All Forum Posts by: Richard D.

Orion, you may also want to check your occupancy laws there in California. I know in Texas there are laws that you have to have x number of rooms for y number of people, based on age.

I am considering opening a business that offers a proxy bidder service for local property auctions. I have only seen this done in California. Does anyone know if it is legal to do in Texas?

@Justin Brophy I have off market property with little to no rehab, currently rented property available at $125,000 in the Saginaw area of DFW. This home is off the MLS because the owners want a quick sale, to get out and don't want to pay a realitor. They have moved to Parker County, and rented the property for their mortgage payments. Renters have 1 year left on lease. The property is a 2006 build, 3-2-2 1288 sq ft in Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD. The renters have a three year payment history. Message me for more details.

Hiro, Texas is so diversified within its business and industrial sectors, you shouldn't be overly concerned with the locations. Texas has, is, and always will remain a place for opportunity.  Schools on the other hand are deal breakers in Texas. Do your homework, and if you want good schools, follow the money. 

As a product of Arlington-Sam Houston High School, I can say the AISD schools are nowhere the same caliber today as they were when I attended.  I would recommend areas like Katy (near Houston), Southlake, Frisco, Highland Park or Aledo (all in DFW area), even Georgetown in the Austin area, for your better public schools.

If Tarrant county is your first choice,  I suggest Southlake, Grapevine-Colleyville,  followed by Keller and Northwest or H-E-B. Avoid FWISD, and Arlington. If you want to live in Arlington, move far enough south to be in Mansfield ISD, better schools.

Danny You can, however titling Mobile Homes in Texas is not always as simple as filing a deed at the county clerks office. Also, titles for mobile homes are easily clouded in Texas, and tax liens could be placed on a home even if the home is current on taxes under the half payment option of property tax code. 

The TDHCA does require title transfers in Texas to be filed within 90 days of sale. This may cause you time constraints to get taxes and liens cleared quickly, which can be costly. The converse is true as well, you could make large profits in short periods of time, especially buying older mobile homes with clean records. Check liens through the state at :

http://mhweb.tdhca.state.tx.us/mhweb/title_view.js...

Then you have relocation issues. If you buy an abandoned mobile home you most likely need to move it. Cost to move mobile homes can be and are usually costly. I have one company that use, they start at $2500 and go up depending on size and weight of the home, and distance they move the home. If you are smart, find a park that is desperately trying to unload abandoned homes, it will save you money. Hopefully, they will even rent you the lot, and you can flip a home without moving it.

TDHCA also requires all taxes be paid through the current calendar year. This can cause you an additional expense since the tax offices in Texas work in arrears. So unless you have transactions from October-December, you will be prepaying property taxes (additional cost).

The abandonment process affects tax liens and amounts due under the Texas Occupations code. This is a benefit to you, if you find the right deals. Check with mobile home parks if they have homes they need to sale that are abandoned.

So to sum up the basics, due diligence is your friend. Small issues can cause huge losses, good preparations secure your profits.

To protect your interest, you may want to consider purchasing the property at auction. This hold especially true, if the owner cannot be located.

John, what area are you looking?

I would recommend you read up on redemption of properties and the laws concerning it. Even though I specialize in tax foreclosure, my knowledge is for he state of Texas, and each states laws are different. So you may want to consider some of the following questions:

What is the redemption period for tax sales?

What is my recourse should the property be redeemed and I have made repairs?

What is my rate of return on my investment? 

Would financing be a viable option in this scenario, if the property is to be redeemed?

In Texas, my simple answer is go for it, because redemption period is six months on non-homestead properties.  As long as you only do repairs within that time frame that bring the building up to code, you lose nothing and can get repaid 25% above your costs.

I work Parker, Johnson &  Tarrant Counties in the DFW area. Home here tend to be valued 10-30% lower than other areas like Collin, Dallas, Denton and Rockwall counties (makeup the DFW metroplex).  This is a very large area, and 500 k can buy a lot of homes if you look in the right areas. 

Right now I currently have a flip under contract for $125k in Eagle Mountain Saginaw ISD area (Fort Worth) current rent so $1050. Current owner accepted it as rent for mortgage so they could move to Parker County.  Area rents go for $1400-$1750 for comparable homes. 

I am also working an off market flip for under 100k (River Oaks ISD) with rent potential of $1200 a mo. So all you need to do is find serious sellers. Ask the right questions of the agent, and you could make killer profits, bucking trendy places like Frisco. At the same time Frisco is Frisco, soon to be home of the Dallas Cowboys.

The usefulness of the information is going to be based on your needs. A lot of times a CADs information can be old and outdated. Other times it can be very useful, because they do try and research their information just like we as investors do.

I would not want to rely on CADs as my only source of information though. Like I said in my original post, they have a 3 year window for some of their information to be updated. This window is allowed by Texas Law. Even ownership information may not be exactly accurate.

Example: At TAD.org if the first owner listed says they owned since 1900? It may not be true, they would be the builders of the home most likely, but not necessarily the original owners of the property.

Example #2: I just picked up a property @ 1327 E. Morphy in Fort Worth. The original plat does not match owner records. It shows a Bobby Washington as the original owner for the address. I have found through my search of mineral records that the address listed above was owned by someone else and the address was different in 1905.

The MLS is far more accurate, because you can locate information you need that may be as little as minutes old. In Texas, certain information in not public, websites like Zillow and Trulia are only guessing its information through formulas they have developed.

@Jerry Puckett has it right. MLS is most accurate for comps. Investway is a good tool as well. I myself also pull tax records, and deed records on my own since they are public records. Usually when searching deed information (especially in Tarrant County) you can find lien information as well. This can effect offers because they will cloud your titles.

Be sure to check for name variations as well. Sometimes the CADs don't have enough room in their system for a full name so they will abbreviate names.

Examples:

James Ray Washington Jr. Could be: James R Washington Jr. or J R Washington Jr. or J Washington Jr., etc.

CAD may list as: E. D. Smith. Could be: Ed D Smith, E David Smith, Edwin David Smith, etc.

Also watch the Latin verbiage used by CADs.

Etux-means "and wife"
Etvir-means "and husband"
Et Al-means "and others"

I found Et Al is the most deceiving. It could be 2, 3, 4, or more other people.

Moral of the comment: Verify all your sources, know their limitations. Understand their business model and the rules they must follow. There are companies that promise the moon, and deliver only the level of dirt found on the space ship going to the moon. Cross check sources, and possible variations of data.

Many call this over analysis, but it will save you headaches in the future, and can be done fairly quickly if you know what you are looking for and looking at. It has saved me from making a $20,000 mistake in the past.