All Forum Posts by: Michaela G.

Then start your research with that name from 40 years ago and trace it forwards. I don't know your particular county and whether that kind of title work is accessible. Some areas it is, some it isn't.

Check if the person has died in the social security death index. If so, look in the death county courthouse if there's been probate done. And then take it from there.

@Rick Harmon,

I agree with you as well. I taught myself how to search titles and I was lucky that in Fulton County/Atlanta you can look at everything when you're in 'the morgue'. Go back to the 1800's.

In 2005 that came in really handy, because I traced back old inventory of a bankrupt mortgage company, which had had some properties in then 'war zones'. The bankruptcy trustee didn't deal with them, because the houses were ready to be torn down and that would have cost more than it was worth. So, they let them sit.

Going through all their properties, I ended up finding 10 vacant lots, that were all still owned by this mortgage company. This was 12 years after the bankruptcy was finished. I figured out all the legalities on how to buy these properties, with proper title insurance.

If I hadn't gotten into doing my own title searches before I bought anything, I would have been one of the other investors, who for 12 years were just scratching their head, while the neighborhoods came back up in value.

I agree with those who say to never buy without title insurance. I'm very glad I followed that rule.

Had a vacant lot under contract to buy from 5 heirs. I did title search and title company did as well. 1 sister was executor and signed my contract. Took a few extra days to get all the heir's signatures for closing.

In between the title co's title search and the actual closing, an attorney, who's known for this, approached one of the heirs and offered him some money for a quitclaim deed.

I found that out from the end buyer of my lot a few days later, who had been contacted by the attorney and wanted to get 15K or create problems.

I was very glad I had title insurance.

Maybe I'm too spoiled, having done all my major rehabs in Atlanta and nothing in California, but that seems awfully low profit for the money that you're putting down.

Your purchase (if you can even get them to accept 650K) and rehab puts you at 82% of ARV.

I personally wouldn't put down that much cash for such a low potential profit, especially with the market slowing down now.

Just my opinion.

You can't get normal insurance while it's vacant.

You would need to get a 'Builder's risk' policy while you renovate. Once the renovation is finished and you have a tenant , you can then get normal landlord insurance. Or if you're flipping, just cancel your builder's risk when you've sold

With both of you having your attorneys involved it will likely work out fine.

Keep in mind the logistics: Do you have a safe at home? Where will you keep the money? Do you have a big dog?

I don't remember if you wrote the price in the first post, but she might have a grandson and mention the cash deal in passing and he'll figure out your address or the attorney's office might have ears. Maybe I sound paranoid. But having a lot of cash at home and people knowing about it could be asking for trouble.

Maybe rent a safe deposit box at your bank and always transfer the cash into that, so that your only exposure is that day off, when you go from the bank to the closing?

It all depends on where in West End. There are pockets and there are pockets.

I have properties in Pittsburgh, which is also SW Atlanta, but usually considered a step down from West End and most investors wouldn't buy there. I'm glad I did.

I do think that 140K for 6 units is expensive there - but again, it depends on the exact neighborhood. You can buy 6 SFH in some areas in the West End and get more in rents for each home and have quicker appreciation.

As to PM, make sure that you'll ask their prices. Many PM don't want to deal with SW Atlanta or they have such high minimums per door per month, that can end up being a huge chunk of your rents. $ 115 mm per unit at $ 450/unit rent? If they want first month's rent for turnover, does that happen everytime there's turnover or just once a year? What if they put in bad tenants and you have to evict them after 2 months? 3 new tenants per unit per year will get the PM much more money than managing will - just saying - choose well

Personally, I like SW Atlanta, because the returns can be great. Also, I fully expect the Beltline to happen in the next 5-10 years. They just got 18 million to finish the Beltline path/park in West End. So, if I were to buy, I'd want to buy close to were the Beltline will run. I wouldn't buy to speculate and hope, but rather see that as an additional icing on the cake on a property that's cash flowing nicely already. The Beltline will make the prices climb in the neighborhoods around it imho

And then there was the potential tenant that called at 10pm and I didn't answer the phone - was a New Orleans area code in Atlanta, so it stuck out. Called back at 11pm, still didn't answer. Called back at midnight and left a slurred message about wanting to rent one of my houses.

Heck, if they start of that inconsiderate there's no way they'll get better. Of course I didn't call him back.

He called me every night for the next few nights, messages were getting progressively angrier.

I'm glad I decided to turn off my phone for a few nights, after the 2nd night.....

Or there are the people that call at 7am. Do they really think that this is the way to give a good impression?

I don't know if you can do that with motor homes - or are you buying the actual park?

I would definitely file a memorandum of sale or an affidavit, explaining that you have a contract or a memo. Write on it for the clerk to cross-reference to the property address and pay for a rush-recording (some counties will otherwise just record an affidavit under your name, which wouldn't do any good). That way the other title company would find this and they can't close without contacting you.

Twice I've had to sue seller for performance, because they suddenly got a better offer and thought they could just ignore me. I sued both of them. The first one we ended up getting on summary judgment and the 2nd one gave up and sold.

It depends on the company.

I used to have Allstate and they always pulled an inquiry. They told me that it was only a 'soft inquiry', so it wouldn't matter. But I regularly pulled my credit report and they were coded as 'hard inquiries'. They still insisted that they were soft, but I ended up changing companies, because I was trying really hard to keep up my score for financing purposes.

1 inquiry won't effect your score, but if you have several hard pulls you can definitely loose points and it can hurt you