All Forum Posts by: Patrick L.

Not sure why you figured the payoff would only be a few thousand more than the original principal balance when the mortgage hadn't been paid in years and a foreclosure case had been filed. Tack on all back interest, legal fees, property preservation, taxes, insurance, etc and you're going to going to have a payoff amount much larger than just the UPB.

This is what happens when you don't do you research and when you start dealing in things you aren't qualified to handle.  If you had a license you'd probably know to get a payoff before you start trying to sign contracts with someone else.  You'd probably have the buyer sign disclosures and add a condition about the maximum payoff amount to sell at that price.   Instead you're running around acting like an agent without a license and without the understanding of what you're doing and of course you're going to open yourself up to being sued if you screw up.  

Seems like this would be an accounting headache unless you're talking about doing limited large purchases at the retailers.  I generally have around 1,000 charges per year at home improvement stores and it's much easier to be able to export my credit card data when tax time comes around vs digging through paper receipts associated with 100's of random gift cards.   The gift cards also offer you no protection if lost or stolen.  

It's your bill, you're talking about funding your escrow account to pay your bills going forward.  It's not a bill, it's the money you're going to need in that account to pay the bills in the future.   If they had missed a lien on the property or something else that adversely affected your title then that would be on them.  

Just because a lease ends doesn't mean the tenants are going to move out unless you're doing something like student housing. Looking at the last 30 properties I've bought and rehabbed (2012-2015), 26 still have the original tenants I placed, 3 are on the second set, and 1 is on the 3rd (and I don't think they're ever planning on moving).  

I carry a commercial policy with about 40 properties under a single policy.   I have a wind exclusion on those properties which puts more risk on me but takes the cost down to about 30% of what you'd pay for a policy through someone like Citizens on Florida property.   I think I pay like $11k for property coverage and $4k for $1M/2M liability and another $1.4k for my additional umbrella liability  policy on 40 properties.   I'd be willing to give up property coverage but I would always max out on liability insurance.  I can deal with losing a property and it wouldn't effect me but a big liability claim can wipe you out.  

Had something similar happen 2 weeks ago but luckily the drunk driver that hit my rental was slowed down by taking out a telephone pole, a couple street signs and my vinyl fence so the vehicle didn't make it through the house.  

 Fair enough....it was the $25/hr thing that made me think he might not actually be licensed.   I don't know any licensed and insured guys that will work for that rate around here.  

Did you verify his license?   A lot of guys say they're licensed when they aren't and can even pull permits for you but often it's under someone else's license who they have to kick back a fee to each time.   I would have asked him about the $500 on the first invoice rather than assuming anything. 

You can spend more time and money to get a judgement that isn't worth the paper it's on or you can use it as a learning experience of what not do next time.  Never take a check.  

 In Florida when you win the auction you have 24 hours to pay in full.   Once you pay a deed can be issued and at the latest will be issued the following day.   

The issue is you do not have "marketable title." so you cannot sell the property through a standard closing.   You can quit claim it with no title insurance or guarantee of clear title.   You can do a quiet title action.  You can use a company like Cleartosell.com which will certify the tax deed (for around $2700 and 3 weeks)  and certain underwriters will be willing to insure the title based on their certification.  

As far as the process described by John Rodgers I do not know of a single underwriter in Florida that will issue a title policy on a tax deed property inside of 4 years that has not had quiet title/cleartosell certification. If you found a title company with an underwriter willing to do those please let me know, I'd love to save $3k/property and avoid quiet title.