All Forum Posts by: Anthony Thompson

About 10 years ago I was using RI Joint Reinsurance for flips (renovations), but a few other investors recommended National Real Estate Insurance Group (nreig.com) and I've continued to use them because their main focus is investors and they make it easy to add and remove properties.

For long term buy and hold properties, I definitely know that there are many other insurance carriers besides RI Joint Reinsurance. I usually only pay my insurance once a year so I don't remember the exact companies right now but I know Quincy Mutual is one of the ones our insurance agent connected us with.

RIREIG, which meets once a month, has at least one insurance agent in the group so you might consider attending a future meeting and asking some other investors who they use. We had a good presentation by a public adjuster last meeting, and I'm sure he'd have some opinions about insurance companies, if you can get his contact info from another attendee.

Good afternoon @Michael OConnor, I can recommend a few couple of good networking/education groups where I think you can meet some folks who'd be happy to talk to you about that.

For Massachusetts I'd recommend Black Diamond REI which has meetings in both Waltham and Worcester.

For Rhode Island I'd recommend the RI Real Estate Investors Group which meets in Warwick, usually the 3rd Thursday of the month (there was a great meeting last night in fact).

Both are groups that focus on education and networking and don't try to sell you stuff, which is much nicer (if you've ever been to one that tries to sell stuff, you'll understand :)

I hope that helps, and of course if you have specific questions feel free to post them here on BP! 

Jerilin, I wouldn't do anything without getting legal advice. As someone who is not an attorney, I'll just give you my thoughts.

The reason I wouldn't immediately go and change the locks is that it's not clear that any/all of the occupants broke in. My understanding is that if any one of them has a key, the police will consider them lawful occupants and an eviction will have to occur.

You didn't say what the situation was as far as if there is or was a lease in place for some tenant, even if that tenant left.

My main concern is that my understanding is that the courts do not like "self help evictions" - where the owner does something like changing the locks, removing doors, shutting off utilities etc. on a tenant/lawful occupant, and judges can punish owners severely for doing that.

Again, you need to get legal advice, based on what you've said this is not a situation where you (or the property manager) should be running over and changing locks or boarding up anything. (In my opinion as a non-attorney.)

Sure @Johnny Cabral I'll send you a PM with a couple of names

Johnny, as the buyer in general you definitely need a lawyer, preferably one who mainly does real estate.

And in this particular case you need one because s/he will probably be the one to contact the various agencies involved to get payoff numbers for releasing the liens (RI Housing, RI Division of Taxation, IRS, Providence tax collector).

Of course, before you get an attorney involved you should probably try to get a rough idea of what the #s are for each of the liens, by talking to the seller, just to find out if the deal still makes sense.

If you know how to do it, you should also do a preliminary title search yourself first to double check the #s the seller is giving you - though with the RI state lien, they unfortunately don't put the amount owed on the recorded document.

You might also find other things that the seller forgot to mention, such as violations or executions or even other owners he forgot to mention (that would need to sign off on the sale and amount, if applicable).

I hope that makes sense and is helpful - and of course welcome to Bigger Pockets :)

Wow, old thread :) I have done wholesale deals in RI over the past 12 years or so, though lately I've been doing more buy-and-holds than wholesales.

But I know there are others here on BP who have also wholesaled in RI and also several members of RIREIG are active wholesalers as well. 

The next meeting is 6/15 if you're looking to meet any; details are on their website rireig.com

You could sell to a nature conservancy or land trust. They often pay market value or close to it, then you and future generations would be able to enjoy the land development-free.

In a similar vein, sometimes with difficult parcels (which, admittedly, this one doesn't seem to be) you can donate the land to a similar organization and get a tax write-off for the assessed/appraised value. Depending on your tax situation that could be very helpful.

I know "don't develop it" isn't the kind of usual answer you'd expect on BP, but you did say you were looking for ideas, and if it's next to your primary residence those ideas may have some appeal.

Good luck and let us know what you ultimately decide to do!

@Daniel Preston Welcome to Bigger Pockets, and congratulations on getting all that down :) It sounds like you've already found the BP podcasts - they're a fantastic resource.

I also usually recommend that new folks check out one or more local real estate groups. For example in RI there's the Rhode Island Real Estate Investor's Group which meets in Warwick the third Thursday of each month; see the RIREIG website for information on the upcoming meeting in a couple of weeks.

And of course, feel free to post specific questions here as they arise in your real estate journey :)

@Samuel Carmichael If they are lenders and you want them to fund the down payment, then they are, presumably, going to be a 2nd position mortgage.

In that case, 1) they (those private lenders) should be made aware of that, and 2) you'll want to read the 1st mortgage documents very carefully including the loan application documents.

Most residential lenders (e.g., FHA) scrutinize the source of down payment funds specifically because they don't want to see a borrowed down payment or second mortgage. So if your finance source for the 1st mortgage is a traditional lender they may deny a setup like you're proposing.

It may be possible to avoid that by using a commercial mortgage instead of a regular residential one, but your terms will be worse - higher/adjustable rate, shorter amortization and probably a balloon payment.

And because it's a residential property they may still want to see that the down payment isn't also borrowed. If you go this route, definitely ask that question up front before you spend time filling out the application or paying any fees.

A different option is to have these other folks be equity partners. You'd have to give up part of the deal but you'd avoid the issues above. On the other hand, the first mortgage lender will want detailed financial information from everyone with an ownership stake in the property, and they will have to sign for the loan personally, it will show up on their credit report, etc. which the people you mentioned may not want at all.

It's possible if you find private money for both the first mortgage and second mortgage (down payment) that you can avoid all these issues, but be absolutely clear with everyone what's happening - don't conceal the source of down payment funds from the first mortgage lender even if they're a person instead of a bank.

I'd recommend the Refresh Your Wealth podcast Episode 208 "Raising Capital for Your Real Estate Projects and Business" at http://refreshyourwealth.com/previous-shows-207-211/ for a good discussion of the differences between lenders, partners and investors (the main topic starts about 25 minutes into the podcast).

@Juan Lopez also continue to try to build private money relationships, even before you have a deal. The #1 thing a wholesaler will want to know is, "will this person actually close, or will they back out at the last minute and leave me in the lurch?" And a big part of that question is, "is this person really a cash buyer, or are they just saying they are".

It is a bit of a chicken-and-egg, catch-22 type challenge - how can you get lenders to be willing to invest money with you when you have no experience, but how can you get experience without funding deals.

You can try to find lenders who only focus on the deal and not the borrower (as @Sam Albert said), but be aware that many of those are going to want a substantial down payment.

The other popular option, if it's available to you, is "friends and family" to help you out with your first deals, as they already know your general character and may take a chance with you on your first properties.

Also remember that if you familiarize yourself with self-directed IRAs (plenty of resources here on BP and elsewhere - RIRIEG just had a weekend workshop on it a couple of weeks ago), you may find that friends and family you thought didn't have any money to invest actually do.

Good luck and let us know as you have specific questions along the way of course :)