All Forum Posts by: Brandon M.

Sending you a PM

@Mark Bosworth - what does he end up doing with the properties? Can you go back a few months on the site and find some properties he won, and then google them to see if they have hit MLS since then? Our site goes back pretty far, maybe up to a year.

Or, if any are close to you take a quick drive by and see if there is any work being done to the property. He could just be sticking them back on MLS quickly with a markup from what he paid, or he could be fixing them up himself to hold/rent out or flip.

All might not be lost on this, you could possibly track him down and see if there is any ability to buy the properties from him once he buys them at auction. That would allow you to finance them if you needed, whereas you must pay 100% in cash by the end of the same business day on any auctions you win. It might at least be worth some research and possibly a call, you never know what could happen unless you give it a try. Worst case scenario he tells you "I am not sharing any info with you" and hangs up on you. 

Mark, 

I watch the auctions for the 3 counties in the TB area every morning so I can add some insight. I am not familiar with the way your county runs it specifically, as not every Florida county is on the online auction system yet. 

For the online auctions, any of them CAN be won by a third party bidder, but it really is a crapshoot. Here not many of the plantiffs will post a max bid, so there is no way of knowing what it will take to win the auction. and 95% is the approximate rate here as well for auctions won by plantiffs. 

You are right, most of the judgments are far over what the property is truly worth/auctions are won for, but generally speaking most of the houses hitting foreclosure these days were purchased in the mid-to-late 2000s at the peak of the market and are no longer worth what they were then. That is why they are getting foreclosed on, they can't be sold for enough to cover the amount borrowed. These days most of the banks typically want to take back possession of the property because they think they can recover more of their money by taking the property back at auction and giving it to a local broker. 

The ones that are winning auctions in my county are typically the bigger shops, institutional investors, etc. You tend to see the same few third party winners over and over again. They have access to do title searches for cheap/free so that isn't an issue, and sometimes they have relationships with these bigger banks who are doing the foreclosures so they can still get into the properties even if they were never listed with an agent. All this to say the odds are stacked against an individual investor to win many auctions on a one-off basis. Some of the third parties that buy on auctions here will simply stick the property back on MLS at a marked up price, so you could always reach out to one of the ones who you see buying a lot of properties in your area and see what they typically do with the property. You might be able to work with them directly and buy from them without them listing on MLS at all.

My suggestion would be to look through the upcoming auctions, target a few in your desired areas, and start doing the research. Do a drive-by, peek in the windows if it is unoccupied, run some comps, figure out your ARV and estimate what you think it will take to fix it up. You may then want to try and find a title company or another way you can do title searches for cheap (there are some companies that do a cheaper rate if you pre-pay for a certain amount of searches).

Hope that helps some. 

@Matt Bohanon - I have attended this one a few times, it is a very good place to network. I mainly don't attend every week because I have a 6 month old son that I want to spend my evenings with (I still work a full time job so evenings are my only time with him). I know my buddy @Doug Merriott goes almost every week and raves about this meeting like it is the best thing since sliced bread! 

The meeting goes the same way every week: there is networking beforehand, then anyone who wants to pitch a 30 second infomercial of themselves gets to speak, so you see some insurance people, people who help with cleaning, foreclosure, you name it. After that he allows anyone to speak up who has a property they are looking to sell, they must give details, address if possible, and their contact info. Then he allows anyone to speak up if they have something they are looking for, certain properties in certain areas. After that people are free to network some more. That usually lasts until 9 or so when people go over to the pub next door for some drinks and some more networking. All in all it will usually run 3-4 hours or more if you go over to the pub afterwards, and there is always a very good crowd there. I mentioned 40-50 people but there very well could be more. 

This might be a good place to start networking if you are new to the area. You will find people at all levels, people who are just starting out all the way to people who are doing this full time and kicking butt at it. I know if you go and put yourself out there, shake some hands and talk to as many people as you can, it will be well worth your Monday evening. 

Hope that helps. 

There is a Monday night meeting every week at the Hibachi Grill on Park and 49th in Pinellas Park. That one usually has 40-50 people or more and only asks that you buy a drink or a plate for the buffet. 

Matt-most of the REIAs require some kind of membership fee, but you can find some groups that meet that don't require any fees. Depending on the venue some might require you to buy food/drink if at a restaurant, but not all. 

Have you checked on meetup.com for any in your area? 

@Tyler S. - Another title company you might want to talk to is Anchor Title & Associates on Clark St in Tampa. My friend Chris owns the company, he is basically a real estate investor who also owns a title company on the side, so he is obviously super familiar with investor deals as he is doing them all day every day himself. I use him for all of my real estate deals myself. 

Disclaimer: Chris is a personal friend of mine but I am not affiliated with or being compensated in any way for this referral. 

Don, 

You shouldn't even need the agent's help, you should be able to search the official records of your county and find the seller's name, and then Google that name. Here in Florida all of the official records are on a free website accessible to anyone. 

Also, each state should have a website that lets you search for the information behind a business name/LLC that is registered. A quick google search of 'California business name search' brought me this link: http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/

Try that and see if it gives you what you need. You are looking for an actual owner's name, or registered address, or something. You can then google search the name or address to try and find a phone number. What you are hoping is they did not use the address of a lawyer or something, to keep their true identity hidden. 

If that isn't the correct website you might want to do the same search I did and try a few of the links. 

First of all, definitely call them, the worst they can do is get mad and hang up. I probably wouldn't mention you live in the neighborhood, you could just say you were passing by their house the other day and noticed that it appeared to be vacant. If they are receptive to your call and don't hang up on you, you could ask them what their intentions are with the property. 

"Hi, my name is Sherwin, I passed by your property on ____ Street the other day and noticed your property was vacant. I wanted to see what your plans were with the house, because I might have an interest or be able to help you with it in some way. "       

Something to this extent is likely how I would try to start out the conversation. Whatever you do, you want to come across as someone willing to help and not as a slick salesman type. 

Before you call them you could also look at the county official records site to have an idea if they still have a mortgage on the property, if the bank has started a foreclosure process, etc. You might not want to mention you did all of this research, but you could use this info as a guide to try and get some information out of them. 

If you don't try at all, you will have a ZERO percent chance of getting a deal! Give yourself a non-zero percent chance, you never know unless you try! 

Hope that helps. 

My son's initials followed by the word Capital