Skip to content
×
Try PRO Free Today!
BiggerPockets Pro offers you a comprehensive suite of tools and resources
Market and Deal Finder Tools
Deal Analysis Calculators
Property Management Software
Exclusive discounts to Home Depot, RentRedi, and more
$0
7 days free
$828/yr or $69/mo when billed monthly.
$390/yr or $32.5/mo when billed annually.
7 days free. Cancel anytime.
Already a Pro Member? Sign in here
Pick markets, find deals, analyze and manage properties. Try BiggerPockets PRO.
x
All Forum Categories
All Forum Categories
Followed Discussions
Followed Categories
Followed People
Followed Locations
Market News & Data
General Info
Real Estate Strategies
Landlording & Rental Properties
Real Estate Professionals
Financial, Tax, & Legal
Real Estate Classifieds
Reviews & Feedback

All Forum Posts by: Don Sheppard

Don Sheppard has started 4 posts and replied 45 times.

Post: Total Rehab Estimates?

Don SheppardPosted
  • Real Estate Investor
  • Fairfield, CA
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 4

I don't see how you could possibly use a percentage method for figuring rehab costs......just too many variables. I would play it safe and get some contractor(s) that deal with commercial work like that and get an estimate and remember to add a fudge factor to that estimate for the unknown/unseen.
Down the road with enough experience you might be able to start judging for yourself the rehab costs of different projects.

Post: Lease Back?

Don SheppardPosted
  • Real Estate Investor
  • Fairfield, CA
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 4

Didn't they ask what relationship, if any, you had with the owner. A short sale is supposed to be an "arm's length" transaction...meaning not to a family member. That alone could mess up your deal.

Post: REO offer estimate

Don SheppardPosted
  • Real Estate Investor
  • Fairfield, CA
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 4
Originally posted by "TC":
I watched a REO that I just picked up go from a list price of 48K to 16,6K within the 8 months that I was watching it.

Good stuff, I see some REOs not even budge on price for a year and others consistently lower their price about every month. Seems pretty likely which ones are more motivated to strike a deal and unload their inventory.

Post: workplace accident leaves me in hospital for 3 days

Don SheppardPosted
  • Real Estate Investor
  • Fairfield, CA
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 4

Well keep in mind....I'm sure Jon meant Canada with the CA. The OP isn't in the states so it might be different there. Here yes, all employers are required to carry worker's comp insurance and pay a percentage of total wages paid as our policy premium.
At least employees are covered for on the job injury that way. Not only to cover medical costs directly related, but to pay temp disability payments while unable to work, cover future medical needs that might arise as a result of the injury (or they sometimes will settle for a lump sum medical payment if you sign off future medical claims for that injury)....they'll also assess whether you were to some degree permanently disabled/unable to return to the same line of work, and help with training for a new line of work if necessary.

Post: REO offer estimate

Don SheppardPosted
  • Real Estate Investor
  • Fairfield, CA
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 4

That's alright......maybe keep an eye on it if it sits on the market for a while. Meanwhile, I'm sure there are plenty of others to make offers on. Consider checking on ones that you know have already sat longer than this one since it was a fairly new listing.

Post: Whats the Best way to Double Close?

Don SheppardPosted
  • Real Estate Investor
  • Fairfield, CA
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 4

I purchased a home earlier this year in a double close situation. We used regular purchase contracts for both closings. Not all of it really happened "in order" as John suggested.
That is pretty much why you will have to find a title company that is willing to handle such a closing, many will not want to handle that juggling act. In reality the order it happened was the seller signed the contracts and fed ex'd them to the title company, I signed my contracts with a notary who also took my cashier's check to the title company, and the "middle man" signed both their contracts as buyer and seller last.
When it was all said and done the title company had indeed shuffled the events into the order they needed to be for recording, and checks were issued to the seller and the middle man and the deal was done.
I would think that there is a better/safer way to handle that though.

Post: REO offer estimate

Don SheppardPosted
  • Real Estate Investor
  • Fairfield, CA
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 4

Newuser, find a local REI club in your area and meet with them. Pick their brains for who are the investor friendly realtors, there might even be one that's a member of that group.
You could also call around to the different realtors and ask if they have agents who are investor friendly, or can recommend another realtor that is. Explain your criteria for making purchases, they will already know that it will take a number of offers that go no where before any get accepted when sending out "lowball" offers. If you are knowledgeable enough that your offers "make sense" it will help their motivation to go down that road with you.

Also important......do a lot of reading, this forum is great for knowledge on figuring out what sort of offers make sense. You mention the asking price.....but not the after repair value "ARV", what you will sell it for after. Or if you plan on holding/renting it and what it would rent for.....basically what your plan is for the property and what other numbers are involved besides just offering $100k below asking price because of the amount of repairs you "guess" it needs. Personally, I couldn't care less how much they're asking price is when it comes to what my offer will be, it does however help a little to gauge how motivated the bank is getting for selling that particular property.

Oh, and consider going to the starting out forum and introduce yourself, a bit of background etc. Might be easier to receive proper advice based on your experience level with different aspects of real estate.

Post: State and Local Gotchas

Don SheppardPosted
  • Real Estate Investor
  • Fairfield, CA
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 4

I hope this is the type of thing you are referring to...In California, it is illegal for a realtor to represent an investor to purchase pre-foreclosures/short sales under certain (likely most) circumstances.

So while I will use my realtor to make offers on any and all REOs, typically any short sale/preforeclosure offers I handle on my own.

Post: REO offer estimate

Don SheppardPosted
  • Real Estate Investor
  • Fairfield, CA
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 4

Just wanted to say good luck and happy hunting. Be careful with the emotional attachment, don't let it lead you into paying more than your numbers tell you if you get into a counter offer situation.
Also, when I send in an offer I send it in a little below what my max offer really is. That way I still have room to come up in the case of a counter offer.
I did just purchase an REO a couple days ago. This was after about 20 offers on other REOs over a couple months time. I would have had more offers going in but personal issues made it so that I needed to deal with personal stuff, keep the remodel business humming along, and trying to buy property took a back seat for a moment.
Anyway, back to my point.......I just flat got rejected on about half of my offers, half became counter offer situations, and I even had one REO I was trying to purchase and surprisingly the bank went back and forth with me for 5 counter offer sessions. We got real close to each other, within a few thousand dollars. I had already reached my max offer, then adjusted my max offer with a little wiggle room I still had in the repairs column....when we reached the point within a few thousand dollars of each other it was tempting to just sign....but instead I let them know that my last offer was my highest and best, then I walked away. That was a few thousand dollars I was not going to gamble on even if I did have a little more wiggle room left :wink: that was still there for the surprise factor....you know, "surprise, I didn't count on that needing to be fixed"
Glad I passed on it, I was watching another one slowly drop in asking price. They (countrywide) dropped their asking price consistently every 3-4 weeks until they had dropped $100k on their own in 5 months time. So I offered on it, they countered, I countered, they countered......got within $8k of each other and the listing agent stated they had likely reached their bottom line......NOT. I countered one more time, still just below my max offer, all my wiggle room still in tact and they accepted it.
Plenty of REOs out there, if you don't get that one......NEXT :D

Post: The ones not chosen

Don SheppardPosted
  • Real Estate Investor
  • Fairfield, CA
  • Posts 48
  • Votes 4

It is courteous to make such a call, however as a contractor I can count on one hand the amount of such calls that I have received in 10 years. Typically I do not expect to receive such a call.