All Forum Posts by: Steven McPherson

While looking for wholesale deals, I found a seller who owns a little less than half acre lot. She currently has a single wide mobile home that is past the point of repair (will be demolished), the brush (trees, vegetation) is overgrown and needs to be cleared, and she is extremely motivated to sell.

I have a few questions:

1) The lot is located in a mixed use area, consisting of residential, mobile homes, and a few warehouses. There a several high-end single family homes and neighborhoods being built on the lots in the immediate vicinity (within a 1-2 minute walk). However, I cannot find any recent comps for similar sized lots. There are several for sale right now however. My question is, how exactly do I go about finding a value for the property?

3) Would you continue to pursue this deal if you can get the property at an excellent price? Should I reach out to the surrounding home builders to see if they are interested in buying?

 I hear this a lot.  Where did you go to find houses to analyze?  Zillow, Craigslist?  How are you supposed to do it if you have not visited the property and figured the rehab costs?  Just wanting to know so that I can practice analyzing deals as well...

@Brian Gibbons have you personally had success with using that service?

I have finished reading @Brandon Turner's Book on Investing with No and Low Money Down.  Thankfully, my eyes are open to the other strategies which will make me a more powerful investor especially since I currently do not have much money to start off with.  I wish I would have known about them sooner.

I have a concern, however: After reading the chapters on owner-finance and lease-options, the thought that started running through my head was "Where am I going to find the money to pay an attorney to write up these contracts?"  So my question is: do I need an attorney in order to write up contracts?  If so, I would imagine that it will cost me some money which I currently do not have.

Any advice?

This is all very good information.  Thank you all for your help.

@J Scott when you say adjust for intangibles of the property, can you elaborate?  Are you talking about things like market demand, good schools, crime, things that a customer looks for in location?

@Manny Cirino the good thing is, I work for my City's building inspections department (which is why the builder came to me for this information), so I will be able to help in the permit and zoning process.  I guess in order to find an average of the cost-to-build, profits, etc., I'm going to have to start getting some information from local builders, correct?  Are builders usually ok with giving out this information?

@Bill Gulley very good point in that last paragraph.  I don't want to be taken advantage of, which is why I plan on treating it as a wholesale deal or utilize some other form of creative financing.

Eventually, after work my way up and gain the experience, I will become a builder myself.  I figured this is a good starting point that might be overlooked in my market.

I posted this on another board but I wanted to see if I could get some info from a builder's perspective as well...

I've got a buyer wanting to find some vacant lots in my area to build on. I'm planning to treat this like a wholesale transaction so that I get paid a finders fee. In valuing the vacant lot, do I use comps the same way that I would value a built property? What if there are no other vacants in the vicinity? Any advice? Thanks.

Thanks for that info Art.

I've got a buyer wanting to find some vacant lots in my area to build on.  I'm planning to treat this like a wholesale transaction so that I get paid a finders fee.  In valuing the vacant lot, do I use comps the same way that I would value a built property?  What if there are no other vacants in the vicinity?  Any advice?  Thanks.

I have decided that I'm starting out by bird-dogging for other investors and wholesalers.  I have met a few and they said they would be willing to pay me finder's fee for any good leads.  I don't want to be taken advantage of, so does anybody have advice for ensuring that they are compensating me for the leads they convert into deals?

Very informative, thank you.