All Forum Posts by: Erin Elam
Erin Elam has started 44 posts and replied 336 times.
Originally posted by @Gina Petrosyan:
@Frank C. I wonder if you ended up making that purchase with Realtybid and how the title insurance issue go? I’m planning to bid on a property and am hesitant with title uncertainty.
Any updates?
Post: Best Texas Online Auctions?

- Little Elm, TX
- Posts 356
- Votes 47
Originally posted by @Kailey Von Barandy:
Hello everyone,
I am looking for recommendations for the best resources to buy Texas properties via online auctions. Hubzu doesn't seem to have the best of reputation, and there seems to be more than a few options when I do a relevant internet search. Anyone have any experience with the following websites? :
Auction.com
RealtyBid.com
Realtytrac.com
Hudsonandmarshall.com
Williamsauction.com
Treasury.gov
Thank you in advance!
Kailey von Barandy
Hi Kailey,
Did you ever end up using an auction? I've looked for online auction suggestions in the forums and to my surprise there really isn't an in-depth forum that suggests or deters some of the auctions you mention. I get a sense with auction.com it's hit or miss, I've read that B4A or ************** will post properties that are inhabitable and/or keep funds even when a county removes the property from the auction. Do you have any further insight since you posted this question?
TIA,
Erin
Post: Handling first time buy from bid4assets with a quit-claim deed

- Little Elm, TX
- Posts 356
- Votes 47
Originally posted by @Sarang Gupta:
Howdy!
So I just purchased my first property, through a decidedly not-easy way - buying a forclosed property online with a quit claim deed. Before bidding, I checked county records for the property's title, and it looks like this belonged in an MBS that was foreclosed on and finally sold to the eventual seller, who is unloading it on **********. As far as I understand, I don't have any liability to pay off the mortgage, and only responsible for the eventual property taxes. Here's what my title search looks like:
Am I correct in this assessment, and clear to go ahead with my purchase? And there is no reason for me to seek title insurance, because there are no outstanding liens that could hurt me, right?
If down the road, I wanted to sell this property, would I first need to get title insurance on the house?
Thanks a lot for the help! I am a big fan of the podcasts and they motivated to finally pull the trigger
Please detail your experience with B4A... ridiculous fees? Clouded title issues? Extended closings? I'm looking at this over auction.com and would to know where best to pursue.
TIA,
Erin
Post: Best Texas Online Auctions?

- Little Elm, TX
- Posts 356
- Votes 47
Originally posted by @Sammy G.:
@Kailey Von Barandy You can drive-by each property you are interested in. Usually we take pics from outside just to recall which all properties we have visited to take notes. Auction.com does not have tax delinquent properties, they only list trustee foreclosures.
Hi Sammy, on this thread you mentioned purchasing tax delinquent properties. Do you purchase them online? If so, what site? If not, how do you get that list?
TIA,
Erin
Post: Looking for a general contractor in Detroit Michigan

- Little Elm, TX
- Posts 356
- Votes 47
Originally posted by @Jateh Major:
This is a residential project which will require multiple types of work from flooring, roofing, to installation of a bathroom, etc. Do you happen to know anyone in the Detroit area who could help out with this that is used to working with investors?
@Wendy Patton
Great question!
Hope you don't mind my hopping in :). I'd also like to know the answer(s) to this inquiry.
Thanks
Post: Anybody familiar with Harper Park Michigan ?

- Little Elm, TX
- Posts 356
- Votes 47
Originally posted by @Robert Smith:
Harper Woods or Highland Park? Both in the Detroit area. I'm an agent in the area.
Hi I'm looking for information on Highland Park. What grade is mostly given to this area?
Post: List source alternative for South Carolina

- Little Elm, TX
- Posts 356
- Votes 47
Originally posted by @Brian Crowe:
Trying to find tax data for South Carolina. You mentioned
investum-data (dot) com
Not sure I have the site correct. Do you know if this site is still working?
Thank you,
I've tried to sign up for this site 3 times now. Everytime I hit Register I get an error that says SQLSTATE and Query Exception. @Brian Crowe were you able to register?
Post: mailchimp problems - who do you use for e-mail sending

- Little Elm, TX
- Posts 356
- Votes 47
Originally posted by @Alex Mikhals:
so, I have an opt-in list , of Buyers and Sellers , that I collected over the last 10 years. I decided to give mail chimp a try and after spending 2 hours, buying one of their templates, activating a landing page, and entering the email text, they told me a BOT had detected that words in my EMAIL such as VACANT , HOMES , LEADS , all violated their acceptable use policy - terms of service.
Here is the email I tried to send out through mailchimp, that got FLAGGED and got my account restricted/blocked:
Hi, I just got a list of Vacant Homes within the city of Las Vegas.
List is single family homes that went vacant from May 1st to
June 18th
List has full addresses, within the entire city of Las Vegas.
.25 cents an address
Alex
https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/AlexM472
--------------
that's the entire AD. I hate mailchimp, they are not investor or real estate friendly. is Aweber any better?
Did you ever figure out why MailChimp blocked you?
Post: HELP??!! FTP file for Tax Delinquent list - ID10T error alert

- Little Elm, TX
- Posts 356
- Votes 47
Originally posted by @Ed Tamayo:
@Erin Elam A .DAT file is by definition, a non standard file format.
It might be posible that the file matches the more standard definition of a ,CSV file or that of a .txt file.
My suggestion would be to rename the file so that it ends en .CSV and try to open it with Excel. If that does not work, rename it to end in .TXT and try to read it with notepad.
If all that fails, or to get extremely delinquent tax lists, you can try https://investum-data.com
Thanks Ed for that information. My issue was that when I tried to rename in my file explorer, 'rename' was not even an option - it was grayed out. The county responded and said they created the files with Filezilla. I thought Filezilla was just a pass-through option from computers where files created using various programs could be uploaded - does Filezilla actually create files?
I'll take a look at the link you provided as well - thank you.
Post: HELP??!! FTP file for Tax Delinquent list - ID10T error alert

- Little Elm, TX
- Posts 356
- Votes 47
Originally posted by @Neil Narayan:
Just FYI, FileZilla is a well know open-source free program that is widely used and highly rated. As long as you download it from a safe site e.g. SourceForge you should be good to use it.
Thanks Neil, SourceForge was exactly the complaint I kept seeing in reviews. The reviews say SourceForge also installs malware and spyware when Filezilla is downloaded.