All Forum Posts by: Corey Williams

I am looking at a house in pre-foreclosure and the offer must be accepted by the bank. I am not working with an agent right now but I have a few agent friends if I need to get them involved and the house is listed with an agent.

My request is for an offer letter example. Do most of you use a standard realtor provided offer letter or have you crafted your own? I would love to get some examples of offer letters used when you are getting a deal approved by a bank. Do you approach a deal with a bank any differently than you do with an individual seller?

Thanks!

Thanks for the detailed post. That is exactly what I was looking for to help me think through this out loud. I have read other posts about investment property being bought for 70% of value minus repair costs to make it worth while. Little bits and pieces are starting to add up and I will be on my way to REI before you know it.

As far as the debt part of the post goes, we are not that tight on monthly cash flow and the new house would be affordable on a monthly basis. I was simply looking for a creative way in while a few houses on the market are getting bitten by the foreclosure bug here in Central IN. My intentions are to stay the course on debt reduction.

From a personal property standpoint someone will get a good house in a great neighborhood and make it worth its weight in gold. From an investors point of view it doesn't seem worth the time. In the back of my mind I thought this would be one to pass on, but I needed to get the example out there to learn from it. Thank you very much for your thoughts.

I am going to spill my guts and provide you with as much information as I have. This is for a personal residence and not and investment property although our current home could become a rental property.

For starters our house (by our house I mean my wife and I) is not on the market yet and the house we are looking to buy is teetering on the edge of foreclosure. It was schedule to begin foreclosure on April 1st but has been given a little extra life by the owner. Any offer is subject to the bank’s approval, but the owner still has to sign the paperwork. Plus the bank will not accept a contingency offer for us to sell our house first, and the house is being sold “As-is”, which I am familiar with “As-is” and have no problem with that. All of this is information provided by the listing agent.

I know; we could sell our house and hope the other one is still on the market, but I don't think we have that much time for this particular house. Plus there are additional details with the financial math, which is why I am here. This may be the perfect project to springboard me into REI.

Here are the details: We owe $137k on our house and I would market it for $150k - $155k. (I don’t have detailed comps but I would consider this a moderate price). The equity we have is our only source of cash for the new purchase, which if we list with an agent wont leave us with much for a down payment after paying the commission. Plus I would love to rent it out until the market picks up but we couldn’t get approved conventionally to carry two mortgages.

The house we are looking at is listed for $239,900, down from $259,900 when the owner first listed it. Even at $260k it was at the low end of a $260k to $280k neighborhood. The “As-is” part of the sale wouldn’t require major expense up front and the value could get back up there with a little TLC, which quite frankly, I would be looking forward to.

I realize cash is king and if I had it, I would make the deal and buy the house. My credit score is excellent, but all of our extra cash is paying down debt right now, which isn’t a lot, but it is still debt. I have a strong desire to invest in real estate and if this deal can’t be made right now then so be it. But I would love all of your opinions on how to make this happen. Please feel free to contact me via private post if you can help or simply post your thoughts to help me out on future deals.

Maybe, at the very least I could point you to the house for a finders fee!

THANKS!
Corey

First of all, thank you very much for the input. This has proven to be a great forum to bring the REI community together.

I would love to share my plans and get some help. However, in about 4 hours I will be leaving for vacation. A few days worth of down time will certainly recharge the batteries. I will be back and ready to discuss in a week.

There are numerous websites and even state sponsored programs to help you write a business plan. Many are geared toward product manufacturing or restaurants some even include advice on franchising.

Is a business plan for real estate similar to those and do lenders value your goals and dreams of the business when looking at each idividual deal?

I fully intend to write out a plan for my real estate goals, but does a fully formatted and presentable business plan help? If so are there any examples out there that would help?

BMR-
I noticed your location is CA. How is it managing real estate in IN from CA? I assume you have a manager of some sort here in the Cetral Indiana area.

It is time to network and gain some local market knowledge. I moved to Fishers a little over 2.5 years ago from Fort Wayne, IN and I have been couped up in an office ever since and not out in the streets looking for neighborhoods, properties or people.

I need to make some contacts and build a team of professionals that can help me reach my goals. Existing multi-family with or without TLC is certainly a great place to start and maybe even some small shop retail space.

I am looking to reachout to lenders, real estate brokers/agents, contractors, title companies, attorneys, etc., in the Indy area. I have found the CIREIA on the Internet and plan to attend my first meeting in April, but any contacts I can make before that would be greatly appreciated.

The last 2.5 years have been in commercial land development including a mix of retail shopping centers, bulk warehouse and flex office space. As it relates to land use, zoning and development I am comfortable with all types of development. On the architectural side of things I am most comfortable with residential, both new construction and rehabs.

I would love nothing more than to start something on my own, but money is the main issue right now. That issue being that I have none.

Most of my adult life has been based around real estate in some way.

I had an Architecture/drafting passion in high school which led me to an Associates Degree in Architectural Engineering. My first job was with an Arch/Eng firm which after 3 years the company cut the Arch part for business reasons and I stayed with them converting to the Engineering side. I was with them for 11 years becoming a project manager for land surveying and civil engineering projects. For the last 2.5 years I worked for a land development/construction company until I was recently laid off.

I have an inner entrepreneur that is dying to bust out and take my experience to the next level. Any assistance and mentoring you could provide would be greatly appreciated. I will also be starting a real estate licensing class in April to help move my career along.