All Forum Posts by: Alex Peau

Hey BP Is it possible to wholesale a probate property that requires court approval? If possible, What are the potential challenges you might face?

Thanks to all who responded. @Bryan L. how do you position yourself in your marketing pieces that go out to motivated sellers? Do you send the typical "I want to buy your house, call me at..... " mail pieces? or do you go a little bit more in depth as to how you are able to help them being that you are licensed as well? I guess what I really want to know is what is generally working for you as far as making the phone ring?

Hey BP,

I wanted to get your thoughts on a business model that both buys and lists properties for motivated homeowners. I definitely want to be an investor before realtor but I thought to myself why not be both? Obviously selling a home to a cash buyer has its benefits to homeowners but so does listing it on the open market with a realtor. I figure my marketing campaigns would bring in calls from home owners with different motivation levels with different needs and wants so why pass off leads that I could otherwise be taking advantage of by listing the "Un-wholesalable/purchasable" properties myself? I have my license and wanted to structure and market my business as a real estate solutions based company that solves real estate problems. I know the big thing behind this is making sure that I disclose and establish how exactly I'm helping them but if i do this accordingly is there any reason why this wouldn't be a good business model to follow?

@Brian Mathews I agree completely. I feel like I'm chasing down properties that really don't have any REAL motivation. I've read that code enforcement/violaton lists are a great lead source so I figured I'd take a stab at it and see what I could find.

@Buddy LaRue I've contacted several city employees asking if such a list was available and all of them have said that the city does not keep record of that(which I find hard to believe).

Hey BP,

I'm doing what I can to be as proactive as possible in compiling a list of potential motivated sellers by going to multiple cities and obtaining a list of properties with code violations on them. What I got back from one of the cities is a list of code enforcement complaints from neighbors of problem properties who have made complaints ranging of all sorts of things such as burnt lawns, overgrown vegetation, abandoned cars left on driveways, furniture being left in the front yard, occasional building permit issues. Overall just general lack of care to maintain their properties, none of which are getting fined by the city.

I thought that the next best thing to do would be to go for a drive and actually go to check out the current status of these homes to see if they are indeed as in as bad of shape as these complaints say they are. So I came up with a driving route to visit all 80 of these properties. What I found is that the majority of the properties didn't really look too bad or the properties have fixed the minor issues that they did have. I also did a little bit of digging and researched each one of the properties to see what the story was behind the house to see if it was still a good mail to candidate regardless to the condition of the house.. absentee owned? Did the property have equity? Was the property already being listed? I feel like I'm jumping through hoops of fire to find out if this list of properties that I received from the city is really worth spending my marketing dollars towards. Like I said none of these properties are getting fined by the city which gives me reason to believe that they aren't all that motivated to sell their home. Am I going about this the wrong way? Do I even have the right list?

All in the mean time I've been spending a lot of my time going through probate cases at the court house and really trying to build a solid list of properties to mail to.

I'm determined to get this right and I'm not complaining about all the work I've put in. I'm just having a hard time as to whether or not I'm maximizing the effectiveness of my hard work and if I'm applying it in the right places. Maybe some guidance as to if I'm on the right track would be good?

You guys all made some valid points about things to consider when choosing the right attorney. I feel confident with the attorney that was referred to me and I will most likely go with him. Thanks a lot to @Eric Black @Brian Mathews @Steven Stokes and @Fedner Alzume for all the great advise.

BP is amazing!

Hey BP, Im taking everyone's advise about contacting an attorney to have contracts revised before use. I've been emailing an attorney that was referred to me by a reputable investor in my area and was wondering if $500 for up to 4 hours of work is too much to be paying for his legal services? I provided him the contracts that I had downloaded from reitips.com and he said there wasn't too much tweaking that needed to be done. The contracts I had sent to him were a standard purchase agreement and an assignment contract. Any thoughts on whether or not I should sign the retainer agreement or not would be greatly appreciated.

@Jon Holdman Precisely! Thank you for clearing that up. I was worried that I didn't ask the question properly for a sec. @Bill Gulley exactly the type of information i was looking for, thanks everyone for shedding light on that.

Also curious as to the question that @Mike G. asked..

Would you be able to clarify a little bit more on that @Bill Gulley

Helllooo BP,

Hypothetical question.. If I were to purchase a property "subject-to" from a motivated seller and 6 months down the line the original owner wants to purchase another property that he/she will be occupying; how difficult would it be for the seller to qualify for a new 2nd loan on a new home being that they still have a first mortgage attached to their name? I imagine that the debt to income ratio would effect the seller greatly when trying to qualify. Is getting a 2nd bank loan impossible? If not what would need to be provided to the potential lender to allow them to get the 2nd loan? Do you primarily only do subject to deals on NOO properties since it isn't their primary residence?

If any light can be shed on this that would be awesome!