All Forum Posts by: Ray Slack

You say you plan to get a loan for a down payment.. ?  Most banks don't allow this unless it's secured against a car or house.  Then it goes towards your debt ratios.  Also investor loans are much more down payment and higher interest rates than owner occuppied loans.  So, to be a bubble burster but if you are stretched to the point of having to borrow money for a down payment and a plan to buy rentals out of state, you should listen to those of us with YEARS of experience that are mostly telling you to wait until you are in a batter financial position.

So, I have a bought a few Upset Tax properties over the years and most of  are "Clean" type tax sale purchases. I have an odd one that I had some questions about. 

In pa you pay taxes on land and homes and sometimes a separate tax on structures that sit on or attach to the land.  Such as mobile homes.  

So, I am looking at an operating Cell phone tower that is going to tax sale. The issue is that it's just the tower and the building not the land and this is an upset sale.  So, I'm buying just the tower. 

.  I'm thinking I can sell it back to the prior owner but have a few questions.

1. I'm assuming the prior owner would still have to honor their lease with the land owner even if they don't own the tower any longer. 

2. There are other Cell companies antenna on the tower would I then by entitled to those lease payments since I would be the new owner of the tower? 

3. Worst Case I assume I could disassemble the tower and sell it? Even for scrap to recoup some of my gamble $. 

I know this is a bit risky since I don't own the land but figure since the cost of a putting up a new tower is $200k +/-  it would make sense for them to pay to buy back their existing one for a fraction of that cost.

Thanks all.. Appreciate the input and the (respectable ) corrections when one of us is off base ... Civility is a blessing on forums.  : )

My mother just passed and we have all her real estate in a revocable trust.  I believe we need to have all her properties appraised to determine our new stepped up basis. My question is:

Is the Value on Death appraisal that is used to determine the value of each property at the time of death the same full 15 page appraisal required by mortgage companies or is it the shorter 1 page type appraisal  ?

Just trying to figure out if the appraiser needs to go the whole 9 yards like when there is a loan involved.

Thanks

Okay.. So many different opinions and advice.  (Most of which seems self serving)

Here is mine- First off I don't get mortgages either. I own 25 properties and none have loans. 

My properties are either high cap rates in C or D areas that return 10-20% cash on cash or in nicer B grade areas that are steady good tenants that return 7-9% and appreciate more in Value than the cash flowing c/d area rentals. 

It really boils down to how involved you want to be in the rental / investment process.. Based on the fact that you are in your 20s live in Silicon Valley and have $500k I'd say you are probably busy with your day job and don't really want to be involved with flipping and STRs that take a lot of oversight. 

I would NOT buy in California. 

I would personally not invest in syndications. (If you are considering this ask if they leverage their properties with your investment.. Investing in this may also violate Sharia law )

I would either buy out state in a lower income area if you can find someone you trust to sell you the properties and manage them for you. OH, MI, PA, IN, NC or any other lower priced state. 

Or if you want more risk and more reward find a flipper that needs an investment partner.  I was flipping in the Miami Market and the competition was insane and I could not find anything that made sense to buy so I partnered with a flipper from another area and funded all the flips.  Instead of making my normal 20% profit per flip I made 10% after splitting with him but he did all the work on the renovations.  It worked out well until his market also became too competitive. 

So, I keep hearing about it being great to be classified as a "real estate Professional" for tax purposes. It seems the only benifit is to be able to deduct passive rental losses from ordinary income.. Since I have no mortgages on any of my rentals I really don't have any paper losses on rentals. 

The downside to being classified as a real  estate professional (It seems) is that it makes all my rental property income "active" instead of "passive" therefore requiring Self Employment taxes to be paid on all rental income.  Although, there seems to be some court rulings in favor of "Real Estate Professionals"  that fight having to have all their rental income classified as active.  Any ideas about this? 

Seems like unless you have mortgage interest to deduct it's better to be a Non real estate professional.  

I Purchased a few pieces of raw land and also a few very run down houses that I plan to not renovate for the next couple of years. (They will just sit) 

So, both the land and uninhabitable homes are not going to be be rented or available for rent for the next few years.  Do I deduct expenses such as utilities, landscaping and property taxes annually or just add those expenses to the basis when I sell? 

I see many lenders our area "PG COUNTY MD" enter foreclosure properties before the actual sale and change the locks and winterize the properties to prevent damage. They do this to protect the property prior to to the foreclosure auction. 

I purchased a property in November and think the property is vacant but not sure. I have left notes on the door and they are removed but I never hear back from anyone.  The weather here is getting sub freezing and I don't want the pipes to break.  Can I have a locksmith drill out the locks and enter the property like the bank does in order to winterize and protect the property?  Or do I need to file for eviction not knowing if anyone is living there? (Eviction is currently taking 6 months in our county)

What is entailed with assigning a Tax Certificate? I just want to assign it from my personal Name to an LLC prior to Foreclosing .

Does it need to be recorded with the clerk? or just given to the Tax deed department? 

Does anyone have a form template assignment for a Maryland Tax Certificate that they could share with me? 

Thanks

So, I purchased several tax certificates in PG County MD last May and some didn't redeem by the 6 month deadline . A few properties are not worth foreclosing the certificate but a few are worth foreclosing.   My question is about if liens and 2022/2023 taxes which are now due come out of my bid amount or due I have to pay those out of pocket? 

 Bid amount $6700

Certificate for 2021/2022 taxes $1,741 (I Paid this at the sale to buy the Tax certificate)

Taxes due for 2022/2023 $1300

Code enforcement lien $1500 

So, do all those get deducted off my $6700 bid amount?  Are 2022/2023 taxes prorated and paid out of the bid amount? 

Thanks for any input.

Ray