All Forum Posts by: Timothy Frazier

Had a tenant apply and ran her through my traditional screening with landlordstation.com. Came back social security number was off by 1 digit and not likely issued before 2011. But the info in the report seemed accurate and like it was hers. I don’t have many tenants and don’t do many reports so I was wondering if anyone else had ever seen something like this.

Have a rental which is the right side of a duplex.

Left side has been abandoned for 5 years, it was abandoned when I bought it.

Despite numerous attempts by myself and the neighbors to get the borough to do something about it they have done nothing. What they constantly say is the owner passed away, there was no will, and none of the kids set up an estate. There’s nobody they can sue or fine. Blah blah blah.

Here’s the real catch now. My house needs some structural improvements and I’ve sent out PEs/SEs to asses and get some quotes. They all tell me the same thing: that house next door is sinking/collapsing and it’s pulling my house with it. There’s not even a point of attempting structural improvements for mine until that one is torn down. Also that house has no gutters and all the runoff is dumping towards me which is causing damage to my place.

There’s no way the borough can sit on it like this and cause me this much risk. Not to mention the fact that there’s animals all throughout that house that can crawl through holes and into my ceilings, disturb tenants, etc.

It’s obviously within the borough bylaws and codes to tear it down they just won’t do it. Anyone ever go through anything like this or have any advice? I think I’m going to get a signed structural report by the PE and show it to the borough, either they tear it down or I take them to court.

@Trent Burns

Yes you need to, I always put at the end of the sales agreement “Buyer is a licensed real estate agent in the state of Pennsylvania.”

Also I have had agents purchase property I have listed they include that same language as well.

@Eric Deacon

Home inspector from investment perspective.

Being a realtor will come with a lot more cost and regulation. Depending on the brokerage you’ll owe $250+ per month in fees whether you sell anything or not. You’re much better off just finding a good realtor to work with and having them do the work for you.

Home inspection would allow you to self evaluate your properties a bit better especially if you are looking off market. But again you could always just pay someone to inspect it for you.

@LaMiracle Schaefer

You will have to be a bit careful when transferring the property from your name to your LLC if you have a mortgage. That mortgage will be in your name. When transferring to LLC the bank could look at that as a transfer of title and execute the due on sale clause as if you were selling the property to someone else. I think it's best to just pick one way from the get go and leave the property in whichever you choose. As someone else pointed out the financing terms if you deed LLC will not be as good as conventional mortgage but if you can afford it on those numbers I would do that.

@Jake Soper

Hey Jake-

Yes I hand write all the letters. Recently I bought a machine that can write and hold a pen and have been testing out different fonts, colors, scripts, etc. You basically can’t tell the difference between this and my hand so it makes it easy to change the script up. Thanks for the reply and good luck.

@Jay Hinrichs

Thanks Jay!

And fair enough direct mail always needs a ton of volume. I’ll see what I can do to tweak it some from my end.

Been hitting yellow letters hard for some off market deals. All going to absentee owners in zip codes I’m interested in. Started off ok but been going cold lately. Here’s my script:

Dear Bob-

Hello, my name is Tim Frazier, and recently I came across your property at 123 ABC St in Green Township. I am very interested in purchasing this property myself. If by chance you would like to discuss this opportunity, please contact me at anytime.

Best regards.

-Tim Frazier

I use yellow lined paper, red ink. Envelope is small and white, trying to make it look like an invitation.

Give me your best script. Do you have one that works? What would you change about this one?

@Lucas Duncan

Think about it like this you are asking a seller to finance you the house because a bank won’t approve you. That alone makes you high risk.

Sellers carry a ton of risk when they seller finance someone a property. Really the only way to entice anyone to do it is to raise the price. It’s virtually impossible to get someone to agree to it with no money up front. But it also depends on the condition of the property. The worse condition it’s in the better chance you have of getting someone to seller finance.

Say a house is in great shape and worth $200k. You offer a seller $250k seller financed but with no money up front. That’s not really $250k it’s just a piece of paper. Two months in your tenant trashes the place and you just quit paying, sure the seller gets the property back but now it’s worth less than the $200k it was before.

I would also offer a 5 year balloon up front and see if they take it. They may want less you’ll have to decide for yourself.

Also would not use an agent, if they know you can’t qualify for a loan they will think it’s too hard to find you a property AND a seller willing to do it.

Just my two cents best of luck.

@Cameron Phillips

No that’s about right the lack of inventory out there is sending the market sky high. Only people buying are those who can afford the types of offers that you can’t. Not to sound blunt but that’s happening all over the place. Selling agents want appraisal contingencies waived bc they know the sales prices just keep going up and they don’t want to have to give back hand money and put the property back on the market.