All Forum Posts by: Jack Bobeck

A fence with a dog is an excellent theft deterrant as well, if you change your mind. Here in FL, the homes with a dog are less likely to be broken into.

Regarding the shed, figure self storage will cost 80 bucks, here in FL at least, per month. Need either garage or storage of some sort, it is an important feature compared to other properties.

Here in Jacksonville, FL, our property appraiser does not recognize foreclosed sales, because the two parties did not get together to create a sale. For some stupid reason, these are seen as only a distressed sale. :protest:

Another problem with buy and flippers is that half-baked appraisers come in and give you comps from wherever they "feel" like, so long as the comps are within 2 or 3 miles. Had that happen to me. Appraiser brought in comps from another freakin zip code, 3 miles away when good comps were less than .25 miles away from the subject property.

Good, maybe the property appraiser will come to the realization that his artificially inflated numbers should come back down as well.....

I have 0 Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae properties. All of my 8 are owned by local banks holding their own local commercial paper. Commercial properties, in an LLC, are not hog-tied by Fannie and Freddie. Of course, you need good credit and cash, so find some good partners, silent are best and build a business. Now is the time to buy, if you are not, you are missing the boat. I am backing up the truck and loading up at 50-60% off of retail. Banks also have money, you just need to work on finding the banks that hold their own paper. There are even construction loans available from some banks, and you don't need 700 credit scores either. You need to show cash flow in, my case.

I don't think you need to buy at 70% of a discounted value, rather, I would recommend that you buy at a wholesale value, 50-60%, in an area of town that you know, through some help with a realtor and MLS data, that the rents and values have not dropped as much as in other parts of town.

With gas at $4 a gallon, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure that if there are more jobs downtown, people will want to live closer to downtown. So look for areas of town that are more desired now. If you have to drive 30 miles each way to a job, and your neighbor is in the same boat, you can get a heckuva deal on the property (supply and demand), but you may need to be able to hold onto it for the next business cycle.

Hard Money is everywhere these days. Just look at the stock market, unless you short stocks for a living, most stock market jockeys are looking around for 12-15 percent returns through investors. Check out your local Real Estate Investment Association for other fellow investors. Look in the newspaper, under the section, Investor properties, for these hard money people. They are there and they need you to put the money to work for them!

Yes sir,

I went to a boot camp in Orlando. Than is a high energy guy and he was a good one for a first time boot camper, but if you have been to them in the past, you can order his books online at ebay and get out of them nothing new and exciting. His mentor is Robin ? out of Orlando and she learned all she knows from Ron Legrand, so you sort of see where this is headed?

Than has some good ideas, signs are a big thing for him, says 40% of your sales come from the use of signs in the area. Another great idea is a truck or vehicle to leave at big intersections to advertise. The rehabber, Paul, is a better sale, because he knows what he is doing. I think Than needs Paul more than Paul needs Than. If you are an investor, I would look online on ebay and see what you can pickup at a discount.

Who here does not have an account with a bank?

Start with where you bank, learn about their REO process. As an investor, you can gain a lot of insight into the banking business, if you already have an account with money that the bank is using for other business purposes.

I have found that every bank, in my area, has some distressed property to some extent. Sometimes they will send you to the Bank's REO realtor, or they may have their own REO division. One of mine, yes, I have multiple and any good investor will do the same, made me sign a non-disclosure agreement. I could buy direct from them, no need for commission sales from the realtors.

When writing offers, go look at the MLS online, you can do it on yahoo or your local MLS site. Look at what people are asking for, MLS is retail pricing. I figure that if MLS is 95-100 percent of the value of the house, I will offer closer to wholesale which is 50-60% of the MLS price. Most banks ask realtors to do a BPO, Broker Price Opinion, for the property, but most good REO realtors will tell you if they think the BPO is worth what they paid for it. Remember that realtors get paid for BPOs from the banks, so the value that a bank comes up with is based on what a realtor "thinks" the property is worth.

Anyone in Jax, drop me a line as well. Good deals all over Jax, but you have to have a business plan and buy right.

One thing I have seen is that the number of good deals on the MLS is dropping. I think that a good deal is one where the grass is over my knees and the house looks like it needs some love. With all the rain we have had, there are plenty of these good deals around.

Just gotta have the cash to pull the trigger.

If the seller is financially stable, you can do the lease option, without much fear that, if they own a loan, they will default on it. If the owner of the property is teetering on bankruptcy or having a problem with the payments, you want to do a subject to, where you get your name on the deed and you send the payments to the bank, yourself.

It is a great way to buy real estate and Wendy Patton has some great material on it as well, if you are looking for places to eduate yourself.