All Forum Posts by: Neil Sinha

@Brian Phelt

Welcome to BP.  Newbie investor also in San Antonio looking to buy and hold.  Let me know if you'd like to network and which areas of town you're trying to deepen into.

I like Omar's suggestion of allowing a mentee to simply be a fly on the wall for existing business you are working anyway.  As a newbie, I'd be very interested in paying a nominal fee to watch an experienced investor in action on a non-interference basis.

What's your idea of a multifamily that you are interested in?  Most multifamily housing has several connected but independent living units with their own entry door, like apartment complexes have.  If you can't see that upfront, what is confusing you?

I'm a fellow newbie also working my angles on driving for dollars.  Some of the resources I've gotten used to tapping:

1)County property tax records to show who's currently being billed (not always to the same address as the property) and any chain of title it shows.

2)County clerk's online records to show actual deed and deed of trust documents electronically scanned.

3)truepeoplesearch dot com, which I've found to be a good, free resource for looking up records by person, by address, or by phone number, and any person it has information on will show associated relatives, maiden / married names, address history and phone number history.  It's not 100% accurate, but for free it's a good site.

4)With the above info, I'll also google the names I find, google for obituary records, and even facebook search to see if any of the relatives of the property owner are on facebook.

One great resource I've been using is www.truepeoplesearch.com.  Completely free search by name, reverse phone and reverse address.  Each person record has known aliases, address history, and known relatives.  I've found the accuracy to be very good for not paying a dime.  When I find that site says an owner is elderly or deceased, then I google the name in quotes plus "obituary" and my city.  Legacy.com often has online obituaries with next of kin listed, which I then plug back into truepeolplesearch.  And I try and verify any of those addresses with property tax records.

Hello BP!  I've been locating abandoned properties here in San Antonio with the belief they are more likely to be distressed and have value.  Most have either deceased owners or owners who have abandoned the house out of fear of collections / foreclosure.  Some examples:

Scenario #1)Owner inherited it from mother, used it as collateral for cash-out refinances to fund a failing small business.  Declared Ch13 and then Ch7 bankruptcy and had debts discharged but lien remains on property.  Fled home, but all publicly available info still has that as his residence.

Scenario #2)Owner took out home equity loan before passing away about three years later.  They had no children, so next of kin are two siblings.  I reached a niece that held a memorial service for the deceased owner.  She believed bank owned property now because of loan, but no foreclosure has happened.  I offered to help family probate estate and clear lien, so that they could profit.  She declined.

Scenario #3)Owner was caught up in predatory lending refinance scam (found online info of a class action lawsuit including the loan), but has left property.  Was listed on a foreclosure notice last fall but didn't proceed to auction.  Have made contact with owner's brother, but don't know where owner is.

My general idea has been to try and skip-trace the owners or their next of kin and see if we can arrange a short sale to net them a small proceed instead of leaving the property vacant. However, making contact with these owners and families is proving difficult. So, I'm wondering if anyone here on BP has alternative strategies for similar situations. Does pursuing the non-performing note ever pan out by securing a collateral interest in the property? Are there other means to bring the owners to the table and incentivize selling their share of a distressed property? I've found several of these situations and feel there is equity there to be discounted, since they're not completely underwater relative to ARV, so I'm just trying to figure out an angle. Thanks for any insight.

@Allan Rosso

I've been working on similar branding ideas on how to differentiate from other investors and establish trust with sellers.  Here's some ideas I've kicked around:

"If your home is no longer a fit, call us.  We care."

"Need help getting your home sold fast, but don't want to deal someone 'sketchy'? (insert a caricature of sleazy guy in a trenchcoat holding a poorly drawn 'We buy houses sign')  Call us we care.  Veteran-owned.  Family-run.  Here for you when you need us."

@Bon Osonwanne, @Nicholas Richard Ray

Depending on how the bank underwrites, having a signed lease will allow you to use the rent revenue as income in the DTI. The LLC vs personal debate is long and well-documented on BP. One type on the search bar will give you tons of fodder, so no need to recreate it here. The 10 loan limit is related to the secondary market, so if you have more than ten personal loans, you at that point may want the LLC to get business / commercial terms as opposed to personal / residential terms. However, as you note, a portfolio lender who will retain the loan on their books as opposed to reselling it will be able to extend past the 10 loan cap. DTI and other financials will still be at play, I think, but best to get the lenders policy on those loans directly from them.

@Bon Osonwanne The LLC vs personal name is one of the most recurring topics on these forums. One search will net hundreds of threads about the debate. So is length of term for re-finance which is called "seasoning." If you have paid entirely in cash, look into the Fannie Mae delayed financing exception, which should let you get an appraisal and pull the cash you paid to buy the property (none of rehab or holding costs) immediately. If you need to get to a full 75% of ARV to recoup rehab expenses, wait the 6 months. Some banks may want a full year because of their overlays (bank-specific rules). If they tell you that, call another bank.

@Andrew Postell

That's an interesting observation about avoiding HELOC terminology and just looking for a LOC. With these smaller banks, that doesn't lead you down the road of a strictly small business product? Because I would think if you are collateralizing the rental property and need a second lien against it, that small bank would want their real estate / mortgage underwriters involved. What type of "department," as you described, have you been referred to that the idea clicks with such that they don't get sucked into the TX constitutional clause on primary residences?