Investigating (possibly) vacant homes

[Eric Rohver]

I drove off of my usual route today while running errands and I think I found a vacant house surrounded by some very well kept "City" homes. The paint is peeling and it looks a bit dated and neglected. When I got back to the office I did a quick Zillow search and found out that it last sold in 2005 for $106,000, then I looked for comps within a six block radius and found two that have sold in 2013 for between $100-110K. A quick search of the city tax rolls shows the assessment at $128,500 and the owner's name. Looked up the owner with a google search and found that it's an 87 year-old woman with relatives in the area. So maybe the property isn't vacant and abandoned, but I'd like to find out what the situation is. I have no phone number for the owner, but I found two local relatives with phone numbers listed. Should I go knock on the door and peek around?

How would you proceed?

[Rick H.]

@Eric Rohver - Is this a 'one-off' attempt to find a deal of some sort or are you beginning a campaign to locate vacant, unwanted properties with equity?

Remember that you ought to looking for either equity at a discount or cash flow on great terms.

The bad habit that many new to the business make is that they get attached to one opportunity that they don't know how to monetize but obsess in attempting every possible way to work it. Most of us have found ourselves there at one time or another.

The other practical problem is: how much time and effort SHOULD one put in an opportunity? I say, only as much as necessary to determine if a prospect fits your initial pre-screen criteria (I.e., property type, location, equity, etc.) and identifiable triggers, such as foreclosure, tax sale, squatters or similar problems with a time element.

Personally, I keep a list of vacant properties with substantial equity. I periodically mail to them or use bird dogs to door knock neighbors, get info leads, skip tracers and even PI's to find owners or relatives.

As @Ibrahim mentioned, it's helpful to find opportunities with problems that you can solve. I can fix a probate, missing owner or title problem with enough time but I have no interest in chasing a deal that's not a deal (or too skinny for me).