All Forum Posts by: Corey Frank

As a brand new investor I have been hearing this topic brought up more and more in the last few months and wonder how one can protect themselves as an investor. several people have said "buy for cash flow only" and you will be safe. However that can't be true can it? Where I currently live is an energy market. bust and boom. Last year we saw bust, hard. layoffs, increasing unemployment and massive foreclosures. All investors I have talked to in this area have stated the horrors of the 2016 rental market in the area. People stopped paying rent, rents dropped significantly and most new renters were not the best candidates. What does someone do to mitigate the financial risk of the bubble popping?

Greg, I do want to make sure I am not going to hurt myself financially to help him but at the same time don't I have a upper hand and possibly first pick of this property since it hasn't gone all the way to foreclosure? 

Brett thanks you for the information and offer. I will take you up on it and will look into the shortsale.

Hello everyone! I would just like to start by saying I am brand new at REI and would very much appreciate any feedback on this matter. I have a friend who in the last year has been laid off and moved to his home state 1000 miles away. He has left behind a property in which he has zero to negative equity in. I have not asked him directly about this property but after doing some research and knowing him pretty well I believe he is several months behind on his mortgage payments and taxes, possibly soon to be foreclosed on. It was bought at a market high, for asking price, in rough shape. He owes $150,000 on this property and I believe ARV will not equal much more then that. I could easily stick $40,000 to $50,000 into the house between siding, a new ac unit, hvac unit and everything else. My goal here is to help my friend get out of this house that I know he can not afford but at the same time I will need to get this house for much cheaper then what he owes to make any type of return or break even for that matter. My questions are is it likely if I get into contact with the mortgage holder, I will be able to buy the house at a price that will give me any return and get my friend out of the debt or will they laugh at me, let it go into foreclosure and send it to auction? What steps do I need to take? Thank you very much for any information!