All Forum Posts by: Jeff Deville

I would recommend reading Traction, by Gabriel Weinberg

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591848369/

He surveys how a lot of different startups got traction via different channels, and provides a framework for how to generate more traction.  It's not SEO-specific, but that is of course one of the paths.

I use both.  You can use folders in google drive as well. If you're just using them for their syncing ability on your various devices, I don't think you'll notice much difference.  Dropbox has slightly nicer usability, but that's about it.

@Ryan KingLeadSource.com seems to have a bewildering number of dials to tweak in terms of buying leads. I haven't seen anything else that quite compares, but I'm fairly new to this as well.

Thanks @Mark Elliott!

@Brandon Schlichter Sounds interesting, but I'm picturing a single huge firehose of commentary/questions being a problem. I'm picturing if all of the BP forums messages were sent to slack, would I want to be on that. (The answer would be now). So you'd then need to break it up by topic, and then I wonder what you've gained over the BP forums in the first place?

Apologies all for the delay. Been a hell of a February. 

@Mark Elliott The property is in Buffalo, yeah. I'm definitely looking to continue expanding my network there, so if you were happy with your lawyer, please forward his info along.

@Steve Vaughan As it turns out, I think I do know the identity of the squatter, so I'll make sure that's known. I was told it was the previous owner (before the bank foreclosure). So they've been there some time. Hopefully that means theres some... squat-stability? :-)

@Chuck VanDyne Yeah, I did have a year to pay things back. Unfortunately, events leading up to today have consumed most of that time. My apologies for not being clear on that point. The story, which involves getting into the deal (which was supposed to be a bridge loan), a would-be mentor who was operating under an assumed name, discovery and legal bulletproofing, and 'partners' in Buffalo has taken about 9 mo to work out so far. 

That said, I have found a way (family loan) to buy myself some more time, which is a tremendous relief. It's difficult to know if we 'bought the house right' just yet. It was a bank foreclosure, and we've yet to be able to get inside. These details were to be the responsibility of our boots-on-the-ground folks. Once the eviction is complete, and I know I can get in, I'll travel up and assess the situation. Hopefully, I'll be able to proceed as you suggest.

Thank you everyone for the advisement on the foreclosure timeframes! That's encouraging!

@Timothy Horner it doesn't work on mobile, but it seemed to work on a desktop (Chrome, anyway). 

I’ve found myself in a bit of a jam. It’s a bit of an interesting story has to how I wound up here, but where I am now is this:

I just took possession of a property via deed in lieu of foreclosure, but it has a squatter in it. Because of the squatter, I haven’t been able to actually see this property (which is out of state), and haven’t gotten it appraised. I have no idea how long the eviction process will take, but NY seems to move slowly w/ everything else, so I’m expecting something like 60 days. The problem is that this has been a long process, and the money I borrowed to finance this acquisition is about to come due (my original intent was for this to be a month-long bridge loan).

Goals

I never intended to take possession of this property. I'm open to making it my first rental if that makes sense, but my preference would be to just part with it and get my money back. If it would be a rental, I would require even more additional cash for whatever repairs are required.

Questions

1. 1. What are my options, from a financing perspective? If it's relevant, I picked this thing up with cash that I borrowed off of a credit card (it was only supposed to be a month long loan, and I had 0% interest for a year, so I thought I was relatively safe). I own the title w/no encumbrances, so I assume I could borrow against that equity, but I can't get an appraisal done til the eviction is completed. Conventional mortgage? HML?, Peer-to-peer lending?
2. 2. What can I do right now to either refi this place into a rental, or sell it? I’m pushing my lawyer to be as expeditious as possible w/ the eviction, but is there anything else I can do now? Seems like wholesalers are supposed to be always building their buyers list, and I suppose that’s kind of what I’m doing, but is it worth it to put ads somewhere for a property no one can get in to see? Any suggestion on how to build these lists in a particular geography? (Buffalo, in this case)

Thanks all!

@Raymond Locker I'm about to start this process myself with Andrew Stimson: http://www.andrewstimsonlaw.com/  He's very cautious with legal matters, but seems to be doing a good job for me up. 

Please keep us posted on how your process is going. I'm waiting on a deed transfer before I can begin.

@Luke Badalaty Welcome Luke.  I work in the city (software), and live in Ardmore.  My wife and I have some experience JVing on a few flips, and have made a few loans. I'm definitely interested in some of the same CC rental area.  Welcome.  I'll connect directly. Maybe we can work our schedules out such that we can grab coffee or something some time.