All Forum Posts by: Sean Brennan

Yeah, I agree with Brandon Turner... a blog about your process would be of interest to other investors but I don't think sellers want/need to hear about all the behind the scenes stuff.... its like when you go to a restaurant, do you want to see 20 people sweating and going nuts getting food ready, nah you just want a nice experience and a good atmosphere. lol. I am a newb but that is my opinion on it :)

Congrats Antonio Johnson. What do you think you can sell it for?

Thanks for the reply Brandon Turner

Yea, I have been researching other towns and there seems to be more activity in some. So that made me feel better :)

I found a much faster way to gauge this as well - Michael Quarles gives a quick trick in this post:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/88/topics/46184-help-from-massachusetts-investors-how-do-i-find-out-which-homes-were-bought-in-cash-?page=1#p234471

lol thanks Steve Babiak I actually posted in that thread before. I forgot about Micheal Quarles response which is exactly what I was looking for.

Does anyone know of a way to find transactions that were done for all cash (no mortgage). I am trying to select a town/city that has the most investor activity and I think this would be a good way to find out. I just can't think of how to do it :)

J Scott haha nice. Yea, I am overthinking it.

I just spend the last couple of hours researching the fix and flip market in my hometown, Chelmsord, MA. Here are the results:

Population: 33,802
Total Housing Units: 13,744
Single Family Detached Homes: 9,214
2012 Sales: 313
Median Price: $320,000

Next, I ran a public records search to identify all sales of homes in Chelmsford that sold for $30,000 - $200,000. This includes private sales. I figured under $30,000 were related party transactions and not legit deals. There were a total of 38 sales. Then I reviewed each sale and looked to see if there was a resale for more money or if it was listed on MLS as newly remodeled. I identified 8 fix and flips and two teardowns with new construction. Here are some of the details (the second price listed is either a list price or a re-sale price).

Fix and Flips
1 $166,500 $259,900
2 $141,000 $282,900
3 $131,000 $295,000
4 $172,000 $299,900
5 $199,000 $306,000
6 $165,000 $325,000
7 $144,279 $328,000
8 $190,000 $335,000
Teardowns
9 $198,000 $549,900
10 $192,000 $575,000

So, what conclusions can we draw from this? Well, I would say that 8 deals is a small amount. If you apply a similar ratio per population (8/33,802) you get 0.024%. Now suppose you want to get 15 deals per year and you were able to capture 10% of the market. You would need to focus on a population size of 15/0.00024/.1 or 625,000.

What do you think of this analysis? There are some major assumptions here but I wanted to get a realistic view of how many deals there actually out there. Do you think this could be accurate?

Haha thanks for the honest feedback Brandon

What do you guys think of Cedarwood Properties, LLC

Steve Babiak I am an appraiser and I look at deeds daily. You had me second guessing myself so I looked at the most recent deeds for the last 5 properties I appraised and they were all quitclaim deeds. The property types varied and included multifamily, industrial, land, etc.

I just read that quitlclaim deeds in MA are similar to "special warranty deeds" in other states. If that makes any sense.