I have learned a lot through these forums and people have spent a great deal of time helping me learn the processes with little in it for themselves. This is my chance to give back to the beginners (I still am, too!) and hopefully learn more from the veterans as well! Additionally, I want to use this thread to keep me encouraged to not give up on a deal when I hit a road block :D

Disclaimer: Through this thread, I would like to have the chance to walk through a deal from beginning to end, in detail, and ask questions along the way. After going through this forum quite a bit i felt that it is in lack of prior due diligence that goes into a deal. I see a lot of "is this a good deal", "should I buy this property", which is great, but as a beginner, I want to know how they got that opportunity at this great (or not so great) deal.

To start, I am a college senior going into finance and entrepreneurship. I have little capital (4,000-7,000) and no debt. I have began building my buyers list (3 people, lol) and networking. I think I want to get into wholesaling or birddogging or possibly buy the property myself if I could find a lender. We'll see where the deals bring me, I guess!

ON TO THE FIRST POTENTIAL DEAL!!

Today, I decided would be a good day to take a drive around Minneapolis and look for properties that seem to be deserted or vacant for two reasons:
1. It has been very rainy lately, so it would be much "easier" to spot houses that are unattended with longer grass and weeds.
2. I noticed that phonebooks were delivered about 2-3 weeks ago, so any still outside (in bright yellow bags) is a pretty good sign that people aren't around.

Well, my first potential property was found by noticing weeds growing over the steel fence and a phone book outside, still.

I jotted down the address and continued driving around writing down addresses of deserted looking houses. At the same time, I THINK THIS IS IMPORTANT, i called all of the for rent signs and asked what they were renting for. (I think that this will be good in valuation and judging demand, etc.) I like to kill as many birds with one stone as i can! :D

Anyways, I went back home and reversed white pages the house with the address I wrote down to try to get a name and number. no luck.

Next, I went to the Ramsey County property tax site and looked up the house. BINGO! I looked up the house and found the owner, by looking at where the past property tax statements were titled too, at the same time, I noticed that there is one late property tax payment, that was due 5/15 and is still not paid.

Also found on the county website, I found that the house is a 3/1 with 1172 sq. feet. (from calling "for rent" signs, I found a 3 bedroom for rent for 1200/month...)

This brings us to present. I have a name and phone number for the owner. Now, I want to ask the veterans, what is my next move? Obviously, I will call him, what do I ask? what is my pitch? do I say I want to buy it? Do I figure out How much I can pay for it to make it a good deal for myself first?

Ultimately, I want this to be a thread for everyone to provide input into, and if this deal doesn't work out, hopefully I will have many more to post and walk through!

Thanks in advance for everyone who participates!