All Forum Posts by: Ray Slack

We really need more information to help than you have supplied.. what do you need a contractor for?  are you building a house? commercial property? Gut Rehabbing something? Are you looking for a general contractor? or are you looking for subs? The going to home depot in the morning suggestion is for laborers.  there are very few skilled workers than hang out at HD in the mornings looking for work.   Most anyone with a skill and willing to work for a reasonable salary is working daily.  Post what you are looking for specifically and I can point you in the right direction.   BTW I'm renovate and flip properties and am currently working on 5 homes in Bowie. (No I won't be your contractor)  but I can give you good advice if you let us know exactly what you are looking to have done.

Ray

I also looked into something similar a year or so back.. There was an appeal going through the courts over the same thing. Basically what Chad is saying. Banks are taking the position that it resets after each defaulting payment. You could very easily buy the property and then have the bank foreclosure withing a few month or maybe a year. Usually this will happen when the bank sells the NPN to a 3rd party and they decide to aggressively go after the property.

Good Luck.. I wouldn't mess with it unless you can recoup your cash outlay through rental payments within a short time frame.. Either that or contact the mortgage company and pay them to release their mortgage.

Ray 

Joel's advice above is right on point.  I do buy quite a few properties from auction.com but it is a love/hate relationship.. You have to do your research and stay on top of the auctions.   Also their contract is the most one sided contract EVER.. You have to pay all the sellers costs and the buyers costs.  Also they have the right to terminate the contract for any reason and if you breach anything or miss a deadline by a day or two they can keep your deposit.  That being said If you are interested in a specific property I would be willing to help/explain it to you.. PM me.

Ray

go to pgatlas dot com and you can find the zoning on the property.  It's probably r-80 or RR unless it's in a most Rural area then it could be RE , RA or OS. 

Yes..  You can invest a considerable amount of money preparing reports, plans and studies and they still can say no.  Especially if you have even 1 property owner in the area that objects to it.  They make you send out letters to all the property owners surrounding the property. I think it's within 1/2 mile.  You also have to post a sign and have several public hearings.  If one person shows up and objects expect a nightmare with the city and county. (Actually Bowie is easy it's PG county that is the nightmare) If 1 neighbor objects and brings up that they think your subdivision could increase traffic exception the board to make you pay $5,000 to $10,000 for a traffic study. We had neighbor that just wanted to cause trouble say she once found an old indian relics on the property and the county made us hire a company to determine that it wasn't an Indian burial ground.  Crazy. Basically you own 1 lot. It's a privilege not a right to be allowed to subdivide it.

I'm very familiar with land development in PG county.. it's a nightmare.  It takes a lot of money and time with no guarantee that you will get anything approved.  Finished lots sell to builders for 1/4 of the price that you could sell a new house in the neighborhood.  If the zoning is RA you get 1 house per 2 acres RE 1 house per acre RR 1 house per 1/2 acre.  You would be looking at about $25k-$30k in engineering costs to get subdivision submitted for approval. with no guarantee it would be approved.  Then to finish the lots (installing roads, curbs, gutters, storm water drains) and bringing water and sewer to the lots can run $30-$40k per lot. There are also fire/police and school impact fees that would need to be paid to the county. 

and BTW.. Most foreclosure cases in PG are taking OVER 1 year after the sale date to be ratified by the court..   I have an auction.com property that they told me 30 day closing and every 30 days kept saying it would be another 30 days.. After 11 months I gave up on it.

Let me start by saying.. I am in PG county and I bought 10 foreclosures in PG last year.. I have also bought properties from auction.com and other similar sites..  To answer your questions.  

1. Yes a court can void a sale.  Although it's unlikely. I had it happen to 1 out of the 10 I bought last year.  it's usually only due to a mistake in the foreclosure process or a bankruptcy. 

The bigger issue that you have is that you mentioned that this is a condo.. You need to read your contract thoroughly.  Most auction.com contracts require you to pay any liens or back fees. including water bills/leins and any back condo liens.  I got stuck with 2 huge bills at closing buying from these auction sites.. one was a 13,000 front footage accessment that had not been paid in 6 years and the other was a 2 years worth of back condo fees that had not been paid by the prior owner.   In any normal transaction these leins are paid by the seller but the online auction site's contract is so slanted to the seller and you can't change anything on it.  Most of the contracts call you to pay for everything..  Including the seller's closing costs.   One deal I had with and auction site the seller's title company send me a bill for the seller's closing fee of $1,600 in addition to my closing fees and government recording taxes/costs.  This seller closing fee is usually about $250 in my area.. I screamed and yelling and the title company said we have a contracted rate with the seller and that is our contracted rate and in your contract you agreed to pay their costs.   CRAZY.. In short deals on these auction sites seem like a good deal until you factor in all the addition costs and risk you face.   ONE MORE THING.. If you are getting a QCD or any deed for that matter and you are using their title  company and they find a lien or problem in the title they will just exclude it from your title insurance policy.  Meaning that one lost heir that they couldn't find to sign off comes back in 5 years and wants the house your insurance doesn't cover it because that was excluded under the coverage.

Ray

Nice- sounds like you were very through in your analysis and your Value adds. Too bad your across the country I could use someone like you on my team  : )

Baltimore is going to be your only/best option.  

Anywhere else in the DMV will be a war zone at that price point.

Ray

Not sure about Carol county but in P.G. county and AA county Maryland you can get a sale date in 3-6 months but then it takes the court 12-18 months to ratify the sale after the auction and for you to get title.  Not sure about Carol though.

Ray