Best strategy to buy off market on a specific block.

[Eric Rich]

So I have a very unusual small business wherein I take out my pianobike (a piano and trike fusion)

 and busk downtown in Salt Lake City. It's a great time and pretty lucrative, but I ended up buying a home quite far from downtown and it has meant that I don't get out and play nearly as often. I thought that since I already own 2 properties, I should focus my 3rd in a very specific area where I could build out a soundproof music studio/pianobike storage in a garage in the back and rent out the house. Of course when you look downtown the home prices get much higher, however, there is a historically redlined area, that is still very close to downtown, and just because it's on the west side of the freeway and houses are less taken care of, you see homes for less.

Developers are quickly snatching up properties because of this reason and because recent zoning laws have done away with single family zoning, so I'm feeling a sense of urgency to get into a home in this very specific neighborhood.

I'm not a super personable guy and feel strange knocking on doors, so I started digging into delinquent taxes. I'm having a hard time determining where to begin on my search and what approach I should take. Both homes that I've purchases were on market deals, so I'm a bit hesitant to be the guy who calls someone up because I get those calls several times a day and I hate that using cold calls is the standard.

I don't expect to be able to use the fact that I'm a local just trying to make my business work in the market it was designed for as a leverage point because it's not helping the potential sellers at all. If you've got any advice for me I'd sure appreciate it! Also, wanted to note that I'm very good with home layout, design and executing work to fix up the house. I passed testing to become a general contractor, but don't want to work for anyone else, so buying a home that needs a remodel that I could turn into a multi-family is the ideal situation for me. I would get my license and do majority of the work myself.

I would plan to first renovate the home, and then either build a garage from the ground up, or totally renovate the existing one for my purposes. Also, is there anything illegal about me using a garage behind a rental property for my business?

Any and all feedback is much appreciated. Thank you!

Eric

[Bjorn Ahlblad]

Interesting thing you got going on there. I too have tried buying specific homes/buildings. If you work at it sooner or later you will come up with an owners name even if it is an LLC. I have worked with a specific agent to submit unsolicited offers at what we think to be reasonable amounts. These then get hand delivered by the agent. If we do a deal she will get 2 to 3% of the buy. She helps come up with names and home addresses as needed, and presenting offers. So far we have not written any business but I don't feel it has been a waste of time. Post cards and phone calls have not worked either, nor has the golf club.

I also belong to an REI association and attend meetings. Deals get done every day, some even at reasonable amounts, somehow you just need to be in that food chain to get a crack at it! Anybody else trying to skin this cat?