All Forum Posts by: Mark Elliott

hi mike. what you have going on here is a property that has not met the reserve price. in cases like these, the top bidder is no where near the reserve price. if you are the top bidder, auction.com will contact you and offer you the house for near the reserve price. in these cases, the top bidder declines and the house hits the auction block again. you need to be the top bidder at the end of the auction. i personally have had them call me and offer me the house for a few thousand less than their reserve price, which i counter offered at a few thousand over my price. we met in the middle and i still got a pretty good deal. 

hey blake. sounds like you are on a roll. you got lots of great advice here. thats what BP is all about. keep up that motivation, it is key in this business. the money will start rolling in, however, your timetable may be a little enthusiastic, but stick with it. the time will come when you can quit that job and follow the dream. OPM is what makes it in this business, thats Other Peoples Money. credit. if you don't have it, get it. if your credit is shot, fix it. go to www.annualcreditreport.com and work on improving that credit score. its free. and watch the podcasts here on BP. education helps, but it can slow you down. you have to jump in and jump the hurdles that you can and knock down those that you cannot. no on ever learned anything without getting started and failing a time or two. think of all the great inventions created in the last 200 years. not one of them was a success without first figuring out how NOT to do it. good luck to you

hi robert. sounds like you have the typical government agency going on there. if you ever want something totally screwed up, get the government involved. the best thing you can do is go where they are not. that government doesn't cover every area around you. invest in some place where they are not at. check out the local government for another area and see how they are to deal with. here in buffalo, the inner city is a pain in the ***, as well as some of the burbs, but some are not. i simply do not invest in areas where the government is going to be a problem. my advice to you is to sell all of your properties where this government can have a hold on you and buy elsewhere

hi garrett. my name is mark, and i have been doing the flipping houses thing here in buffalo for quite a while. i do have one rental house, but flipping is my thing. i would love to link up with you and discuss real estate investing with you some time. let me know when you are avalible

yes, evan, we are on a different page here. what i mean is that if you were to buy a house from the bank, sign a purchase agreement with that bank to include the contingency

hi evan. yes, you may have opened up the GC to stealing this one from you. but maybe not. if he is a stand up guy, ten maybe he will not steal it from you. but int he future, file a purchase agreement with the bank prior to having the GC look at it. put a contingency in there that states this offer is contingent upon a satisfactory estimate from the GC. if the bank won't bite on it because of that, well, then find another bank to deal with. also, next time, don't tell the GC anymore than they need to know. they are there to give you an estimate on the rehab, and thats all they need to know. 

hi bobbi. the answer to your question is yes. but with limitations. the power in this business lies with OPM. other peoples money. the more money you borrow, the less of your own you have to invest, the higher your rate of return will be. that being said, yes you can invest without good credit, but it will be harder. you will be forced to deal is smaller amounts, smaller deals, etc. but, that also allows you to make deals on the houses that no one else wants, because those with good credit or money are not buying the houses that on one wants. trust me, i have made and continue to make money buying houses that are the underdog. i personally have bought a house for $500. the most i have paid for a house is $4100. no, i did not forget a zero in there. find a local tax authority in your area, ask them what they do with the houses that are foreclosed on by them for back taxes. chances are, they auction them off to the highest bidder. most of mine have come to me this way. usually, there will be one that no one wants, and you can get for pennies on the dollar. this would work for private owners too. these houses will require you to know a lot of rehab work, but you get a damn good education along the way too. 

ok, lets address your credit. how did it get that way??? thats most important. you know where you don't want to be, now you need to know how you got there. and, quit doing whatever got you there. federal law states that all 3 credit reporting agencies have to give you one free credit report per year. federal law also states that if you dispute anything on that credit report to the agency, they are required to investigate, and remove anything that is either proven to be false or not answered back to them within 30 days. here is what you do. go to www.annualcreditreport.com and request a copy of your report from all 3 credit agencies.  DISPUTE ANYTHING NEGATIVE on those reports. i don't care if it is true or not, dispute it. the agency will request of the creditor proof that this account exists, or whatever you have disputed is true. the creditor has 30 days to answer back. if they do not, the credit reporting agency is REQUIRED BY FEDERAL LAW TO REMOVE THE NEGATIVE INFORMATION FROM YOUR REPORT,  as though it never existed at all. anytime anything negative is removed from your report, your credit score will go up. then keep track of your score at www.creditkarma.com. 

lastly, pay your bills on time. there is nothing better to improve your credit score than paying your bills on time. RE is a great business to be in, and it functions so much better with good credit. you have to get yourself into the " good" category with your credit score for a bank to even give you the time of day. so, get there, and watch yourself grow

great advice here

you can put any name on any deed that you want. the real question here is what would the bank think? in most mortgages, there is a " due on sale" clause. which means the bank can demand payment in full if you sell the house. granted, yes, here, he is not selling, so the bank my not force the right to due on sale. but they may. should they have to foreclose anytime in the future, having a name on the property different than the name on the mortgage could, and probably will put several more steps to the foreclosure for the bank. thats something they are not going to be happy about. if i were him, i would check into refinancing the property. see if there is any equity in the place that he could pull out and use to further his real estate world. at that time, put a different name on the deed, everyone is happy and he walks out of the deal with some cash in hand

on one hand, i would agree with brie. loosing out on a deal over a matter of less than 1 percent seems kind of crazy. however, at the numbers you gave, it would take you 6 years to recoup your costs. not necessarily bad, but can you afford to hold your money for 6 years? how much more money could you make using that money over the next 6 years? personally, on that deal, i would take it, fix it and flip it. cash out and use the profit to advance myself over that 6 years. but thats me.