All Forum Posts by: George C.

I would bet money the park knows it's for sale, that would be the first place a seller would look to sell or even give to, to be rid of it. I know a few parks that don't allow subletting as a way to keep control of the place and keep the riff-raff out. A friend of mine inherited one, was not allowed to rent it out, so it sat empty awhile. It took a long time to sell with around $600 a month lot rent in NJ.

I've been a part of one, where two partners were selling, the one sold to the other, the then 100% owner sold to me & was all recorded at once. it doesn't matter when or where they sign, might be over a weekend and recorded Monday morning at the same time but in proper order. Could all be done at the same, same place and again recorded at the same time but in order....from what I know.

In NJ, your looking at about $1,500 to get a perk & septic design done. You hire an engineer, he coordinates the excavator if you don't have your own machine & the Board of health for the perk test.

In my opinion, serious seller's will have this already done, but most don't, even lots with sale prices north of $100K. Even an advertised expired pass perk is better than none.

$1,500 is a lot of money to throw out just for a look-see on some else's property. If I do it on my dime, the lot price has to be a bargain for me to bite at spending that money.

I go to the board of health first because sometimes a lot might have been perked in the distant past even if not mentioned or known, even failed, but still might work out. My last lot had failed in 1990. I looked up the lot with the BOH, they had paperwork on it with the old Engineer's name & contact #'s. I called this guy & what a wealth of knowledge he was, a real talker! He told me all that went on back then, and that he might be able to get it to perk.

Back story; the old owner was hated by the BOH & pretty much everyone else and was told the day of the perk, " YOU will never build a house here" as per the engineer who heard it first hand of course. There's a lot more to the story...

This lot was split in two towns with two different lot/block designations, Engineer said that we can try to perk it on the small portion that is in the other town, there was no "past" on that portion to dig up, so it flew under the radar and passed.

I ended up getting this lot dirt cheap. I heard later from a town official the old owner's widow demanded to know how WE were able to build there when they couldn't. I even found out later that the old owner had over $100K in groundwork costs there from an old employee of his, he was shocked at how cheap I got it for. I got it from a bankruptcy court / trustee off the mls. It was worth over $100K and I got it for $19K

Ah, small towns / small worlds, be careful not to screw anyone over or step on toes... it may come back and bite you big time like it did for the old owner.

I ran into that as well with an REO that I went to look at a while ago. I used my lock box key to get the door lock key, then tried to put it into the lock and it wouldn't go in. Something was jammed in there, couldn't see it and left a message for the listing agent letting him know that it wasn't accessible.

I didn't like that, but ya know...that would keep others out if you had an offer in waiting to get accepted. Dirty pool, but it would work. I'm not saying that I would do that...

I HATE oil heat, so dirty and a pain when they run out, and you need to service them once a year anyway.

has it right by making a note in the lease the current level of oil that needs to accounted for at move out. **Make sure they get on automatic delivery, much less chance of them running out that way.

I have one last one on oil, I plan to change it out to a 90% efficient propane boiler at turnover, which hopefully be for years. At least with propane it's clean, nothing to service & the new systems are super efficient.

Bill Gulley said, "That's why you'll see someone's name and then Real Estate or Realty (you can't use Realty unless you're a Realtor BTW"

This might be a state specific thing, in NJ and most places you can use "Realty" in your business name as long as your acting as a principal in your own deals, not trying to do brokerage work for others that would require a license. "Realty" has nothing to do with being a Realtor btw, Realty is a very generic term. I even remember this being brought up 20+ years ago when I went to R/E school to get my Agents license.

I use a registered business name like," abc Realty Services" that does not have my personal name in it. It will cover anything I want to do for owning, buying, selling & managing my properties.

Kyle, As I stated, yes, the deeds are in my company name. My company owns the property, does it matter if it's an LLC, a Corp or a sole proprietor? No, it's not in my personal name. The owner listed on the lease is the company name that is on the deed, I am listed as a signing agent for the company that owns it in the lease. New purchases in the last year and a half have my company name on the deeds.

Problems for me occurred in the past not with "my" tenants, but with inherited tenants who I didn't & wouldn't have picked. I've been doing this over 24 years and have dealt with some pretty bad characters, been threatened more than a few times by some of them during evictions, etc... It only takes one psycho to ruin your & your family's life.

My last house & this one is a fortress, lit up like a bank at night, alarm system, cameras all over & me heavily armed inside. I live in a real nice area, it's just the people I've had to deal with, evicted over the years. Some of them knowing the cash receipts that I would have to go home with when I owned certain properties.

Good people who check out well initially can go bad and become become irrational when their world collapses, due to job loss, divorce, depression... Better safe than sorry. It's better for me to not own personally to be known as the owner. I should've changed that years ago... I can understand others who want to do the same, such as the OP.

I have a fictitious business name registered in my County Clerk's office, such as "abc realty", that name is on everything. I answer my phone with that name, it's on leases & deeds. I am listed on leases & tenant paperwork as the agent for the realty company handling that property. The only way it may come to light is if I have to go to court for an eviction & if asked by a judge my standing. I might have to show the court my registration papers to prove who I am and my authority to continue with my case, but no biggie. As a sole proprietor I can represent myself. It wouldn't matter to the tenant anyway, who owning it wouldn't be on trial, the tenant would be.

It works best when showing applicants the units, any "can you work with me" questions can easily be met with a stupid look and a, " the company & the owners don't do that", or "I bring it up to the board of directors".

I'm just the poor slob who manages the property, just another working stiff to them. I'm not the answer man, so I can't be put on the spot, I'll have to look into for you & see what "they" say.

I've been doing it this way over a year now & I like it better this way.

Patrick, I doubt your gonna find an insurance company to cover it. Can you make it part of your deal to have the seller remove it before close with a clean bill of health? At the very least have it tested before you buy, if you have to get it out on your own after the sale.

I doubt pex is the problem. I once bought a house on a well that had sat for almost a year, the water stunk like rotten eggs. The neighbor told me to bleach the well, I did it and that cleared it up.

Maybe not using the water while under construction allowed bacteria to get a foothold? If letting the water run for long periods of time didn't cure it, assuming your municipal supply isn't chlorinated enough, maybe you can open up a section of pex to get bleach in there?