All Forum Posts by: Calvin N.

I just got a listing on a foreclosed property located in a small, rural town. The previous owner lives in California and paid $888,000 for this property. Now this house is a historic Victorian home, 6 bedrooms, 6 baths, 8 fireplaces, 6500+ sq ft, 5 acres of land, pool, greenhouse, pole barn and lots of nice landscaping.

Move it out in the country, put it on a lake, move it to a gated community and maybe it would be worth $500,000+ but where it is now the average home is 42K and less than 1200 sq ft.

This is a prime example of investors buying properties out of state and not knowing the market. We have it listed now at $279,900 and I don't know if we will get any offers in the next 6 months at that price. It was listed at $349,000 the last 6 months with one offer.

We purchased an older home and are remodeling it. Our neighbor was having their home repainted last summer and the crew that was working on their property was dry sanding off the old paint and burning off some of it. Someone in the neighborhood complained due to the dust they were creating. The EPA was called. An agent from Atlanta drove down and while conducting the inspection at the neighbor's property, walked over and took a wipe sample from my front porch and also took some paint chips for testing.

She contacted me a few weeks later and said we had lead paint on our house. I knew that since it is 104 years old with many coats of paint on it. She asked if we were going to repaint it and I told her yes. She explained what needed to be done to safely remove the old paint. She mailed me some information regarding lead paint hazards. I talked to my painter and explained what she said we needed to do to be within the guidelines of the EPA. He did as she instructed as far as using plastic around the house when any scraping was done and disposed of the plastic after he was finished.

Now, 8 months later, she calls and says she came back last week and retested the soil around the house. She took a core sample of dirt and said we have lead paint chips down to 10 inches deep around the property.

She is sending me "enforcement documentation" that I should recieve later this week. From what I gather, I will be required to hire a state licensed lead abatement contractor to dig up all the dirt around the property and property dispose of it. Oh, and the cost ranges from 10-25K.

Have any of you dealt with this process? Every fought the EPA on a test result? I have worked with a corporation in an industrial park that dealt with contaiminated soil but never heard of them going into a subdivision and doing this. Any suggestions are appreciated.

I would really like an explaination how you can walk away without any legal ramifications. Can you tell me more of what your attorney said? What did he say would happen to the property? Who will be responsible for the debt? Just wondering....

As Curt said offer the price that works for you. Too many get hung up on trying to figure out a system for making your offer. At what purchase price will it cash flow for you? Make your offer on that.

As you can see in your example HUD doesn't do a great job of managing their properties. They had an offer of 30K, refused it, and now are asking for 30K and don't have a bidder. I have seen them reject an offer, then 30 days later drop the price below the rejected offer. I have also seen a few recently that they accepted a bid that was nearly half their list price. It doesn't make much sense so just bid what works for you.

It may work in some markets but in my area all the offers I see are still 10-20% below the asking price, regardless of how low the asking price is! Everyone things because of the market they can just take 20% off the listed price and buy it. Of course, the sellers disagree with that theory.

Depends on the bank or lender...for Fannie Mae they require certifed checks or money order and $1000 earnest money for purchases with a loan and 10% down for cash purchases.

Like others have said, just work within the rules. Many REOs are owned by the government and red tape is everywhere.

Thanks for the update, Hassan. Looking forward to hearing the results of your offers.

Can you include the lenders that you are making the offers to? It will be interesting to see how some banks will stick to their requirements and others will have some flexibility as to earnest money and inspection periods. Thanks!

If you want the property then, yes, make the offer with the closing date that you really want. All they can say is no.

Anyone else use the carpet tiles? They can be easily replaced if one is damaged. I have them in two of my rentals. Plus, installing them is as simple as laying them on the floor. I prefer the 1 meter tiles but also have used the 18" tiles.

Not sure about the lockbox but I would certainly put a cap on the amount you will pay for utilities. If it exceeds that amount, the tenant covers the difference.