All Forum Posts by: Jon Holdman

Fines.  Then, if you don't pay the fines they can foreclose and take your property.  Some have a vetting process where all residents have to be reviewed by their committee.

He would need to bring cash to closing to make up the difference and his closing costs.  Or someone would need to negotiate with the lien holders to get a reduced payoff.

If you want to offer the deal here you will need to post in the Marketplace.

A life estate will give the grantee (seller, I assume) the right to live in or otherwise use the property until their death.  At death, possession transfers back to the grantee (the buyer, in this case.)  So, yeah, it causes significant issues.  You (I assume you're the buyer) would own the property but possession would remain with the seller until they die. Because of the limitations put on you by the life estate, you need to buy at a discount vs. the actual value.  How much of a discount is an actuarial calculation, like a life insurance policy.   If they're in poor heath with a poor prognosis, the discount may be small.  If they're young and healthy, it may be quite large.

Absolutely start with the owner.  Until you have a contract with the owner, you have nothing.

Tax assessments are for collecting taxes.  That have, at best, a loose relationship with the actual value.  An appraisal would give you a value, but will cost you several hundred dollars.  As a wholesaler, one of the key skills you have to develop is the ability to determine value.  A close second is the ability to accurately estimate rehab costs.  Neither is easy, but both are essential to making money in any real estate business, and especially in wholesaling.

Private lenders are people you know personally.  You don't find them on web sites.  You find them by talking to everyone you know and everyone you meet about what you do.  With time and effort, you will find someone willing to invest with you.  Especially once you have a track record.

Folks who advertise or respond to requests for loans are almost always hard money lenders.  Their money may come from private individuals, and sometimes they use the term "private money".

If you're looking for names of lenders you'll need to post in the Marketplace.

You don't need a pre-approval if you're doing direct marketing and finding your own wholesale deals. If you're trying you buy off the MLS, you will. But that's a poor source of wholesale deals. Those deals are already easily visible to investors.

If you're trying to do fix and flips realize that even with a good deal and a hard money lender you will need a significant amount of your own cash. My rule of thumb is 15% of ARV plus whatever portion of the purchase and rehab costs the HML will not fund. If you have cash and experience then you can probably find a HML that will overlook bad credit.

If you're looking for a name you'll need to post in the Marketplace.

If you're representing to someone that YOU are going to buy their house you better be prepared to actually buy it.  Not some phantom partner.  You.

That info means the property is currently scheduled to be auctioned on 8/15.  It may or may not actually happen.  The trustee will publish a list on the afternoon of 8/13 with the ones that are scheduled for the 8/15 auction.  At the start of the auction they may withdraw some of them.

If you want to play this game you should have a number of properties in your pipeline.  And be ready to bid on them as they come up.  You really do want to do a title search.  But you either need to do that far enough in advance for the title company to get it done before the sale, or work with a title company that can do them really quick.  Sorry, I have no suggestions for such a title company any more.

Thanks @Christen G.  Finalized some things today so this is now imminent.  We really want to spend some time driving around and hanging out in different neighborhoods to get a better feel.  We've looked at some houses (online) we really like around Cottage Lake.  But that seems like a brutal commute, even on transit.

The key here is that reimbursing them anything will set a precendent that they can do whatever they want without asking and you will pay for it.  I would tell them "Had you requested, I would have installed blinds.  Because you did this without permission, I will not reimburse you for them."  Further, some leases (mine) state that if the tenant does something like that it must remain behind when they leave.  I would offer to waive that provision is they choose to remove them, provided they repair damage done when installing them.