Seller in bankruptcy and delinquent in taxes.

[Sara Passaro]

Need some advice...I have a "seller" who owns 17 SFH, he only wants to keep the 7 that are currently rented out. He had at one point owned 50 houses but stopped talking care of them. He has sold most of them a while ago.

I use “seller” loosely because he literally told me he is trying to give them away. He can't sell them because he filed for bankruptcy. He just wants rid of them. He wants to give someone else a great opportunity to make money he told me.

He still owns the properties because of the bankruptcy, but they all have back taxes. There are about 10 or so sitting vacant, the county/city/schools are getting no taxes and haven't for a few years. He told me he would go with me to negotiate them down. I would essentially just need to pay the delinquent taxes.

They are in a hot zip code area for Pittsburgh, not high home values but good for rentals. $800 or so a month. They all need a significant amount of work as far as I can tell from talking to him and looking online. (copper pipes, roofs, furnace, windows, paint, carpet, kitchen/bath updates the whole 9)

I am so new (haven't closed a deal yet!) and we want to start acquiring rentals by the BRRR strategy. I have no idea what I'm doing really.... but this seems like a great deal. Is it? What am I missing here, can anyone tell me the catch involved with this bankruptcy/delinquent tax situation?

If you were me just starting out (assuming I can get these properties) would you wholesale them all, find a private lender to fix them up, refinance, and hold them all with tenants, or do some of both? What kind of paperwork is even required for this type of transaction since it’s not a “sale” of property?