All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Alfonso

@Patrick Regan check out GC3 Development amongst others. My "advantage" is that I have a family member that does high end kitchens, so my kitchen was not in the budget. We never worked on concrete numbers because I was informed I would need to upgrade the water pipe leading to my property which would add another $30-50K to my budget. Honestly, I realized I was totally in over my head and not ready to tackle a new home build. It's only me and my wife, so we figured rehabbing just made sense. We can do a new build in ten years when it makes more sense to go down that road and our needs (translation kids) will be more known. I'm a firm believer that you stick to what you do well and outsource everything else. At $175 a foot, made no sense for me plus unknowns like $50k cost over runs. 

@Josh Malenfant A $1.5 Million dollar home with a $90.00 psf cost is a unicorn. I don't know anyone in South Florida building at that cost except for a builder for himself. Not to mention at the price point this home is being built, you will have to construct better upgrades. The realistic cost is somewhere around $150.00 a home. I am building out my personal residence in South Florida, and $90.00 a sf is a dream. In fact, when I started I thought with all my connections/contacts/etc I though I would end up around $125 psf. The reality is I will end up around $175.00. 

@Patrick Regan The $1.0 to $2.0 Million market is really slow in South Florida right now. I would just break even and move forward. If your strength is fix and flips, you could probably make 2X on that money in the time you build that one spec home. I am very active down here. I represented fix and flippers through 2013, then institutional groups through 2016 and have just ridden the wave of the market trying to stay ahead of it. Most of my client's at that price point who bought parcels for $700-$800k to build $2m Spec homes have delayed their projects. 

@Tony Oliver

Although "looking" (remember, messing with mail is a Federal Offense) at any letters may help, it will most likely be the servicer or the property management team handling the property for the servicer. In South Florida, you can search property appraiser like Antonio said. http://www.miamidade.gov/pa/property_search.asp

Once you are in there, click on the last deed and see if the property sold recently. You can usually tell because if you click on the deed, it will be a "Certificate of Title" instead of a traditional deed. You can usually tell a Lender name because it is something obvious like Nationstar Mortgage, or CWMBS as Servicer for CALT-538 or some crazy name. Anyways, usually these Certificate of Title's will show you a case number in the upper right hand corner. You can then go to Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts and click on Online Search and then Click on Civil, Family Probate. Link here. https://www2.miami-dadeclerk.com/ocs/

Once there, you pull up the case with case number and look at a recent case filing. It will show attorney for Plaintiff and you can try to reach out to them. Now that being said, I work a lot of real estate deals in South Florida and serve as a buyer for institutional groups, investors and the like and was buying 70 houses a month at the peak.  

Reaching out to banks, asset managers, etc. was a huge waste of time. Banks have too much red tape and procedures they have to file before they sell. You don't know if Bank is taking property bank and making a claim with HUD (property ends up in limbo for years) or if property is in further litigation.

Best bet is to just keep eye on market and wait for the property to show up on the market with the agent who gets assigned the listing for the bank. Approach them and make them an offer, offering them to keep the commission. Most of these REO agents have to jump through so many hoops these days on listings that they prefer to sell to their own buyers and get 6 percent commission because the 3% is not worth it to them anymore. Also, don't lowball the bank once it's an REO, banks have set their price and inventory is so low at that pricepoint (I assume townhouse in ML area is $350k or less) that bank won't budge. So if their number makes sense, don't waste time.

This could be a littany of issues or it could be nothing at all. It could be that the Certificate of Title had the incorrect legal description, the Certificate of Title may have been vacated. In these situations where you have multiple Certificates of Title and competing foreclosures you need to review the dockets for each foreclosure and see that there has been no activity. The problem is, even if you are buying with title insurance, even if it is a Bank REO, one of two things may happen, they may be passing on an issue to you which you may not fully understand. Alternatively, the bank may just walk abruptly from the deal and claim they are unable to deliver clear title and you may lose the deal.

What exactly is the issue that is shady, etc? Are you being foreclosed on, or are you purchasing a foreclosure. Difficult to make a referral or ascertain who can help based on this description. 

The only thing I would mention having purchased on South Florida for myself and purchased tons of SFRs for institutional investors is to provide some proof of that ownership. Tenants are skeptical. You may appear at the property but how do they know you are the real owner. Obviously, an intro by the previous owner really helps but maybe it's a distressed situation and you don't get one. Interesting point is that this topic came up at the IMN conference on SFRs this week in Miami. Interesting point is that some larger players mentioned how they tried to minimize contact with tenants because they see new owner and then "nothing works" and your maintenance requests skyrocket. In my opinion best way to address issue is to just let tenants know that where the payment is to be sent needs to be changed. Ultimately, and this was another convo, it's hard to create a great brand as a landlord but it's easy to get a bad reputation. So trying to come in to an investment as best landlord ever, probably won't yield much return.

@Eric Odum I know some of the larger real estate players in South Florida are taking the risk. Ultimately, spending a few million in Cuba to scoop up prime real estate which could net exponential returns is worthwhile. 

I have a very strong network locally and know a bunch of attorneys and other individuals who have traveled to Island after recent events. The most interesting story is one attorney who informed me that he has a lot of business in Cuba and he has a contract with a particular hotel. They have an agreed upon price for rooms because they are constantly housing individuals. His contract ran through 2019. Shortly before embargo was lifted, but prior to it being formally announced. He was booking his stay and was informed that his rate was double. He informed them of contract and sent it over. He was told, "we received instructions from Ministry of Justice to double our room rates". They gave him a discount, which when checking against room rates, was same rate on website. Essentially, government made all businesses double rates, and they are ignoring contacts. 

I just found it indicative, because for the average person on this site, Cuba is nothing more than chasing a get rich quick scheme. I have relatives on the island I could technically reach out. Ultimately, I am not going to invest $200k on the island by letting some relative I have never spoken to in my life (and frankly, that I didn't even know I had) own my investment. 

@Evan Stuber I acquired a few hundred single family homes out there for institutional investors over last 3 years. Not very familiar with the multifamily market, but we fund a lot of single family home inventory, which was built in last twenty years and was not rehab intensive. 

A home you can't touch for less than $350k in Miami, we were scooping up there for $120k. Spoke to a lot of people and high prices in markets South of there was pushing individuals to move up there. Unless it's a large multifamily project, and any other variables, SFH were a good investment.

Matt Smith auction.com does use a title company, once the bid is completed they then send out contracts for you to execute and they will not likely require you to use their title company. Even if they don't, it's best to just let them use theirs bc they pay for title charges and you save money. Only thing is that I would recommend hiring an attorney to then review their title company's work. Still cheaper than paying for your own title insurance. Only issue I see is how you would identify properties for 1031 exchange. I am sure you can speak with your accountant to get advice on how to address.

By the way pursuant to Cuban laws you do not incorporate or own a business. The government grants you a license to operate over there and that license can be revoked at any minute. Additionally, although I am an attorney and practice real estate in Miami, I am not well versed in Cuban real estate law but my understanding is that foreigners are still not allowed to own land. People are getting around this hurdle is placing properties in the names of Cuban citizens, who are the only ones allowed to own property. Unless you have relatives over there, or close friend, this vesting in someone else's name is a huge issue. You know, if you can get past the fact that you are buying properties in a country operated by a dictatorship.