All Forum Posts by: Derek W.

Hopefully you don't. Bandit signs are tacky, cheesy, and give "real" investors a bad reputation. I don't know of a single experienced, successful investor that uses bandit signs. 

I'm a third vote for @k. Marie poe

@Account Closedundefined

"Hi, I'm really interested in this house. I'm hoping that for the right price it could be for sale. Could you tell me more about it?"

@David Dey I like the first half of your post, but Do you think that the second part is good advice to a newbie? He is not sure yet how to pull comps, and you think that buying out fractional interest in the estate is a good idea? My advice would be he finds a local expert in probate investing and partner the deal with them. That way he can learn and earn.

Unless you know more info than you have stated, why is the girl friend a "mysterious squatter". It sounds like she is both known and has some sort of legal standing. At a minimum there is a legal tenant standing.  

Let's use an example: my lady and I live in a house together for many years. For a myriad of reason we never legally marry. But she pays a good portion of the bills and helps me with the up keep of the property. Our intent is to live in the house forever, raise our family, and live happily ever after. We profess this to each other often. I may have even written this down somewhere. Then I suddenly die. My devoted lady is devastated and heart broken. Now an investor comes along who is sniffing  out a personal profit off of the loss, and refers to her as a mysterious squatter on a public forum asking what the best way to kick her to the curb is? Hmmm.

@Sam M. I was circling that house on Nichols for a few weeks. 

I attend a lot of auctions and am constantly surprised at what people do. At a trustee sale auction I watched two bidders fighting for a house in Moreno Valley. It went for around 85% arv. Really tight margin. I asked the winning bidder "was it a nice house?" "It looked good on Google maps" he replied. I didn't have the heart to tell him it burned down 3 months ago!

If you are trying to buy the asset, you are going to make your offer for the highest amount you can pay and still make the necessary desired profit. If the seller accepts your offer, you open escrow. The escrow and title companies will figure out what needs to be paid from the proceeds. It's not your problem. If you are trying to buy the equity, I would suggest you do a lot more home work before trying that route. 

What's snow removal?

@Account Closed I'm trying to figure out if you are being serious our sarcastic. either you haven't really been through this process, or Texas is way different from California. Having dealt with dozens of squatters over many years, I can assure you that in California This would be a great way to get yourself arrested and give the squatters grounds for staying a really long time. 

I can tell by your questions that you are very smart! So you will be fine. Probate really isn't a niche by itself. It's really a conglomeration of many niches. The fact that someone died and real estate needs to be passed to someone else is simply a title problem. So I tend to think of probate as merely a title problem. Just because a house needs to go through the probate  process doesn't mean there is any opportunity for an investor, or a catalyst for a seller to need to sell. It is just one factor that may contribute to a catalyst. Opportunities come in the probate arena when there are other problems, usually people problems that left unsolved will delay or block the title process to transfer the property through probate. For instance, druggie relatives living rent free in a decedent's house with a fake will making claims of ownership. So there are many tools in a tool bag needed to solve a complicated probate deal and truly be of help to someone going through a hard time. if this is what excites you, keep going. Learn as much as you can about title and solutions to broken chain of title. Learn multiple ways and pays of solving real estate problems do you can be a blessing to someone else. A great resource for this is Rick the probate guy. He is an active member. Great web site with lots of tips