All Forum Posts by: Ben Robertson

I bought an empty a while back for a good price and I want to build on it. It's currently zoned A-5 which is a single family detached home with a lot size of a minimum of 5,000 sq. ft. The numbers for a duplex look better than a SFH but I'm wondering if I would have to get it re-zoned to a 'B' which is for two family homes.

Has anyone ever re-zoned anything in Ft. Worth? Would re-zoning this be a mere formality or would it be a big pain? 

Thanks for the help everyone.

As a newer agent I'm looking to attract any solid lead but obviously listings are preferred. I will definitely be attacking expireds and FSBOs but am thinking about ways to rapidly expand my business in years 2 - 3 once I have some working capital to reinvest in myself and my business. 

I"m wondering if there are any agents here who have committed to a direct mail campaign over the long term and what type of results you have seen? How long do I need to plan on being committed to this type of lead generation to begin to see results? 6 months? 1 year? It appears as if sending out approximately 2500 cards per month will cost me just under $1,000 a month. Doing some quick math based on the numbers provided by Gary Keller in MREA of a 50:1 ratio my ROI would be pretty huge over the long run.

At what lump sum of cash figure would you guys recommend simply finding a real estate investment group who specializes in pooling money with other investors with big sums of cash to buy the 200+ unit multi family housing properties that cost millions of dollars? 

When you talk about an eviction in this situation I'm assuming you're talking about people who at one time were the legal owners of the property and are now 'squatting' or something like that? 

If you're in a lien theory state then the auction is held not by the lender or an auction house but by the public trustee. In these states the borrower retains title to the property when they purchase and the mortgage is simply a lien filed by the bank on the property. The public trustee holds all of these records. 

When the borrower defaults the lender notifies the public trustee and the foreclosure process is started. When this happens the information becomes public on the Public Trustee's website. 

Here in Colorado finding foreclosures is quite simple. Every property in some stage of the process is searchable. Investors simply monitor the properties as the auction date draws closer and then about 2 weeks before the auction date they begin their due diligence in earnest. 24 hours before the auction the Public Trustee creates a finalized list and publishes it on their site with what the opening big will be . This number is generally what the loan payoff amount is. 

In my county you simply fill out a form with the Public Trustee with some basic personal information, and if you win the property at auction payment is due in full by the close of business that day or the winner will be the next highest bidder. 

So before you pay for a subscription to a website make sure the information isn't available via that counties Public Trustee website. 

There are some state laws regarding stigmatized property you might need to research as well. I know here in Colorado you are required to disclose if a home was used for Meth production when you sell it. It's treated much like the lead paint disclosure. If you don't disclose to the buyers the deal is void and you/your agent could be in trouble as the seller. 

I'm glad Friendswood was mentioned. I grew up in Friendswood, in the Boca Raton subdivision and attended Friendswood schools through high school. The city does have some pocket neighborhoods of very affordable homes. There subdivisions that immediately surround the schools are a good place to start as these are the older parts of town. Also there is a subdivision called Anna Leigh that is on the Friendswood/Pearland border that will have some very good opportunities to acquire rentals that will cash flow nicely. As previously stated the school district is very highly coveted. The tenant pool will have plenty of quality people to choose from and the area in general is a very nice place to live.