All Forum Posts by: Tim Czarkowski

Antonio Bodley Distance is actually very important. I generally only use comps with in a half mile. If it's a real active area I'll do a quarter mile. If it's a more rural area outside of town I sometimes go a mile but that's the absolute limit for me at least. If the comps are in the same neighborhood that's even better. In certain areas a little distance makes a big difference. One neighborhood in particular here a home of the same size could be $30,000 or $500,000 within about a mile of each other. I have seen $100,000 to $150,000 price differences based on whether the home was in a particular gated neighborhood or not. These were homes literally less than a quarter mile apart.

Start looking at comps regularly and you will get a feel for why things vary the way they do. You want the comps as close as possible to the subject property the less variance the less risk of getting your value wrong.

Antonio Bodley Having leads that are not listed is the whole idea but you don't use those for comps. You want properties that were properly marketed and sold for market price.

Hami Hot You need to talk an attorney and a pretty good one. These are complicated situations. In the case I dealt with the property had already been sold several times and they were going to unwind the entire transaction. Everyone came to a settlement to allow the end buyer to keep the property. This is the government you are dealing with, they have unlimited funds to pay high priced attorneys. You do not. This is probably just some cheap condo and you would think they would let it go. They will not because they have cases like this all over the country.

You may be able to sell it but I don't recommend it. If you do make sure you sell on a quit claim deed lol. Otherwise whomever bought it will be all over you when the lose it. Most likely your best way out will be to just give up the deposit, but you need to speak with an attorney in your area who has an intimate knowledge of foreclosure in your area. There is not likely to be someone in you area who has handled a case similar to this so you will need to just find the best you can.

Antonio Bodley If all the areas around you have no sales or old sales you'll have to go to another area. Not just a different neighborhood but a different city or even state. Are you in a very small town or something? If not I find it hard to believe that you can't find any sales. Maybe you should use Zillow to find an area that is active and then try to find your properties. Or call a realtor in your area and ask them where the sales are occurring right now.

Antonio Bodley As I asked before, where are you getting your comps from? If they are years old and not comps you'll have to look in a different area. That's all there is to it. Most investors just won't take the risk to buy a property they can't put a value on.

Hami Hot I wouldn't be so sure that the attorney is wrong. I don't know how foreclosure auctions are handled there in North Carolina but here you would either go through with the purchase or forfeit your deposit. All responsibility for title is on the buyer. People buy seconds and HOA liens regularly here thinking the are getting the first. Your situation is a little different however.

What may happen is that you go through the purchase and then Fannie Mae will reverse the sale and you may get your money back. You just got yourself in the middle of a real mess. There are many of these cases going on right now all over the country where HUD or Fannie Mae were foreclosed on by HOA's and are now trying to go back and reverse the sale. You are going to need the help of a good attorney to sort through this mess and truthfully it maybe cheaper to give up your deposit. I wish you all the best, I just went through a similar situation on a property I sold.

Antonio Bodley The strategy with a junker property is to put it under contact at a low enough price that it can be rehabbed for retail or renting. If you don't have the money to do it yourself then you need to get it even cheaper so that it can be "Wholesaled" to an investor who does have the money to rehab it. In order to do this you need to be able to put a good ARV and rehab cost on it.

There are good wholesalers out there, it's just most of them are garbage. Anyone who says wholesaling is an easy way to start is mistaken. As someone else said there are thousands of realtor, rehabbers, and landlords all competing for the same properties. You not only have to get to these properties before any of these people but you must also get a larger discount on them. That's where your profit comes from. The good wholesalers in my area have years of RE experience and more knowledge then most other investors. All are real estate brokers and most have other credentials such as being a general contractor, mortgage broker, home builder, rehabber, and/or landlord. As far as I know none of them started out as wholesalers. Only one of them focuses almost exclusively on wholesaling.

Antonio Bodley In one of your previous posts you mention that it is difficult to find buyers. This means you have the wrong property. If you have deal people will be jumping all over themselves to get. They'll offer full price, cash offers with no contingencies. If a property has no decent recent comps most investors will not deal with it. You have to avoid those properties since your buyers will do the same. With out reasonable comps it is very difficult to place a value on a property. It could also be that there are comps but your not seeing them. How to you run comps?

A small multifamily is a great way to get started. That's what I did, FHA financing and all.

How to get started

1. Go talk to a mortgage broker and find out how much you can borrow. If you have decent credit you should be just fine. It also might be better to save up a bit more money to afford a more expensive place. That depends on prices where you live. Here you could get a decent duplex in a blue collar neighborhood for $60,000 or so. In a better neighborhood it would be double that.

2. Now that you know how much you can afford call a local realtor and tell them that your looking for a duplex(or triplex or quad) and that you have X dollars you can spend. They'll be very happy to help.

Steve Cantano I love your posts, they crack me up every time. The one before this past one was great.

What Steve is talking about is entirely possible. I have picked up two free and clear condos this way. One was from a private owner and one was from HUD. HUD's opinion was exactly what he said, "What the HOA says we owe is too much so we're not paying." Unfortunately for them here in Florida that meant they lost the property. It does appear that the banks are catching on so I wouldn't expect to see too many, at least here in Florida. Since it sounds like it is something new in Nevada it may take them a bit to figure it out but they will.

I'd love to know how that Glen Plantone strategy worked out for them.

Wayne Brooks The approval letter said no such thing. He claimed it was the arms length agreement that didn't allow it. He was incorrect. I realize that it is often included but it was not in this cases.