All Forum Posts by: Jim Wineinger

Very good points Mark. I guess I was more responding to what you normally hear from people who cry about the legal limit and forget to look back to when the contract was initiated. It appears that I did not give this boards members enough credit. I am still used to those (on other boards) that just say thing before the research is done. I am not to big to admit my mistakes and apologize to any offended.

You guys are great. I hope my contributions can be helpful to some in the future.

Hey john, to answer your first question directly, "Who got you started on ivesting in land?" it was my brother's wife who planned to buy one of those tax sale infomercial products and I talked her out of it by showing her how easy it is to find out that information on your own and showed her the pitfalls by doing one. And the results you saw. She does not have the financial backup to be able to do what is necessary to complete what is necessary to make it work.

In short I talked her out of it and me into it.

My experience leads me to the tax assessors web site, or if possible to the courthouse and pull the card myself. There is more information of that card than on the ones you will find online.

Their assessement is usually a little low and may be a little outdated but can be used to get a fairly accurate valuation of what the property could be worth and what the "replacement cost" should be. Pay attention to that section of the property card.

This should not be used to replace a driveby but could help limit your driving to those that are worth the time.

If you can purchase a property for 2k with a replacement value of 45k that is only currently assessed at 30k then you can count on putting into it at least 15k. Then add to that what you see needs to be done on your driveby to make the lawn presentable. 2+15+? leaves you with only 28k-? to get it back to that 45k value. And further inspection of the inside (not done most years by the assessor) may reveal that more needs to be spent just to keep it at that 45k.

The tax assessors site can be a good tool to also evaluate how far off those area comps are. Look at the comp property in the tax assessors site. This may give you an indication of how much the comp is overpriced or how much valuation increase you may be able to get with good renovation. Your choice as that could go either way.

I agree. Sell now. Since you have it free and clear, you might also consider owner financing not just FSBO. With an RE attorney writing the contract and terms you should be able to get more in interest than on those CD's. Downfall is having to wait for the money, but your sales price should bring more than that 900 rent or at least pretty close to it using 7%. Upside is that if you do have to foreclose an owner will take better care of it than a renter will.

I have spoken this to others, and would like to know everyone's view here. The "stimilus" package has nothing to due with stimulating the economy itself but is really the governments best guess of how they can prevent having to spend this money later.

If they were to let things be more companies would have folded (or at least called it quits) and the government unemployment rolls would have exploded so drastically that they would have easily have doubled the monies they gave away in unemployment claims, food stampt, and all those other programs.

This is what I believe is the real drive behind this and the government is going to get a little upset that their ploy did not work and take it out on those of us that have found a way to make money.

As far as any maximum interest rate, your friends could be correct at what the rate is currently, but that does not matter in this or any other case. What matters is what the legal maximum rate was at the time that the contract was entered into.

Think about those that entered into 30 to 40 year home loans when the iterest rates were what doomed Carter. IF they were still around would the bank be wrong for extending the payment terms of the loan?
NO because the loan was legal at its inception. These legal limits only to loans originated during the time they are applicable to.
By the same reasoning if you were able to buy a long-term CD a few years ago for 30 years you would be able to collect more interest today than most of those legal limits. Dont forget though that there are State limits and also Federal limits. And one does not always affect the other like some think.

Deborah: I have not really seen any good deals in thos on line auctions. It would be best to go to your local county auctions (the ones that are not on line). This is where there is found most of the good deals. But you must do your due diligence or else.

One idea that I have seen is to pick up land at those local auctions and sell the same land at the Auction houses, even those on line ones. I have seen one lot purchased at the tax auction for 150.00 and sold at another auction for 5k with is assessed value at 8k. Of course you will have to wait out the reclaimation period if there is one.

As of right now in the downturn economy, with fewer being able to show ability to repay via low scores and debt to income ratio, they have SAID that they will be willing to take those land parcles using an HELOC using the top credit line at only 40% of lowest appraisal found.

I am dealing with my credit union so they are willing to work with me some but are making it hard, but who can really blame them at this economic time.
Establishing that rapport will get me started and as the economy returns they will be even more willing to assist.

Besides they say how I bought one parcel for 1376.00 which had an abondoned house on it. Abondoned for about 15 years. New roof, new porch, everything new inside (had to chase a family of bats out of the house). Gutted it to the studs and redid everything including the missing electrical and plumbing. I used them and my equity, which was not much at first, and took two fully years but is now valued at 125k.

Persistance and determination always pays off. Peole and events can slow you down but they can not stop you.

Really Matthew, just giving out some of the opposing views that are backed up by law, which I do think would be classified as substantial.

But my reccomendation is to get the liscesce as the downturn continues people will look to politicians to get relief from their poor decisions and this will require that you can prove that you have held yourself to those high moral standards. It would be a wise move for a starter. You can always let it lapse as mentioned before.

Mostly similar, as I started doing tax sales years ago and do not have the fiancial backing to fight to be the highest bidder on those good homes. So I end up with land only that no one else bids on.

Having it free and clear it does have equity value and with enough of those "purchased" I will put them in a portfolio for the bank to allow me a line of credit, with those as collateral, so that I can fight for those good homes to buy as investments then sell for my retirement nestegg.

Not sure how long it will take as the good home will have to pay off the line of credit and provide enough extra for the next good home. Doing things within my means may take a while but I will get there without getting caught in most of those pitfalls of overextending my credit ability to pay.