All Forum Posts by: Brandon Stewart

Could someone from Delaware listen in on one of these meetings? @Wendy Patton

I'm hoping someone can help me understand this since I'm just starting out.

I found this house on Zillow that was listed for around 250 days. I looked up the address and the property taxes and school taxes are not paid. I checked again the next day and it is listed for rent. The owner is an out of state owner as well. It seems to me this person may be motivated. However, the sales history is what confuses me a little, because the title is in the hands of a trustee, and I'm not sure if the home was being sold by the trustee to repay a debt, or if the out of state owner is trying to rent it out for financial relief. The answer would determine how I approach the seller.

Here's what the sales history says(names have been changed):

First

Owner: John Doe,  Current owner: No,  Sales Date: Not available,  Sales Amount: $0

--The second owner has the same name, just with trustee at the end:

Owner: John Doe Trustee, Current owner: No, Sales Date: 3/21/1994, Sales Amount: $10

--This owner has a different name, still a trustee:

Owner: Stewart Brandon trustee, Current owner: Yes, Sales Date: 10/2/2003, Sales Amount: $155,000

As you can see, it went from one trustee to another, and I'm not sure what that means. I just recently learned about deeds of trust.

If you were considering this deal, with the information provided, how would you go about contacting the decision maker? The tax records show the owner's address, but I don't know if that's the decision maker, since the title is in the hands of a trustee.

So I'm searching through my county tax records for people who way be motivated, and most of the homes I see are owned by trustees. I was hoping someone could help me understand it a little more.

What I know so far is that the trustor living in the home is using their house as collateral to borrow money.

However, the county tax records show that the title is still in the hands of the trustee. Is it safe to assume there's a lien on the title?

Also, if I wanted to buy the home, do I negotiate with the trustee or the trustor? It may seem like a dumb question, but I just want to make sure I know what I'm talking about before I take any action.

I'm considering doing a lease option assignment, between the seller and tenant buyer. I'd like to make sure the trustee situation won't mess up the deal.

@Will Flores I found this book by David Lindahl on emerging markets, if you were still interested in the subject. It has some good info in my opinion that's easy to understand.

I'm hoping someone could point me to information about how to analyze my local RE market. I'm looking for a home in an appreciating market, but i'm not sure how to tell what kind of market the home is in, even if i have the comps. Is there a book on the subject that anyone could recommend?

That cleared up a lot! So basically, i should try to get paid by a note when closing a sandwich, and only use transactional funding if i have no other choice. I'll have to do some research on how to create a note at settlement, but this has definitely pointed me in the right direction!

Thanks again for your help @Brian Gibbons

I see, so do you choose an assignment because its less complicated? or is there less closing cost with an assignment? Thanks again for all your help @Brian Gibbons. It goes a long way!

@Brian Gibbons

I think i understand. So is that considered a reverse assignment? If that's the case, then the agreement you have with the seller gets discarded right? Does the money you paid for your option with the seller get refunded somehow? Perhaps in the new agreement?

From what ive always understood, when doing a lease option sandwich, you sign a lease option agreement with the seller, and then you find a tenant buyer and have them sign a separate rental agreement and a separate option agreement.

I spoke to an attorney last month and he was saying something about assigning the rental agreement that i have with the seller, over to the tenant buyer. At the time i really didn't think we were on the same page, but while readying wendy pattons book on sandwiches, she said she includes a clause in her rental agreement which says "Tenant will be assigning this agreement to another party, but is still responsible to the owner per this agreement."

After thinking about it for a little bit, it makes sense to assign the rental agreement IF i was also assigning my option to buy, but its still unclear.

I was hoping someone could help me figure this out, or even better, point me to a good source of information that goes over the tiny little details of LO sandwich paperwork and how settlement works with them.

1) Is it necessary to assign a lease even if i was doing a double closing?

2) Why and when would someone assign, and would that affect your cashflow?

I feel bad for asking all these questions, but i'm really looking forward to the day when i can finally give back to the BP community.

I'm planning on doing sandwich lease options in the near future, and one of the forums i think would help a lot is a non-binding lease option agreement (for the seller), which is basically a simplified lease option agreement that spills out the price and terms to give the seller an understanding of how the deal will work.

If anyone has something like this that they wouldn't mind uploading to the file-place, i'd greatly appreciate it!