All Forum Posts by: Bryan Davis

It's vacant.

I have set up an LLC myself as well as an S-Corporation and I can honestly say that I didn't know how to properly utilize either entity. Unless you've got a solid background in corporate and tax law, take some time to get legal advice and be sure that you're making the right choice for your business and life plans.

Welcome to the group! I have found Bigger Pockets to be a GREAT resource, especially in getting feedback on various conundrums. I got most of my training early on from Ron LeGrand and his group (as evidenced by the link in my signature block below) and that put me on the right track but it would have been enormously helpful to have built a network/team as Tim mentioned above. Good luck and happy investing!

I've been working on a wholesale deal for the past month that's become a real frustration and I'm about ready to throw in the towel on it and follow up later but I thought I should ask for new insight first. I located a house while "driving for dollars" that upon investigation has been passed from deceased grandparents to deceased children and now to three living grandchildren. There was no will, there is no executor/executrix. After utilizing a skip trace report from findtheseller.com (I'm not an affiliate but I'm a HUGE fan of the service), ancestry.com, and facebook, I finally tracked down the three heirs. One of the heirs is behind bars, one is a state away, and the other drifts between Texas and California. I've come to an agreed purchase price of $20k with the drifter and the jailbird while the other just wants $1000 to walk away. Now that everything SEEMED to be in order, the drifter seems to have "drifted" off again and isn't responding to any contact while the other two siblings are pushing to move forward. The house is worth around $90k repaired and needs $20k-$25k in rehab. Any advice on how to proceed or are we all relegated to waiting till I can herd all three of these cats into a corner? Thanks.

I received a call yesterday off of one of my yellow letters. The seller has a mobile home and lot that he wants $25,000 cash for because that's what he was offered last year. The mobile home is a 1977 and apparently has some problems but the long term renter has agreed to handle all maintenance on it as well as the septic system in exchange for reduced rent. The monthly rental income is $450. With any reasonable financing this is clearly a cashflowing deal but a) I haven't the slightest idea of the value of a mobile home and b) I don't have $25,000. Does anyone have any experience/advice here or would anyone be interested in working this deal for a referral fee? Thanks.

Steve Smith: You're absolutely right Steve, I did fail to mention that. The owner wants to net $75K from the sell. I like your idea and I suppose the worst that can happen is that she can say "no". With 5 years I could sell on lease purchase or refinance myself down the road if necessary. I'll be calling her back tomorrow with whatever I can come up with so that will be one offering; does anybody else have any other ideas?

I just received a phone call off of one of my yellow letters and after speaking with the seller I don't see much I can do but I was hoping for input from the BP community on my analysis. Here are the facts:

House is a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, attached 2 car garage, 1,700+ ft..
Owner purchased a few years ago at $105K, current Zillow value is $75K, the house is free and clear. House just got a new roof last month and was rehabbed fully on the interior 3 years ago. Tenants currently in the house are paying $1,000 /mo., Zillow puts rent at $1,150 /mo. Seller is willing to finance for 6 months but no more, wants to invest in other things.

My thought process is like this, the seller is not willing to take a low enough amount for wholesaling or rehabbing. Long term owner financing would allow for lease optioning or long term leasing but seller is unwilling so those are out. I don't see anything else to do here except to maybe refer the seller to a real estate agent. Any other ideas?

Also, in cases where the seller is willing to owner finance for longer terms, what's the general process for refinancing with a bank based on the lease income and not your own credit? My FICO is around 700 but I don't have a traditional job so refinancing seems like it could be a challenge. I sorely want to start holding cashflow properties but that's a new animal to me. Thanks for any input.

Jerry Puckett: I love the idea of monitizing leads as I hate to see a dollar spent that doesn't make a return. I've had quite a few callers with empty lots (some at DEEP discounts) and a few with duplexes as well that I haven't had anything good to do with. Granted, all but a few seem more like they won't take less than market so there probably was no value there anyway but if I could find a buyer that has a need for their information, I could certainly use a bigger marketing budget. Do you sell leads yourself and if so, how have you found buyers for your unwanted leads? I spoke at a lead selling conference in Florida a few years ago about the yellow letter but I've slept since then and don't remember how it was suggested that leads be monitized. Would you mind sharing your insights? Thanks.

Yes, I use our yellow letters for mailing. I did mail to a list of 160 free and clear properties last week and have so far gotten almost a 10% response although most have been to inform me that the property is an empty lot. I will continue to follow up on the non-response letters. I've just started the driving for dollars routine over the weekend.

I've been focusing on wholesaling to build cash reserves and I wanted some feedback on what I'm doing as well as ideas from others on ways that they have found success.

My basic strategy goes as follows. I drive neighborhoods looking for vacant houses that are not listed with an agent (no sign in the yard); I do take note of FSBO houses as well and call them to identify go/no-go sellers. After gathering 20 or so potential properties, I head back to the house, hop onto the online county tax rolls and start finding out who the owners are and where they live. If the owner is an absentee owner, I mail them a yellow letter. If the owner shows to live in the house (which we know not to be true) than I go ahead and mail them a letter in case a forwarding address is on file. While waiting on results from the letter I go to the online official public records to research property documents for other clues as to the owners' whereabouts. If that search comes up dry and the letter comes back as "undeliverable / no forwarding address", I send everything I know to my skip tracer and have them work on it. If I haven't heard from the seller within a month of sending a letter and the letter hasn't been returned, I send them another one.

With all that being said, is there something else I should do or could do in addition? I choose not to use bandit signs as they are against ordinance here and I made the decision to do everything by the books. I have used mass post card mailings in the past but the response is pathetic and really only serve to locate vacant houses for you when they bounce back as undeliverable. I've picked up a couple of houses from flyering parking lots but after being chased off enough lots, I've come to the conclusion that this is not a stable way to market as it again is not "legal" and I don't feel right doing it.

My biggest concern is that I'm not doing enough and I wonder if I should be dropping by absentee owners' residence, trying to call them, or just letting the motivated ones call me. I have just re-launched my yellow letter service so that's eating some hours but I still feel like I could be doing more to be successful. Any thoughts and/or feedback would be appreciated.