your properties, is solid tenant screening/selection

@Jeremy Godwin  When i clicked on the topic i was totally expecting: "I've got a wife and kid, and tomorrow im gonna quit my job to wholesale full time..umm..btw..how do i wholesale?!"

You've got a solid plan bro, now execute!

@Robert Kriedermann Indeed! Understand 4+ would include the 10+, i guess what i was getting at was that.. if the folks in the last sale date of "4 year" range have a significantly lower probability of being "motivated" i wouldn't waste the time/$/effort on mailing to them, especially at the volume you're mailing to. Save yourself some $ and narrow your criteria! Aim small, miss small.

Have you tried other means? Most of my deals come from bandit signs, and after a couple thousand dollars in mailers that brought me..nothing, vs $500 in bandit signs that made me..a lot..in the last 18 months.. I asked a seller (in a direct mail heavy market) while we were looking at his house, why he called me. He showed me the absolutely monstrous pile of investor direct mail he had in a box, and said, "I saw your sign, and figured you must be from the neighborhood" just my 2 cents. 

@Robert Kriedermann It may just be my area, but i would definitely ditch the last sale date of 4 years. Most homeowners at 4-5 years are 1. Just getting settled in and 2. Definitely dont have the kind of equity i want. 10+ years works for me.

If a seller doesn't want to tell you how much they'd take for their house, they're probably not that motivated. It may just be me, but i never offer the first number. "He who speaks first, loses".  If they legitimately don't know or they wont directly answer the "How much would you take for your house today if we paid cash?" question, you can always circle back and elicit it with indirect questions: "How much do you think your house is currently worth" and then "how much equity do you think you have in the house" 

@John Baker As a few folks have pointed out, I believe its better to follow up on the phone as its harder for a seller to just "ignore" your message. If you've established that the seller will communicate via text, i would shift from a passive message "I am just wondering if you sold it yet" to something more active that provides the seller with a sense of urgency "we're actively looking for a property to buy in the next 7 days, so if you're still looking to sell and sell fast, we're ready to buy right now"

@James Farrel Go find the property manager and ask what they're doing, and then come share it with the rest of us!

@Benjamin Barredo Try InvestorCarrot. They're RE specific sites/landing pages. Extremely user friendly, great customer support and VERY inexpensive (in comparison to having a custom site designed/hosted)

@Royce Sanders

My last Subject To deal was from an out of state seller whos tenants trashed her house. Even though it was mostly a cosmetic touch up, I told her that even if she just signed the house over to me, subject to, there still wasn't enough equity to justify the repairs, even though once fixed up it would cash flow very well! (thx 30 yr fixed VA loans!)

Instead of telling her it didn't meet my criteria and walking away, i asked if she had any other properties (i knew the answer). She had another rental a few blocks away, but her son and daughter in law had been living in it for several years (paying only the mtg amount in rent!). She owed $75k on it and the house was worth $125k as it sat. I told her I would take the distressed rental if she included the turnkey rental (both subject to), had her son sign a lease agreeing to a $300/mo rent increase, paid $5k towards repairs for the distressed rental, and paid closing costs for both. Headache free for her. Instant equity and cash flow for me. win-win!

Some lessons learned:
- Always make an offer

- Always do your homework on the house AND the seller

- If you're not slightly uncomfortable making your offer, you're offering too much

- Knowing how to elicit information and negotiate is how you turn leads into deals.

Bottom line is, you cant do creative deals without understanding the seller's situation and motivation for selling. 

@John Chin 

You're spot on with the "Trustee" concept. I name everything the same way; "The Johnson Family Trust" etc with myself named as the trustee. If for whatever reason i have to call and speak to the lender, i identify myself as the trustee speaking on behalf of the trust. Nothing more.

Make sure to get access to the online accounts, and change the login/username. Change the mailing address and change the contact info. Make sure your sellers sign a memorandum explaining the risks involved in the transaction, and they're aware of the repercussions of informing the lender of the nature of the transaction. 

I keep subject to deals in my own name, rather than have my LLC listed as the trustee. Seeing "Fox One Investments, LLC" as the named trustee might throw up some red flags.