All Forum Posts by: Chad S.

Hi Folks,

I have some questions about a property that I am trying to acquire in Montana, but it seems to be quite a complicated issue. I will not try to drag out this post, but some background info is required to understand where I am at in this and where I am stuck at. Here we go!

There has been an empty lot, next to my father in law’s house that has been in distressed for years. The lot is .50 acres, with a very small house that needs some work, along with the foundation. The house is about 800 sqft.

I was interested in the property and decided to do some digging. The owner died back in 2013 and left the property with his daughter. The daughter wants NOTHING to do with the property and refused to talk anymore about it. Not knowing where to start, my wife and I contacted the county and requested a title search. The title search came back with the following info:

The owner owed state property taxes which totaled $1650.

There is also a federal lien on the property for the amount of $11,775.

There is no mortgage on the property. The deceased had paid it off.

After receiving the title, I contacted a property tax attorney and discussed with them my intentions. They informed me that a series of steps have to be taken in order to purchase this property which they called “steps for assignment process”.

One of those steps was to send a certified letter to the daughter (the Personal Representative of the estate) stating my intentions of buying the property and paying off the taxes. This was the last step I stopped at.

These are the questions I have and hopefully they can be answered:

1. Do I need to pay off the Federal Tax Lien and if so, can I negotiate with the IRS to bring the price down? I would assume they want some money out of it.

2. I have the Federal Tax Lien issue number but I am having a hard time finding the right people to contact at the IRS to discuss how to pay this lien (or even negotiate). The current phone number I have for the IRS supposedly can help, but I have not been able to get through and have been on hold for hours at a time. Is there a different way of doing this?

3.  What do I need to do to get this moving forward?

The property as it stands appraises for $40,000. With the house rebuilt, it can be resold for about $80-90K.  

Thank you in advance and answering my questions.

Hi my name is Chad and I am currently active duty (Air Force, 12+ years) and stationed at Mountain Home AFB in Idaho.  I have been researching ways that offer an alternative to invest my money, instead of throwing it into the good ole' stock exchange.  I caught a BP Podcast on YouTube one day and was glued to it and how Real Estate offers one of the best platforms to invest in.  I have listened to about 30 different Podcast's and read a lot of the blog's and articles on the site.  There is a ton of knowledge to be had, and the best thing its free, with no Guru sales pitching.  I have NO experience in real estate, apart from buying and selling a house I lived in when I was stationed in Alaska.  However, I am working on a deal right now on a distressed property, which is what lead me to join BP. I am stuck on what I need to do to move this deal forward, but hopefully some guidance can be given to the more experienced investors here.

I have spent some time narrowing down the invest strategies I would like to try.  These strategies are Wholesaling,  Flipping, and looking at commercial properties (such as old empty K-marts, grocery stores, etc) and turning them into climate control self-storage businesses.  Being in the military, I have the advantage of moving to different markets, and to meet new investors, partners and the like.

I am very excited about what this community has to offer and to answer any questions that I may have.