All Forum Posts by: Mike Alder

I received a call from an investor the other day that had 4 houses he wanted to unload. When I asked why he was selling he replied that his partner bounced on him and left him with these D class homes he wanted nothing to do with. 

I took down the addresses, told him I would check them out this week and follow up with an offer. He called me the very next day to see if I looked at them yet. I told him I didn't but gave him a date that I could go visit them. He told me he really wanted to get rid of them (talk about motivation) as they were a constant reminder of his bad partner. I know a lot of investors in my area so I asked who his partner was. He gave me his name and I only replied with O-boy! This guy is a very well known con in our area and I've met several investors that he took for $50k-$100K over the years. I even financed him on a property several years ago and although he lived in a very affluent part of town I would have to drive to his gated community to shake him down every month. What this investor told me next blew my mind he told me this guy blew through $1.5 million of his money over the years and now has left him high and dry! BARF!

It gets worse, I looked at the properties and 3 of the 4 were horrible! Most of my investments are in C&D class areas and I wanted nothing to do with them. I made an offer on the 3 and suggested he go traditional with the 4th to try and recoup something. I'm sure we will have a deal in the next few days.

The reason I share this is to remind us no matter how charming our partners come off ALWAYS have a 3rd party attorney write up very clear partnership agreements to help prevent things like this from happening. The buddy system doesn't exist this is a business and needs to be treated like one.

Have you come across situations like this before?

Hey @Brian Cam

Thanks for sharing! It's cool to hear what is effective in other markets! Bandit signs get my phone ringing but have been a low conversion for me. I agree that craigslist is great for deals! Calling investors and homeowners on there has been effective for me

Hey BP,

I recently shared that I went old school and started using classified ads to target motivated sellers. This strategy is working great for me but I'm interested in what  strategies other members are utilizing to target highly motivated sellers?

 @Steve Vaughan 

Yep, I have 4 kids so my accountant likes to show me the difference before and after but that's the cost of doing business :)

Keep me in the loop with your business! I'd like to hear more of what you have going on in Washington

Thanks @Steve Vaughan! that would be cool to take it back in better condition but we both know that almost never happens lol! I've been structuring seller financing deals since 08 as there is a huge demand for financing (even on these cheap ones) in my market. 

In recent years I've dabbled in lending hard money for investors but that's only when I have extra money sitting. Eventually I'd like majority of my portfolio consist of notes. That has been the most passive income I've experienced in this biz!

Thanks @Steve Vaughan!

This was an investor planning on a fix & flip strategy for this one and yes houses sell for the price of mobile homes in Cleveland lol!

Yep, I realize we can get dragged into court over he said she said circumstances but with his lack of effort and response to resolve this I'm currently not too worried. If this deal takes a big U-turn I'll be sure to update this post so others in this situation will know

Morning BP Fam,

I recently had an investor default on a $300.00 per month note! What's interesting about this is the investor placed a $2,000 down payment and was spot on for 4 months with the payments then everything stopped. I tried several times to work it out with the investor as I really don't like taking properties back but 90 days with no payment it's time!

Here is what is interesting about this, when I sold him the property he requested that we do not file the land contract as he was going through a divorce so this was done on a handshake! 90 days later that decision may of saved me some extra legal headaches.

I've had notes go bad in the past but in 7 years this scenario is a first for me!

@Jay Hinrichs That is awesome! Thanks for sharing and inspiring!

Hey @Jay Hinrichs,

Thank for sharing the resources! I'll check out that movie. It's funny you mention LeHigh Acres that was my first land investment after the crash. Are you currently investing in land? If so where at? Thanks

What's up BP Fam,

Last night I had the opportunity to interview the land geeks Mark Podolsky. If you are not familiar with Mark, he buys and sells land on financing terms describing it as "the best passive income model there is!"

This certainly sparked my interest and I already own land in Florida that I purchased for next to nothing after the market crashed so I figured I'd put this to the test. I plan on sending out 1500 direct mail letters (100 going out this morning) to Florida land investors to test this strategy. If the results are good I'll diversify into this, if the results are lousy then it is still something I can blog about. Either way I'll share my results here!

Please share your thoughts or experiences with this!