All Forum Posts by: Dan Williamson

If it has already been gutted, is there the potential to find space for a 3rd bedroom. Instant value add if the community will support it. For example, if you were planning to rent it to college students who don't necessarily want a common eating area, you could turn the dining room into a 3rd bedroom. Just a thought.

@Michael R., 

I hope you were able to get some sound advice with this issue. What did you end up doing here?

@Bill S. Thanks for the link to the Colorado contracts! 

This may be a simple question, but what would the assignment language in the "additional provisions" section looks like? (Probably not, "I know line 2.2 said this contract was not assignable, but we're going to do it anyway.")

Also, can I hand write that into the contract and have the seller initial it?

Thanks all!

I knew that I would eventually face some stuff like this, I just did not expect a couple of short conversations to weigh so heavily on me.

I appreciate all the input. It is very much "on the job training" that I will be looking out for in the future. I'll have to add to my resources some advice that I can have at the ready when these things come up.

Thanks again.

After sending out mailers, setting up a website and Google ppc and all the other fun stuff necessary to get moving on wholesaling, I received my first call.

A young man and his mother had found themselves in a tight spot with their home and needed a quick resolution. “Yes!” I excitedly thought to myself, “A real motivated seller!” I got the info I needed from him, told him I needed to run my numbers and that I would call him back in just a couple of hours. I also explained to him why I was able to close much faster than a realtor could. “I work with investors. We need to make a profit on this, so I can’t give you the price you would get if you listed it with an agent.” He understood. Speed was key here.

This is where it started to fall apart. The property was a mobile home and BiggerPockets research showed that putting these under contract was a little different than a regular stick-built home. Further research revealed that interest in buying a single mobile home (not a full park) was limited. Next, the comps (recently solds) were nowhere near the remaining loan balance on the home in question. They had only been there a year and had not built up hardly any equity.

I called him Thursday evening. I don’t know if I assumed too much, but I had his number and I had my numbers which seemed like enough to make an informed decision. When he answered the phone, I could hear him silencing others in the room as he excitedly answered as if he had been anticipating my call. I went over the situation again with him to confirm everything. I asked more questions about the agreement with the park and if they had a place to stay now (he mentioned that they had already moved out).

Finally, I broke the news to him. I told him the price range that I had to hit in order to help him. It was much lower than he needed and we both knew it. I told him that I could not help him. In that moment, I heard him sigh like all of the energy had been knocked out of him. All that I could advise was to find a good agent and list it.

I got into wholesaling as an intro to real estate investing. One of my top 3 goals in this business is to make sure that I am over-the-top helpful to anyone who calls me. I am a problem-solver. Unfortunately, while speaking with this young man, I was unable to give any help. I didn’t realize that real estate investing could be this heartbreaking.

Could I have done anything else?

I’m not sure if this is the best place to say this, but I’m putting it out there.

If you know an agent in the market north of Denver who might be able to help with selling a mobile home, please let me know.

@Ron Orr The tired landlord is exactly who I'm trying to target. Can't you just imagine someone so fed up with trying to collect rent, who has been dealing with excuses for months on end, whose pain and irritation level is maxed out? There's a motivated seller. However, I'm having trouble identifying the landlord in an efficient and cost effective way.

@Jose Falconett, the list I got is not what you might expect. All it has is the county, court case number, case type and date. (see attached image) I have to go to the county website to search each one individually in order to get any meaningful info. This was all online, phone and email research though. Many times you can get a much different result by going to the courthouse in person. 

I'm just starting to wonder if a list with any identifying info exists at all.

Hi All,

I spent a ton of time perusing the state and county websites to try and find info about getting an eviction list. After making a few phone calls, I was finally directed to a page with two email addresses. I filled out a form and emailed them both separately asking for the same thing: "a list of eviction notices that have been filed in the last 180 days".

The first public employee shot back a response right away stating that they could not provide these records. My hopes were dashed. The next day I received a response from the other public employee who put the request through and told me a report was on it's way! 

Lesson: Don't stop after the first "no". (And maybe a second lesson: some people are just lazy).

Anyway, I received the report with 20,000 lines with a note "invoice to follow". After recalling that I had read a cost of $5-$7 per record, I almost passed out. It only ended up to be $15 for that report. No big deal. But the report is basically only a list of court cases involving evictions. It includes the county the court case # the type of case and the date.

My problem lies in the cost of both time and dollars. All I have is a list of court cases. I can search them all individually, but that is still $5/record. Is there an efficient and cost effective way to scrub these records?

Any input is appreciated. Thanks!

So I should get ready to start marketing to the owner? Try and pick up the property at a discount? :)

Hi Everyone,

The other day I took a long, winding route home from work through a bunch of neighborhoods between downtown Denver and Central Aurora. I noticed that there seem to be a lot more spaces available for lease than usual in strip malls all over. Like a LOT more.

Any ideas about what this means? Does anyone think it's a signal from the market? Or just bad business models that can't keep cash flowing against rising rents?

Thoughts?

@Travis Thomas @Clark Thornhill, 

Welcome! Be sure to say hi.

We'll see you tonight