All Forum Posts by: Carolee Johnston

Thx Nathan, I'm going to do just that. Me and my husband visited the properties very early this morning to get updated pics and found most had been vandalized and some even had squatters who made it clear they weren't leaving without a fight. I'm friendly with a building contractor who has a large working crew and we decided to assign all but 1 of the properties to him. He said it's no problem for his crew to remove the occupants and renovate all of the properties. This is very discouraging. Flipping properties is not as safe as it used to be. I'm going to stick with Property Preservation for now and only invest in 1 house at a time, that way I can live in the property from renovation to sale to keep vandals/squatters from damaging it. I've been warned with the slew of foreclosures coming up, vacant properties will be targeted even more.

I am a Senior Property Preservation Specialist just getting back into Flipping Properties. My background is a former Broker/Owner of a small brokerage and full-time investor for 20 yrs. During the 2008 market crash, my business suffered as we specialized in REO listings and we decided to close down. I then went into Property Preservation full time and am now just getting back into Flipping SF homes. I contacted close to 80 defaulted homeowners and 16 want to either sell, allow me to assume their mortgage and 3 who are fully paid on their mortgage but defaulted on property taxes want $$$ to walk away. My question is should I BULK buy all of them? I have only bought 1 or 2 houses simultaneously. I don't want to lose out on any of them as they will probably sell to someone else if I don't get them. I use Hard Money Lenders (HML) being that I am self-employed. All but 2 of the properties need cosmetic work only (I am a General Contractor so can do most of the work myself). 2 properties need new roofs and I have a few roofers to do the work. Appreciate any advice from anyone who has bought in bulk.