All Forum Posts by: Carol Venolia

Paul, I may take a month or more to rehab the mobile. I'm as curious as you are about why Foremost gave me grief and not you!

Leslie and Josh, thanks for the referrals. I'll check them out!

Thank you, Curt! I'll check out Affinity--and area mobile home parks.

I've talked with a Foremost agent, but they won't insure this mobile while I'm rehabbing it because it's not worth $50K or more. The mobile is in Northern California. Any suggestions for other companies I might approach? Thanks!

My properties are all about 3 hours' drive from me, and that works fine. I live in the CA Bay Area, and that's how far I had to go to find affordable properties with good cashflow and ROI. They're in an area I love, so I'm happy to go there once a month or so. I have a local handyman handle repair issues that come up. I manage the properties myself. It really comes down to your lifestyle, your management style, and the particulars of your area, IMHO. One of my mentors has rental properties all over this big state; it works for him.

@Alex Hamilton, I thought that the downside of that kind of deal was that you also have to take on the mortgage, which "goes away" in the tax deed sale. How do you handle that?

It's tempting to buy direct before the auction, if only because so many properties are withdrawn from the auction before it starts--presumably at least some of them due to the kind of direct sale you're talking about.

@Cheryl Vargas, check out my response to you above, before Raymond taught me how to tag you!

@Raymond B., I've finally got it. Thanks!

@Barbara Long , I'm not familiar with tax lien vault. What is that? In California, we don't have tax liens, but we do have tax deed auctions. I'm not sure what all the differences are. Happy to share experiences, but someone else may have to comment on tax liens. Best wishes in your hunt!

Thanks for the tips, Raymond! I wondered about that @ thing.

Hey, @Cheryl Var, you're right down the road from me! Yes, California presents its own challenges, but I've been able to purchase several properties in northern CA that general positive cashflow. I will say that they're NOT in Sonoma County; I went a bit farther inland. But it's happening.

Since I wrote my previous message about participating in tax deed auctions, I actually won two properties in an auction. It took me several "learning rounds" to get something. The problem is usually that bidders, for unknown reasons, will send the bidding way above any reasonable price. Larry Weingarten's video teaches how to set your maximum bid so you don't end up spending too much. But that can leave you empty-handed when others don't have such reasonable limits!

However, my successes came by applying another bit of Larry Wisdom: Go for the scary properties. You have to know how to check them out and make sure they've got good bones, but it can be a winning strategy.

I'm glad you've found my advice about checking out Larry's website to be useful! He's one of my fave real estate gurus--and he doesn't charge an arm and a leg.

Anyhow, I just want to encourage you to be creative, look for the deals (possibly not in your county), and keep on learning!

Best,

Carol

Hi Andrea,

I've been participating in tax deed auctions in northern CA for several months, taking part in 7 auctions by now. I learned everything I know from an affordable DVD by Larry Weingarten that I bought online. It's called "Tax Deed Deals," and you can find it at

http://www.larryweingarten.com/page/store (scroll down to Tax Deed Deals). He also has free info on his site at 

http://www.larryweingarten.com/page/taxdeed

Happy hunting!