All Forum Posts by: David Friedman

Definitely do a title search. Order title insurance. Ask for a payoff statement from all beneficiaries. just because they owe 215 does it mean they have an extra amount in arrears that you would need to pay to bring all of the loans current. I wouldn't do anything until you are sure of the loan situation. Don't risk your time or money without knowing everything.

Hello @Jessica Farr. Welcome to BP. I am a real estate broker/investor that works Riverside/San Bernardino County, more specifically the Inland Empire. I am not too far from Corona and my company actually owns several rental homes in Riverside, Eastvale and Corona.

Palos Verdes is a great place to retire. What a goal that would be! My best advice to you is to meet with several Realtors or Brokers and interview them to see who can offer you the service you are looking for. Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions. Make 2016 a great year!

@Aaron Mazzrillo This is true. If you can bring a deal to the table, that can be just as important as having cash. Less competition if you create the deal through marketing.

That's great! It's always good to have family in your corner. There are a lot of people on BP who have stories about their unsupportive friends and family. If you ever need help analyzing a property or need advice on which direction to take please feel free to private message or email me. BP is also good at analyzing deals. If you have a good deal and you want to ask BP for their help analysing, just make sure to leave out certain identifying information like the property address. Many people are good at heart and will help you, but still be cautious all the same.

Hello @Radhika M.. Congratulations on starting so early in life. I begin learning and investing in real estate at the age of 18 as well. $10,000 is also a good start, but to really use that money to its fullest you will likely need to leverage and finance your first deal. $10,000 could be a down payment for a $200,000 house, but you most likely need another $5,000 for miscellaneous costs and escrow fees. You might want to save even more than that in case something on the property breaks. I suggest researching about FHA loans and if you are in Diamond Bar, you may want to start looking out in the Inland Empire for deals around $200,000. Unless you have cash your access to foreclosure properties will most likely be slim. Besides researching about FHA loans, start networking with family or friends and keep making new friends. Try to keep learning and show them your knowledge. One of the most powerful tools in real estate is called OPM or other people's money. Best of luck. You have a long and great path ahead of you.

Hello @Sarah Larbi. I own a vacation rental that is popular during "American Summers." All joking aside, the rental is in Palm Springs and high season for us is around September to March. We almost always rent it to Canadians seeking to get out of the cold. I am not sure if I can give you advice on the numbers, but we purchased the Palm Springs condo for $125,000 and it will rent for $3000 per month during high season. We use the condo ourselves during low season. Some important features of the community that I believe helps us to rent our condo at such a high price is that it has a pool/spa, is close to a downtown area and shopping. Think of what people like to do on vacation and that should help to answer some of your questions of what and where you should buy. The close it is to amenities the better. AirBnB is great and we use Craigslist as well. Once you a have a good reputation you will get many repeat customers who will take good care of your home. As far as the semantics of turnover and whatnot, charge a cleaning fee and require a minimum stay. Find a good local cleaning company and you can do most of the managing from behind your computer screen.

Auction.com has two different business models.

1. They deal with foreclosure properties and charge a bidder's premium as a % of the final bid price.

2. They deal with private entities that want to sell their property in an auction based scenario. This may or may not have a buyer's premium.

While scenario 1. may require cash or like cash, scenario 2. sometimes has the possibility of getting conventional financing.

Chicago Title in San Bernardino and American Title in Redlands are who I use for all of my transactions.

Most times when you buy a property from auction.com they charge a 3 to 5% buyers fee on the final sales price. That's a huge cost to think about.

It looks like they are behind in payments by a couple of months, but even with attorney fees it wouldn't amount to $280,000. Most likely they took out a second on the house. Many times I see homes going to auction that have been purchased for $150,000, but they owe $300,000 on because they refinanced or added a large second.