All Forum Posts by: Martin Sterling

Greetings 

What is the level of Equity that you choose when getting leads from Listsource or any other source. I've heard some people say equity, others no equity, yet others a little equity. What does it mean to target each?

Also, I've heard someone on here say purchase properties that have loans originated before 2007. Does this make sense?

Thanks in Advance

Learning a new market in lightning speed

I want to invest out of state for a buy and hold in a place a no nothing about (Wisconsin ) in the next 12 months. What I want do is:

1 - find someone like a Wholesaler who can be "boots on the ground " and partner with them doing an equity split or upfront fee or both

.2 - Do online research as much as possible to learn the different areas.

3 - Take at least one three day trip down there to meet with some potential team members and hopefully go to REIA.

In terms of online research, what do you recommend? I know zillow and neighborhoodscout have some good data, but how would you specifically define a good area to buy and hold? What are the must and must not have metrics? Is it necessary to go to town hall meeting?I know my area but that's because I've lived here for years. How do I condense that feeling of knowing an area down from decades into days?

Greetings, I see many people talk about the benefits and misfortunes of using section 8 as a way to get renters in their home. I hear horror stories, but I also hear about scenarios where there are no problems.

One strategy with Section 8 I heard is that you can specify the age demographic of your tenants as 55 and older in order to hopefully get less at risk tenants. It was a statement in passing at an overpriced seminar that I do not recommend attending.

The question I have is, are there any books on the different kind of government strategies there are available to use to get tenants? Section 8 is the most commonly talked about. I know there must be so many. Woman abuse centers, Rehabilitation centers, Witness Protection, etc. I'm sure there's a lot that exist. I just don't know the best way to find out and research them. I'm based in NY, I'm sure there are plenty that are local as well. 

Any suggestion on resources on how to discover what I don't know that I don't know about government programs?

Thanks In Advance

Hello all. I wanted to get some feedback from the community on this question. I'm just starting out as a Wholesaler in NJ/NY and I am considering becoming a loan officer in order to give me another set of tools as well as another education and perspective as an investor. I was particularly thinking about the advantage of being able to write reverse mortgages to motivated sellers who don't fit an appealing wholesale deal for my Buyers. I wanted to know what the BP community has to say about going that route as opposed to becoming a real estate agent (initially) instead. 

I don't here of too many people becoming loan officers with a focus on being an investor. Is there something I'm not seeing that is a drawback?

Thank You in Advance

Greetings, I recently watched a video about title reports in order to learn more about them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t_633C4wMs

I had a few questions that the video creator didn't address:

In the video the topic of CC&R's came up and the fact that some CC&R's from many years ago discriminated against protected classes of people. If a CC&R's say that a particular protected class of people can't own the property or live there, is that still a legally binding regulation that must be followed by new owners? I'd imagine not. Right??

In his presentation, I see that title report only goes back to the previous owner of the property. What about the original owner, back in maybe, the 1600's? What if there is break in the chain of title further in history. How would the title insurance cover that? Can that come back to bite you at all?

Thanks In Advance

I should be more specific. I trust them, but convincing them to have interest in real estate wholesaling is a different animal. I wanted to hear from other people who have done similar arrangements.

Hey guys, I was talking to a Hard Money lender the other day and he was telling me how he has a 72 point due diligence check list he runs all the investments he lends on through. I was thinking wholly crap, I need one of those. 

Does anyone out there have a line item due diligence check list for residential properties. I have some basic ideas of what I would like in mine, underground oil tanker scan, septic tank check, setback measurement, etc. I'm sure some of you guys have kick butt lists.

Thanks in Advance

This is a bit of an Asset protection and Tax consequence question.

If I buy a property for 100k (100k is my basis) , 5 years later it's worth 400k, that means I have a 300k capital gain.

1 - If I sell the property after 5 years, do I pay long term capital gains tax (15%)? If not, what tax am I responsible for?

2 - if the property is put in a living trust and the new basis is 400k when the beneficiary takes ownership, what is the tax consequence for the beneficiary upon taking ownership?

Thanks in advance

Greetings,

I'm based in NYC and real estate, from my experience, is very competitive, especially starting out. I was wondering if I should concentrate on markets like Virginia where I here is hot for investing opportunities.

The problem is, I have limited funds. I've been told out here in the NY area, you need a direct mail campaign of $1500-$2000 per month to get a deal on average every 1 - 2 months. That's very rich for my blood. Is that in general everywhere? (1.07 per letter)

I was thinking I have people in VA I trust that an assist. If I can get a considerable cheaper marketing budget in VA I can do phone calls and preliminary analysis from home via internet and talking to people I know out there. If the seller is ballpark to 70 cents on the dollar, then I was thinking I could pull the trigger at that time for a driveby BPO.

That would I think give me enough info to put under contract and get to a buyer. What are your thoughts.

Thanks in advance

Hello all, I'm looking for some Book recommendations on buying and/or wholesaling notes. I really like Joshua's book "No or low money down real estate" It's straight to the point. Are there any recommended Notes books like that?