All Forum Posts by: John Samuels

Good Morning all!

Who dictates how many times you can split a parcel of land? Im assuming that it is at the county level of where you purchase it. Can I look this up at the local court house? Whats the smallest sive you can subdivide?

ive found a nice plot of land that is large enough to split. Thanks so much everyone

Have you thought about an FHA loan? Its typically for first time home-buyers (which you sound like you are). Typically, you only have to put 3% down on a home.

If you used half of your savings of 15K you could buy 215,000 worth of property.

That way youd only have one loan, still have money in the bank, and be making bank with your Cf's.

Best of luck!

Right now im 23 and have been out of college for 8 months. I just got my first job and have been there for about 5 months. As of now I am set to close on my first house on September 17 if everything goes well. I think my biggest challenge in getting started in RE was #1 having enough capital to support it which was taken care of by my job. My second biggest challenge was finding a good partner to invest with, someone that I could trust and luckily I found that too.

Not that I have a lot of experience in RE but if I could give advice to first time home buyers it would be to take advantage of the Nehemiah down payment assistance program. This is what I used and through it I didnt have to put any money down! This program is only available to first time home-buyers and is subject to finding a property that is in "move in" condition. However, I belive this program is going to be phased out within the next month or so but is likely to be replaced with a similar program.

My second tidbit of advice is to take advantage of this market. The house that I am about to buy was on the market for quite some time and was originally listed at 200K. When we found it, it was listed at 160K so we offered 150K and seller was to pay all closing costs. Our seller didnt even counter the offer they flat out acepted it, so I just bought a house without giving someone the lint in my pocket for it.

So to sum it up my advice to everyone like me is to take advantage of the loan programs out there that are available to first time home-buyers. Lastly, you can afford to be demanding in this market. Let the seller pay your closing, and if not negotiate for things like a new roof, carpet, etc. You will be surprised what some sellers are willing to accept. And you never know until to try!

Best of luck all!

Good afternoon everyone! My name is John and Im sort of a new person here on the forums. I have been using the biggerpockets website for a while and decided to join it today since there is a wealth of information present.

I have a question on tax liens though, which may be stupid but please bear with me.

Okay here goes, Lets say I purchase a tax lien and the owner fails to make payments in the redemption period and I foreclose. Am I responsible for any mechanics liens or other liens on the property?

I guess the word to use here is "due diligence." Hopefully I would have noticed these other liens before I made my bid but lets just say I didnt..... hypothetically. Am I responsible in this situation for paying those liens off or are they expunged from the title?

Thanks alot everyone and I look forward to meeting everyone!