All Forum Posts by: Adrienne Bryson

 So a "standard" contract is an agreement to purchase. Basically "Buyer agrees to pay Seller $[price] for [property] on [closing date]". On the closing date you get the title and they get the money. I think BP has some contracts to use (but that might only be for paid members) or you can google Purchase and Sale Agreement for real estate and get an idea of the kind of contracts you'd most commonly be dealing with.

Seller financing is a thing, and usually is structured as a rent-to-own or lease-purchase. You'd agree to a certain amount down (or not), a certain monthly payment with a certain amount of that payment going to purchase, and a balloon payment at the end of the term to cover the rest of the purchase price. This is a good option to keep from coming out of pocket the whole purchase price upfront.

A wholesaler would get an assignable contract with the seller, then sell the contract to an investor before the closing date. Your profits would most likely be much lower, but you also wouldn't require any money upfront to purchase since the actual purchase price, closing costs, rehab costs, etc would be paid by the end buyer.

 Welcome to BP! Your story sounds very similar to mine, all the way down to my husband's independent courier business. Kudos to you for taking the initiative and having the hustle to build something for yourself and your family!

I want to start by asking what are your goals for this property you're working on getting a deal on? You mentioned wanting to build a rental portfolio but then when you described your potential deal it sounds like you might be intending to flip? Your exit strategy definitely affects how you evaluate the deal 

Are you using seller financing? When you talk about "selling the property before the contract ends" are you referring to marketing while still making payments to the seller? Or do you mean assigning the deal before closing? If assigning, I'm a bit confused about you wanting to begin repairs before closing. On that note... I'd NEVER do any work to a property before closing. I'm not an experienced flipper so take my advice with a grain of salt, but there are so many things that could go wrong between signing a contract and getting the title. What's to keep the deal from falling through and you losing anything you put into the rehab? What's your hurry? Wait a couple weeks, make sure the title is clear and the deal closes before putting any non-recoverable money towards it.

If you're planning to keep this property for yourself (not wholesale) make sure you get your funding straight right now. If you're really dealing with such low prices a lot of lenders will not touch it.

Just searching "yellow letters" in google will show you plenty of sites that produce DMM, and you can browse through their templates for ideas.

Be aware that there's not really a one-size-fits-all letter. Different copy appeals to different people in different situations, and often the most effective approach can be sending multiple letters a couple weeks apart, each with different content.

Success rates vary based on lots of factors including the recipients, their situations, their home value, how many other investors they've been contacted by, your mailer design, your copy, etc etc etc

You'll have to test your own market to find out what works best for you.

Just a thought... Have you looked into why there are no comps?

If it's just that people in that neighborhood stay in their homes until they pass, that's good. But if it's because people are refusing to buy in that neighborhood because it's dangerous, or that there's a highway being built that is scaring away potential buyers, etc... You may not want to buy there.

I'd think whatever factor that is keeping houses from being sold (good or bad) could affect your ability to get and keep tenants and your rent prices.

Dogs do not attract rats. Generally dogs will repel rodents as prey will not willingly put themselves under a predator's nose without really good reason. However dog stuff can attract rodents.

Snacks like chew bones or rawhide or pig ears, open dog food bags or food left out in the bowl, dirty dog bowls especially if you feed wet or raw and leave scraps in the bowl etc are easy food sources for ants, roaches, rodents.

If none of this is an issue it's more likely the rats found their way in and are munching on human food or trash and nesting in cabinets, furniture, etc.

I can only give an opinion that the property owner should be responsible for making sure the house is properly sealed and safe. And as long as you are not keeping the place filthy and unsanitary pest control should be on the landlord. But I would carefully check your lease to see if pest control is covered (and make sure you cover it in your future leases).

 I "think" because this will be my first flip. I'm going based on my previous experience finding deals for other flippers, so I have an idea but no actual experience to pull from. I will of course have a contractor give me a bid.

That tax exclusion is exactly what I'm going for! I don't plan to be a full-time flipper so I don't mind only completing a flip every 2 years or so.

Thanks for your response! We do have a CPA but I always like to get a bit of input from people "living my intention" to (at the very least) make sure I'm not doing something that's straight up crazy.

Thanks for your input! I haven't previously had the time to invest in a rehab. Now that I do I'm more interested in the long game. My ultimate goal is to have a portfolio of SFR rentals and just do some flips to get chunks of cash to buy more rentals, and I really intend to keep my current house as a rental indefinitely. Only reason i plan to sell this new one at the end of 3 years is to pay off the balloon without throwing in much more of my own personal money and then putting that profit into a mortgage on a new rental. Maybe I'll just end up refinancing this new one at the end.

Keep in mind that no matter which you choose, you are not going to have full freedom. At least not in the beginning. I'm not an agent but agents will tell you it's a hustle. It's the same with wholesaling.

On the plus side when it comes to wholesaling once you've made a bit of money (or if you have a bit of money to throw at it when you start) you can free up a lot of your time by delegating/automating. But it's still a hustle and at the end of the day you could sometimes be out on weekends, early in the morning, late at night, and on holidays. You don't want to miss out on a deal because your seller is only off work Sunday morning and you felt like sleeping in.

If what you're looking for is complete freedom and keeping most of your time for yourself, there are other wealth building strategies that'd do this better. Depending how much cash you have available you could even consider buying a turnkey multifamily and hiring a property manager.

You should read up on the "corporate veil". I suppose you could structure it as though you (your personal money) are funding the deal for your LLC like a lender would. But I don't know if that would still be considered commingling of funds.

It's so easy to move money into a business account, why don't you just pay as the LLC and not even risk it?

When you say "public records" what exactly have you tried? The county tax assessor should have the property owner's info that you can find by searching their site.

A (usually) quicker and more user friendly option (at least in my local counties where the tax sites are clunky) is the GIS site. Google "[whatever] county GIS" and you should find a site that will allow you to search by address and get parcel ID, parcel size, zoning info, owner's name and mailing address, and usually owner's other properties with one click.