All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Ok, thanks for all of the info, I really appreciate it.  This was very helpful.

Hello, me and a group of about a dozen friends are going to form an LLC to pool our money together to purchase some rental properties. We should have a decent amount of money between the group of us, but it won't be enough to purchase something outright. Nobody will want to take out a traditional mortgage in their personal name, so all financing will be through the LLC.

What kind of financing options will be available to us?

What should be our first few steps to start to research potential lenders?

What percent should we expect to have to bring to the table? 20%, 30%, etc.

Is there a certain type of property that would be easier to obtain financing on then others? Multifamily, mixed-use, apartments, etc.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

In my experience, the postcards don't really work.  I've had the best response from a 2 page letter.  1 page is intro/instructions, the 2nd page is a simple offer agreement they sign and return. 

@Austin Chandler You need to contact the County Treasurer directly and request a list of property owners with back due taxes owed.  All counties will have this information in their database, they have to track it for billing and their own records.  Most counties will charge for the list, but they all will provide it once they understand what exactly you are looking for.  Once you get the list, you will then need to filter it to just find vacant land, usually there will be Use Code or similar way to identify vacant land vs other types of properties in the list.

Here's a helpful blog post about the subject: http://retipster.com/delinquent-tax-list/

The course mainly helps to organize the various aspects of the business.  It won't give you all of the details about how exactly to do everything, but it will give you a good picture of what you need to be doing to be successful. He also includes a lot of bonus content like contracts, agreements, etc. that you can customize and use when starting out. He still offers a refund if you buy and sell a property within 6 months of purchasing the program, so I don't really see why somebody wouldn't purchase it. If anything, it will motivate you to get moving to make sure you get that first sale within 6 months. 

I used a combination of the Land Geek program and all of the great free info over at the RETipster blog to fill in some details about building a website, setting up a phone line, sending mailings, researching properties and performing a closing yourself.  

I would suggest the following due diligence:

• Call the county assessor and confirm they actually own the property. This can also be done online if the county has a good website.
• Order a cheap ($180) title search from somebody like titlesearch.com.
• Call the county zoning dept and confirm the zoning.
• Call the county treasurer and confirm no back taxes owed.

Another great FREE resource is Podcasts.  Land Geek has 2 now, and the Land Academy has 1 as well.  There is a lot of great information and motivation on there, but you will still need a formal education to get started.  I would treat the podcasts as a supplement to whichever formal education path you choose.

A good start would be @Jay M.'s ebook, "Raw Land Investing Simplified" available on Amazon. It's only $10 and will give a good, but brief overview of the business and all the moving parts. Reading that should either excite you or talk you out of starting down this road. Either way, it should give you some clarity on what you want to do next.

For more detailed information about how to pick a county, send a mailing, perform due diligence, close a property yourself, create a listing, and ultimately sell it, you should buy one of the "guru" programs available from The Land Geek or the Land Academy.  I personally purchased the Land Geek one and have been having success with it.  A free but maybe less thorough route is the RETipster blog, most of the same information is there, but it will take more effort on your part to put it all together. Depends if you want to save time or money, either way, get the proper education first.

Once you have a basic education under your belt, I would suggest joining the private Facebook group "Land Motivation". You can search for it on Facebook and find it.  It's all land investors who have already received a basic education and are now doing deals. It's a great place to troubleshoot one-off things that come up as well as ask for best practices and tips from experienced people.

If you have any specific questions, you can always message me directly.

Good Luck!

Steven, why are you looking for a partner?

Check out comps on the main land websites: LandWatch.com, LandandFarm.com, LandsofAmerica.com. Depending on the county, you may be able to pull up sales data from assessor or treasurers website as well.