All Forum Posts by: Paul Hitchings

 I was going to mention county records too.  The recorder's office and the accessor's office are two good places to start.  If you have more money and less time, you could get a title search, but they are a bit pricey. I like the O/E search. You definitely will want to develop a relationship with a title company.  

I would also talk to the neighbors during the day and drive around the neighborhood once or twice at night.

Interesting town. Seems to be located just north of a nicer area with more expensive homes.  Town does seem to be shrinking over the long run.. http://www.city-data.com/city/Pittsfield-Massachus...

My first instinct is to drive around town and listen to your gut. Is the area improving? Are new things being built? Is it nice?  If other companies are investing locally, it could be a sign things are picking up. 

My favorite indicator of the health of the local economy is how many "For Lease" signs I see on busy commercial streets.  If you have multiple vacancies on a strip that should be drawing lots of customers, the economy is not super hot in the local area, imho.

1) get co-signer

2) find owner to seller finance their free and clear home to you

3) buy a or multi-family with a partner (who is also co-signer)

4) buy a piece of land cash and build a container home

5) call around lenders and see if other loan programs have different income requirements (if you have down payment for other loan options)

Ignore whether or not the property is a short-sale and continue your normal analysis. My favorite are approved short-sales that fell through with a previous buyer recently.

Bug all the agents who have pending short-sales and you're bound to find a failed deal eventually and then SWOOP! But before you make your offer, do a few more inspections and just point out every goddamn thing wrong with the property and lower the offering price by about 2-5% but offer a quick no hassle no repair 30-day close contingent upon whatever you need.

If and when you become known for reliably closing failed short sales quickly, Realtors WILL keep your number on hand :)

Adding a unit and moving into a place with 2.5x your rental payment is quite the double whammy.

Maybe try to figure out if you can renew approval for the 4th unit before you move ahead? Also, do you have cash saved up to add the unit? 

if you could add the 4th unit via a FHA103K loan, you might be doing alright on your ROI/cap rate. But to come out of pocket with cash to pay for the 4th unit and then wait on cash flow to pay you back, those are rough numbers...

I've no experience adding a unit to a property, but it sounds complicated, expensive and time intensive. 

If the entire unit needed rennovations and you could raise the rents over time, it might be more attractive. If the triplex (or 3x family) is generally in good condition and you are paying market rate, you're robbing yourself of potential sweat equity and cash flow gains, as well as appraisal gains from NPV from rents.

You need to find out why it was condemned and what the condition of the property is. Then you need a contractor to give you a quote on repairs, not because you will fix it, but to find out if another investor has a chance at making a buck.

Without even seeing it, I'm thinking RUN!

This project sounds like a better deal for someone going to BRRRR. You are trying to put yourself in the middle of a deal with a home that in all likelihood needs A LOT of repair. The risk is very high and I don't see the numbers being amazing for you no matter how you slice it, especially because your end buyer is going to say "this house is condemned, I need to put X into it and I'm trying to make a profit too! I can't possibly offer you more than X for it..."

Looking into the future, this headache is probably not worth it. But I'm no magic 8 ball.

The big caveat to all of the above is if you can pick it up for a killer price at auction. But typically, you can NOT inspect the inside of properties prior to auction, so do you want to trust a quote from a contractor staying in through a window or? 

Honestly, I would go to the property and snoop around and take pictures and then share with us :)

Not an attorney. You can charge tenant for repairs all day.  If you don't have sufficient deposit from tenant presumably you can file a lawsuit in small claims court or superior court (with attorney).

Holes in the wall can get fixed in a weekend. Not sure how you will prove to court one weekend of work took you a month to finish? I mean you might have a claim on lost income from 2 days of the unit not being able to be rented, but I promise you the cost of attorney representing you in court is more expensive than fixing the holes and getting a new tenant. But up to you. Feel free to call an attorney, they charge by the 1/10th hour :)

Let's be honest, you're really upset. Get over it. Some tenants are crazy AF! At least now you can do some rehab and raise rents! Yay property ownership!

3 Things to avoid in life.

1) Evictions

2) Hoarders

3) Crazy cat ladies

Are you really still wondering what to do?

Without an eviction proceeding and the Sheriff on site to forcibly remove tenants and their property, you are stuck writing letters,asking them nicely, waiting, praying, hiring someone to help.

Used to work for a company that had issues with squatters and in particular, a certain tenant who intentionally screwed the company by forcing us to file an eviction, and then proving we (or rather the attorneys) processed it wrong, and then causing us to start over... In this case, during the move-out day, a rep from our company physically occupied the residence and once tenant was out, made sure that locks were rekeyed and tenant was not abale to even step foot in the unit.  Not saying your tenants are like this...

The answer to your question lies in what challenges the tenants face. Are they having trouble because they have too much crap? Are they physically limited? Are they broke?  You need to figure out what is slowing them down, how much they will cost you by delaying, how much it would take to speed up the process, etc.. Maybe they just need the number of a good mover and a local storage facility.  Many people, when living somewhere for years, acquire literal boatloads (or RV loads) of stuff and just don't have a plan for it. They might not be hoarders, but they also might not want to just give away half of their belongings...Oh capitalism!

I would check with attorney on the entire situation, including withholding deposit for pro-rated extra time they are staying. On the note of deposits, what is the condition of the place? Will there be anything left of the deposit to cover pro-rated rent if you can charge it? Sometimes better to not offer this option since it might encourage tenants to stay longer? Not sure.

Bottom line, while you don't necessarily need to take legal action, I would be prepared to at least understand your options, costs involved, and appropriate letters that you need to send them if they are not holding up their end of the move-out agreement.

Be firm and clear on your expectations, costs to both parties, and timelines and put EVERYTHING in writing to your tenants, even if you have verbal conversations, put a letter to them summarizing it. 

Hopefully things go smoothly, and I promise the more effort you put into clear and concise communication in the beginning, the less chance tenant will get upset as a result of unexpected outcomes (like starting an eviction process, if only because you have to protect yourself).

Source - years working in real estate. Not a licensed professional.

First question, why is a title company not handling the transfer of funds and escrow accounts? I would be leery of any private company requesting my funds go through them instead of a legitimate and national title company.

 https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/CBS/SearchResult... Well address matches listing for their business, always a good start. 

I guess he gives information speeches to private investors? That seems cool.  https://nextdoor.com/events/ca/san-diego/learn-the...

You could probably call this brokerage and ask for "dirt" or Mr. Spring :) - www.graffrealtyinc.com/cashflow-101 for more info.

I would also check with some local title companies in the area. Ask if they have ever heard of him, his company, and see what their response is. If he is doing 1031 deals all day long, the title companies should know of his team's work.

Have you spoken with Mr. Spring in the past? 

I would ask the company for some references.