All Forum Posts by: William Donnelly

A month ago I purchased a 3,600 sq ft duplex. It was a foreclosure and only 9 yrs old so I feel like I got a pretty good deal.

The large wooded area that surrounds my property on 2 sides has been owned by a development group. I found out today that they plan on building low income housing here. 

The meeting with the planning commission to get it zoned properly, is this Thursday. A lot if the neighbors plan on attending. Can anyone give a good argument as to why we don't want this complex? It will obviously hurt our property values, cause congestion on this narrow back road, and more than likely increase crime rate. Any ideas what we say at this planning meeting??

Welcome! And good luck to you. We need all the real estate investors possible in the gulf coast area! 

 Thank you so much Susan! This will help out tremendously. Do you happen to know another way of getting parcels combined in MS? Even though I have the application filled out and approved by the planning commission, they are telling me it will not go into effect until after August when they reassess everything. Seems to me like there should be some way of getting it done quicker.

Taxes are not my forte, as it is not usually a big part of general real estate reading. Anyone know any good real estate tax books? For dummies? lol This is a subject that can be very confusing. All some great tax advice! Thanks!

 Which office would I have to bring this to their attention? Obviously the tax assessors office to find out the assessed value. Then what?

how

Very good point! I will definitely look into this. I'll just have to wait until summer of next year, thats when the good ole state of Mississippi reassesses the taxes.

So i've been in the process of buying a bank owned foreclosure for the past 6 months. I negotiated %40 off the original asking price. This is a duplex that was built as condo's and sits on individual tax parcels, along with 6 other tax parcels that are included in this sale. Obviously, the original developer planned on building 8 town homes, but after building the first 2, foreclosed.

After jumping many long hurdles to get the seller to apply for combining the parcels into one parcel, we finally get back the VA appraisal, and are told we need to make some minor repairs to get ready to close.

The bank and title office then "find" the title. After all this money and time invested, we discover that the taxes are not 2,400 a year. They are actually 7000 a year. This almost DOUBLES my monthly mortgage and escrow payment, which the VA requires.

After so much invested, it is really silly to walk away now, days before closing. I know most of you are thinking the same, go back and offer the seller much less. However, look at my first paragraph. I already negotiated %40 off, and they are completely unwilling and unable to go lower. 

After filing homestead in january, my taxes should go down. And then once the parcels are officially combined into one, my taxes should go down even more. I basically have to bite the bullet for about 6 months with these taxes. Or do I? Any insight or ideas would be very helpful.

Welcome to BiggerPockets! I'm glad to see more people on here from the MS gulf coast!

Welcome Valerie. Good luck!