All Forum Posts by: Brian P.

First thing I do is contact the neighbors and get what they know, finding out someone died is different then finding out who is on the tax bill, and if they are the same person you will know where to look next.

The courthouse is a potential goldmine. Not just probates. So go and learn and along the way you may meet somebody who collects these leads and doesn't work them, they sell them. I have met a couple. 

When I moved to my present state I happened to meet a guy in the library reading the ads in the paper looking for a job. I said to him find anything worth going after? He said not today. I asked how long have you been looking and he answered over 4 years. That led to he lost his job, of 24 years when the company folded, just weeks after his wife had been killed in a auto accident. And his age and the new skill sets employers were looking for just put him into a life of applying. He wasn't even getting the boot with the very old your over qualified brush off. Not even fast food work. He was actually homeless.

Very long story shortened I said in you spare time if you want to try it you can do something that will free me up to do other things and you can make some money doing it, and I started him off on the probates and later other things, He did a great job,I taught him to wholesale and he worked his tail off and made money. Enough to buy a brand new top of the line pickup truck, paid for in cash, and a fat bank account so he could return to his home town where he had family. 

I used someone to do the same thing when I was in California. So maybe do it yourself and when your ready hire and train someone. Never found this stuff online and the few list makers I tried were not worth the money.

Forget all the pro and con, just do it. The opinion of a broker for 50 years and a investor for 60 years. If it hadn't been a good idea I would have given up my real estate license decades ago.

Let the car be your motivation. I started investing because a new car call the corvette had just come out and I had just had my 16th birthday. My car was ok but it was 15 years old, after 6 months of investing I bought a 6 year old Chevy convertible.  Loved that car so much I put off my plans for the corvette and never bought one until the 1963 Stingray came out.  

Point is the car never made any deals for me and never cost me any deals. I might hang a little sign on the front when you park it at appointment saying now accepting bids to repair this damage or maybe just OUCH!!!!. But the thought of buying that next car would get me to get off my bottom side and just do what had to be done. Never know, a car may be part of one of your future deals. I ended up with the property and three cars on one wholesale deal, the guy wanted to be on the east coast last week but he could still see the pacific ocean, and only needed one of his four cars to get there.

if you plan to really stay in real estate investing just do it, get the license. You will find post after post in the archives saying yes, and even some of the no's are right because of good reasons. Not knowing you I will assume you are of the caliber that should do it.

if your talking about when your a buyer it depends, of course if you buying something listed it is a good idea, if it is principle to principle deal I say no, and I'm a broker.

As long as it is someone liquid I like the idea. When flash funding started my friends and family jumped in loaning transaction funding. It was definitely the way to go, each deal was $500 dollars. 2% fee and the money was out of our hands for only a day or two. We were doing 2 a week so getting a 200% return on our funds for the year. 

Now days I maintain a small savings account for emergency funds, when I get the statement each month I call myself an idiot and then think gee if I keep it there I can double my money in 72 years. I'm sure that account will be marked closed by May 1st.

That is a good question and my experience is it depends on the state and other circumstances. You need a Texas lawyer or maybe the opinion of a title insurance company as to whether they would insure title.

In one state I got into a similar type of deal. The deed holder didn't have title due to the fact the deed was not legally delivered and accepted, it was not recorded, and the party that filed a quiet title action did pay the taxes and did pay the insurance and occupied the property and the will did not mention the son was to get the property, probably because the deceased had had thought she had already given the property away. They sold it to me through a probate action. Another reason I always recommend inter-vivos trusts.

Diego

Take up the advice of others, go to a meetup or reia meeting. Almost all investors I know are willing to share their contract but if they won't don't sweat it. I know a new investor that just went to the seller in a deal with one of the heavy hitters in town and gave him $20 for copies of the paperwork.

In my early years I had someone do that to me, paid one of my sellers $100 but it was a waste of money, at the time the wholesalers had sort of a MLS and co-oped and wanted a standard contract to work with, he could have asked any one of us for a copy for free or at the most the cost of a breakfast or lunch.

Attorneys, there are many out their that graduated at the bottom of their class and end up as divorce or real estate attorneys.  Any lawyer that says it is illegal should be put in you address book as an idiot and you make sure others know about him. I knew one in the Silicon Valley that used to tell people that just to keep the competition down, he was a wholesaler on the side.

I have a question for you New York City Agents. Back in 1990 during the RTC days my brother and I and our wives went to Scottsdale, Arizona and settled for a couple of years while we took advantage of the Big Give Away. I also became eligible and passed the state broker exam but didn't take the final step because I could use my California brokers license to buy, just couldn't list.

Any way while taking the state required course I met a husband and wife New York City Real Estate Broker team moving to Phoenix and they couldn't get close to passing the exam. So one night after class we went out for a drink (11:30 pm and still 107 degrees),

They explained that they really didn't write up contracts, for 25 years they really just wrote up binder agreements and then turned everything over to the lawyers, they didn't really require any legal or contract knowledge of any great amount in NYC. They just needed selling skills.

During this conversation it came up that there was no MLS and I said it sounds like there is some money to be made going back to NYC and starting a MLS after they mine Phoenix for some gold and they could use their NY brokers license to get some commissions when buying in AZ. I said when you find a deal call me I'll help you write it up. They made some good money and bought a house in Cave Creek to come back to. They then headed to NYC to start a MLS. So my question is does NYC have an effective MLS now days or what? Just curious if they started something or what? My mother in law was from New York City and I got tired of hearing about the place so anytime when the subject came up my mine would go elsewhere.