All Forum Posts by: Katharine Chartrand

I have only had experience with auction.com. Auction.com itself is a reputable and straight forward organization. A lot of stuff is overpriced trash being dumped by the bank. If you buy that stuff it is a bad business choice. Auction.com handles the transaction fairly and professionally but that doesn't mean it is a good deal. I've looked at 20 deals on auction.com. I've been the winning bidder on 5. I've closed on two.

If you are interested in details after the sale on auction.com, PM me. That's exactly where you win or lose.

Two words: title insurance.  

Submit your offer through a broker and get title insurance if it is accepted.

But I'd be curious what is going on.  I would go to the county office with the records on this house and research all the liens on this house.  There is something going on.  $155K for a $700K lien is improbable,

If it is a short sale, the sale won't happen until 

1. the bank holding the first lien has agreed to accept less than the lien amount.  

2. owner has to pay off all the other liens including property taxes.

So the clearing the liens becomes part of closing the deal because the owner generally doesn't have enough the money to do the whole thing.

I bought a fix and flip from a guy who lived for years with 3 dogs letting them pee inside the house.

The house is being gutted and completely remodeled. The floor has to be strengthened by adding a 2x4 floor on top of the original floor.  There is no question of keeping the original wood floor.  The issue is that the floors are so soaked with pissed, they still stink 3 months after I purchased the house.  

Do I need to worry about the smell?  Will the new floor hide it?  Will it go away after a while?

If so, is there anyway to treat the floors to neutralize the smell?  I am not worried about keeping the floors so dumping bleach on them would be fine, for example.

>KNC< 

I am researching tax deeds, which do have the potential of giving a high short term rate of return on low amounts of cash. You're in a tax deed state too.  I would research virginia tax deed sales rules online and on this site closely to see if people make that work. 

In my experience, the real estate. strategies that require significant cash have a relatively low rate of return.  I actively fix and flip but it's taken a while and a lot of cash to start making money. I see how people make a lot of money. I can tell you it ain't easy and I'm not there yet. Whether you make money is highly dependent on the local real estate and construction markets and an excellent network of realtors and contractors.

Although I have cash, I am looking at wholesaling, subject to's and wrap financing to increase cash flow.  

You have gotten a tremendous amount of good advice on this thread.  I would only add

Diversify... do not throw the 75K into one deal.  What is the least amount of that $75K you can use on your first deal.  Your first three deals are about learning not making money.

Don't leave your job until you have a repeatable model that replaces your salary.  Most of these strategies don't require a lot of hours per week.  And don't put a time limit on yourself based on what you "want".  Focus on showing up and doing it, that's what you control.

Everyone has had a job they want out of.  You will find that doing something for your future that you are passionate about will go a long long way to making any day job survivable.  But the stability of that job plays a critical role in managing financial risk for you and your family.  If you see the job as part of your large business plan, it has a different aspect.

as a parent I am sure your parents will be very happy to see that house on the market.

@Anne A. 

Can we get an update?

Thanks. We're going to raise the second floor in the existing building 4".  It is possible in this case because we're putting in a new cathedral ceiling.

In any case that is how we will solve this.... allow the 12" joists to stick up into the second floor, then raise the existing second floor.

I am putting an addition on an old house that has 8" floor joists. For various reasons, it's very problematic to change the ceiling height between the original house and the addition. However, the smallest engineered floor joist I can find is 9 1/2". 

Code allows me to span 15'7" with 2x8" on 12" center. That's currently the only option I have, however, I've been told my floor will be bouncy.'' Is there anything else I should be considering?

@Tom V.   Thanks for bumping my post.  It is certainly a very interesting case to me.

I bought the house in a foreclosure auction on May 27th.  A week or two ago, an investor called me to say he had bought the right of redemption.  I did go talk to the foreclosed upon owner, who lives in the house.  She confirmed that she had sold her right of redemption.  

However, the investor hasn't filed the petition.  And the judge hasn't approved the sale. 

The law requires the person holding the right of redemption to pay me what I paid plus interest, but only from the time the judge approves the sale.   It's been six weeks when it usually takes two to approve the sale.  So I am out $160K with no interest while I wait for the judge to approve the sale.

I had assumed that the investor would call me to redeem once the judge approved the sale, but they should have filed their petition to redeem with the court and they haven't.  My realtor says that probably the "investor" wants to sell the house back to me because they generally don't have any money.   

So now I just wait...

• for the judge to act
• the 30 redemption clock to start ticking
• the investor to call and either give me my money back or try to sell me the house

Or that's my best guess of how this works.  

My main question right now is whether the judge can take an unlimited amount of time to approve the sale.  

I have never bought anything through Homesearch, but the reserve usually lowers as the houses age on those sites.  I do get deals with patience and persistence.  The key is to not overbid.  You will get beaten by people who over bid.  But that makes you the winner and the other guy the loser.

>KNC<