All Forum Posts by: Chris Dawson

@Brian Koralewski, Kansas City has plenty of inventory to fill your needs.  As @Kim Tucker stated, just stay out of the inner city.  With your criteria, you will have no problem finding properties in good areas of the city that produce the returns you are wanting.

Let me know if I can help.

Hello @Sandy Uhlmann.  Kansas, unlike, Missouri, is a Judicial State, which means a lot more headaches with foreclosures.  You definitely need to speak to a real estate attorney, licensed in Kansas, about your situation.  Since you have already spoken to one, I would recommend you get a second opinion just to be safe.

I have never seen a situation where a house was foreclosed on and there was equity left over after the lien holders, taxes, and other expenses were paid.  If there was any equity, than the home owners would be crazy not to sell and save themselves from the credit damage of a foreclosure.

Do you have any idea if the home owners are thinking about filing for bankruptcy?  If they are going to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you might as well quit now as you won't get a dime.  If they do a Chapter 13, you may get some of your money back, but it will not be all of it.

How big is the 2nd lien?  Is it big enough to risk paying a few thousand dollars in legal fees to maybe recapture some of it?

As a real estate broker who works exclusively with investors, I find myself asking the same questions over and over again to not only new investors but to seasoned investors as well.  I was thinking it would be a good idea to put all of these questions into a form that could be used to help investors, better define their investing goals, and to also help those of us who provide services to these investors, better understand our client's goals.

I checked the forms area on BP and I didn't find any such form so I figured I would start this conversation and get as much input from the BP community and then I will create the form and post it to the forms section.

I'll get the ball rolling with a few questions (in no particular order) that I always ask:

• What experience, if any, do you have with real estate investing?
• Rank these terms from most important to least important:
  • Monthly Cash Flow
  • Long term equity
  • tax haven (tax right offs) 
  • Quick equity
• What type of properties are you interested in?
  • SFRs
  • Multi Family
  • Land
  • Retail
  • Industrial
  • Office Space
  • Redevelopment
• What class of property are you interest in?
  • Class A
  • Class B
  • Class C
  • Class D (if used in your area)
• How do you plan to finance your deals?
  • Cash
  • private money
  • bank loans
  • hard money
  • seller financing
  • SD IRA
  • Other
• What price range are you looking at?
• What risk level are you comfortable with? 
  • High Risk
  • Medium Risk
  • Low Risk
• What type of returns are you wanting to achieve?
• How are you measuring your returns?
• What is your exit strategy? - Everyone needs one, and few people think about it.

That is all that I can think of right now.  I know there are more so please add to this list!

Once we feel good about the list, I will create the form and share it with everyone.

@Marko Cvetkovic, send me a PM.  I have several small multi family buildings that you might be interested in.

You certainly don't have to use a real estate agent when you purchase investment property.  Likewise you don't have to use a lawyer when you get sued and you don't have to use a Dr. when you break your leg!  However, why add more risk to your deal?  A GOOD real estate agent who specializes in working with investors, will provide you with a complete, unbiased, picture of what is available and what is a good deal.

@Jordan Hanksion, Zillow is crap! In addition to everything mentioned already in this post, Zillow does not verify any data that it receives. Anybody can post their house for sale on the site and you can post whatever sale price you want. They don't check the county records to verify sales comps. The only reason zillow is even remotely close on their estimates is because they pull in MLS feeds.

Do yourself a favor and find a good, investor real estate agent and pay him/her to do your property evaluations.

@David O. Central Bank and Arvest Bank are the most investor friendly banks that I know of in the KC area.

@Jim Workman you definitely want to let an attorney or title company write up your contract and you definitely want to secure the loan with the property being purchased. I would also recommend that you don't loan the full value of the property. You need to have some equity room encase things go south, and you have to dump the property to pay back your IRA.

Also, I want to stress that it is important that YOU hire the title company or attorney to write up the contract.  Don't let your friend do this.  The contract needs to be written with a focus on protecting your interests as the lender, not your friend's interest as the buyer.

Welcome @KJ Miller,

There are plenty of us local KC folks who can help you learn the ropes.  Drop me a line and let me know how I can help.

@Derrick Lasley the 2 best RE clubs in Kansas City are the Kansas City Investment Group (www.KCIG.org) and Mid America Association of Real Estate Investors(www.marei.org).  Both meet once a month.  I would suggest you go to a couple of meetings at each club before you decide to commit to one or both.  You will find a great deal of people to network with at either club.