All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

I'm sorry, I meant regular auctions, not trustee sales. Look up auctioneers in your region, they often sell real estate as part of deceased people's estates. In those auctions there is almost always a preview time scheduled.

You get to see exactly what the house looked like and what it sells for in an auction setting.

And yes, Zillow and MLS listings are very misleading. There are a lot of listings I've visited, especially foreclosures, where the pictures look great and then you visit it and it's a complete disaster. MLS without an agent that really knows what they're doing is a waste of time imo, to find really good deals. It may not be the case in your area but it seems to be a consensus on BP that there very little low hanging fruits on there.

Hello Vincent,

I would suggest looking at both, especially if you know a bit about remodeling already. Some houses seem more suited for rentals, some more for rehabs.

Do some short term rehabs and use the profits to finance long term buy-and-holds. That way you're taking care of short term needs (pay the bills) and long term goals (retire with monies)

PS: be careful with your realtor and remember they only get paid when you buy or sell something. If I were you (and that's what I'm doing myself) I would start by going to a lot of open houses and auctions with your wife. That way you'll learn what you can expect from different price points. It's not fair for your agent to go through 25 showings because we don't know what we want/need at first.

This is actually a mistake. A lot of states have different ways of doing things.

For example in Virginia you only give 10% deposit then have 15 days to close regardless of what type of financing you want to use.

I'm not aware how it's done in North Carolina though.

Hey guys,
I know there's a lot of posts about foundations and it's very difficult for people to give specific / precise answers, but a ballpark idea would be really helpful.

I looked at a bungalow today where the first floor is dated but not in a bad condition at all. The problem is the basement..

The house is at the bottom of a small hill and the basement has heavy hydrostatic pressure issues. Large horizontal cracks on the rear (facing the hill) and side of the house. Basically the crack runs the entire length of the basement and you can clearly see the bowing.

It's cinder block foundation.

There has been pretty constant water infiltrations which have caused black mold in the basement. Thankfully the basement is unfinished so there isn't a LOT of stuff that would need to be taken out.

Here are some pictures:

Mold:
http://imageshack.us/a/img534/1369/gpv1.jpg

Cracks:
http://imageshack.us/a/img96/5186/si7o.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img600/4761/97rq.jpg

I realize you don't have a crystal ball so you can't give me a clear price but at first sight, what comes to your mind as ballpark figure?

The reason I'm asking here on BP is that I don't want to request professional estimations if it's clear to the naked eye that this would cost an arm and a leg. I'm thinking because of the extent of the current damage they would need to install both a drain and support beams?

Thanks for the information.

What did you intend to do with this land?

From what you did say it sounds like you want to develop it, but you also said it has a lot of negative features (ie bad neighborhoods, wetlands etc).

Many, but if it is formulated as qualifying questions then it sounds very normal (to me anyway).

If I was an used car salesman and someone asked me about the mileage, previous owners, financing etc. I would find it appropriate even if the person brought a sheet of paper with scripted questions.

Based on your suggestion, we re-contacted an agent and it's active in MLS. In fact, this agent showed it 10 days ago.

I'm kind of confused. :/

Thank you for the replies. I'm glad to see I'm not crazy and it is indeed a little odd. I'll investigate it further.

Earlier this week when he said it was sold, I didn't think too much of it and figured we'd forget this one and move on., but given that he has the listings of every house I find that have potential I feel like I have to look into it.

Hey everyone,
I figured I'd ask here because I know many of you have dealt with Fannie mae a lot. I've been having a problem with a listing and wanted to know if this is common or if something's wrong.

Here's the deal in as few words as possible:

There aren't a lot of REOs in our region. One caught our eye on Homepath because it's fairly underpriced (given the low availability). The listing had been on Homepath for over 2 months and had 2 price drops.

It was listed as active so we contacted the listing agent directly, but he said it was sold.

Since it was still listed as active, we called Fannie Mae just to verify, and the supervisor (or the 2nd line person, whatever they are called) said they hadn't even received an offer on the house. But there wasn't much we could do about it.

2 days later it changed on the website to under contract, so we figured he was right.

2 weeks later I look up Homepath and it says back on market. We figured we would try a different approach and contact a buyer agent. She contacted the listing agent to get us a viewing, and he once again says it's sold.

It's still listed as "back on market" on Homepath.

In one month, we still haven't been able to see the house.. I find it kind of suspicious, almost as if he always says it's sold and lets the price drop, but can't exactly verify it. I've been told that Fannie Mae has a lot of departments so often one hand doesn't know what the other is doing, so it might just be system delays.

Anyone have any insight? There aren't a lot of opportunities in this area and this listing agent pretty much has ALL of the REO homes so I don't want to confront him and be wrong, if that makes sense.

Thank you for the information.