All Forum Posts by: Mark Waldrip

I used to own about a dozen SFH rentals in predominantly AA communities. They did well, and I had a great rapport with all tenants. I met some young (compared to me!) AA entrepreneurs interested in getting into the business. I began mentoring them, sharing what I'd learned, and over time began selling off my rentals to them (with owner financing). This has been a great win/win for all of us; they are learning to landlord and property manage with local turn-key rentals, and I'm no longer directly involved (beyond advising and encouraging). All properties have increased in value from what they paid, rents have increased, and they've got great equity positions to leverage for further expansion!

No evictions or convictions! haha

Ok, I've been investing in real estate for many years and thought I'd seen everything. Nope. I'll try to keep this short, though it is a LONG story!

1. Owner financed a rent house to a nice couple about 3 years ago. They made their payments on time like clockwork.

2. Last year, the husband gets arrested due to a dispute with a neighbor (a gun was produced and fired off).

3. Couple uses house as collateral for his bail, and bail bondsman places lien on property (without my permission).

4. Couple leaves the state to get away from neighbor, and lets 'Friends' move into house (without my permission).

5. Neighbor moves, so Couple decide to move back into house, but 'Friends' refuse to leave (they'd paid no rent and water & gas shut off).

6. 'Friends/Squatters' threaten to make trouble for husband since he is dealing with pending court case on his charges.

7. Couple backs down, and stops paying mortgage, taxes, insurance; want me to take the house as they can't afford to make payments.

8. Couple signs Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure, and I convince bail bondsman to release his lien in order to get house back. 

Now I've got the house back, got the taxes & insurance current. So, the 'Friends/Squatters' are now my problem! I served 30 Notice to Vacate, we go to court soon. It took over 2 months to get to this point, as courthouse was closed to eviction cases until recently due to the pandemic! In the meantime, the 'Friends/Squatters' have been selling off the appliances from the house! Hopefully, I'll get eviction judgment and put these lowlifes out, at which time I'll evaluate the condition of the house, make necessary repairs and find another buyer. This time, it will be a cash deal! Haha!

Let this be a lesson for anyone who thinks owner financing is a completely passive investment! It is...until it isn't! Thanks for listening. 

+1 for Brigid Kennedy. She is great.

FYI...Mr. Ruppert passed away on June 8th, at the age of 94. RIP

Hi Camille,
Wanted to share my .02 cents about private funding (pun intended!). I've passively invested in many projects, both as direct ownership investor, syndicate investor or a private lender. I'm not sure from your model if you're wanting investors or lenders. If investors, they own a piece of the deal and share in the profit. If a lender, they hold security for their funds in the form of a lien on the property and expect a set interest rate on the funds. Which of these forms of security do you provide to the people who give you their money? It doesn't sound like either, but I may not be understanding how your systems work.

What do you offer as security in the (unlikely) event that the project craters?

Belated welcome to BP and the OKC investing community. Lots of good info to be learned here!

― Jerry Rice

My Dad used to tell me, "There's never time to do it right, but always time to do it over!"

I hated it when I was a kid, but became a staple when I had 2 sons! Haha

Like I always tell myself when a deal falls through; the great thing about Real Estate is the "Deal of the Century" comes along every week! Haha!