All Forum Posts by: Kristen Martin

And...this is exactly why I love this site. Not just timely, but wise and encouraging response! Thank you gentlemen! First off, @Alex Hamilton, I appreciate the tip. I have noticed that zillow's information does lag significantly behind MLS. I'll do my research on where and when to find local foreclosure info from the primary source.

And @Tom Mole , hugely helpful! So, this is what led me to my initial question...I've been scouring the local real estate market(stanislaus county) , looking for either a multi family unit in an area safe enough for my family to live in a portion of and that the #s make sense on, or a well/priced SFR that needs a reasonable bit of work that we would live in for 2 years and either sell or rent when that time came. In my quest for such property, I stumbled upon that filter on zillow and realized that there were several(not many) homes whose market value exceeded the amount owed on the loan and the amount of $ needed to bring them current is available to me without the sale of my current residence <$45k. So, in my head, I imagined: narrowing this search to neighborhoods I could eventually live in. Doing research on the titles of these homes to find out if they had leins, making contact with he owner to see if they were interested in avoiding the foreclosure, and finally following up with the bank to ensure everyone was on board. Now, I understand there are quite a few variables and MOST of the homes on that list are, in fact, upside down. I'm willing to hunt for the gems that make sense though ;)

At the risk of pointing out how naive I am on this subject.....is it possible(ethical) to purchase homes after the foreclosure process begins? Can you contact seller and attempt to bring loan current in exchange for the deed? I've seen this option to view pre foreclosure homes on sites like zillow and wondered if this is something people do?

Thank you @Brandon Hall , I appreciate the clarification :) I've run the numbers on renting this place for a couple years after moving out...and I'm not loving the  prospect. With tax and insurance, our current mortgage is just over $1400. In this area, we could probably rent our house out for $1500-$1600. Without factoring in vacancy and normal maintainance, it seems like too small of a margin to go that route....? 

The multi-family unit is appealing(on paper) especially if we were making it a 2 year stop on our journey. What I'm still wondering is....if we find a place(duplex)for, say $300k that is in fair to good shape. After putting 60k down to avoid any PMI(*is this advised?) our mortgage would be around $1450. We could rent the other side for around $900 and live pretty cheaply for a couple years.That also leaves us upwards of 40 grand to invest, hold, upgrade....travel? There are obviously a lot of variables in that scenario, just wondering if it sounded like a smart plan. Thank you so much for all the insight! This decision seems far less hazy already :)

@Bill Exeter ....thank you so much for the explanation of 121 exclusion and 1031 exchange benefits. Super helpful information in this decision making process!

Wow! So much helpful insight and advice @Brett McCurdy , @Mike D'Arrigo , and @Bill Exeter . Thank you gentlemen :) I'm glad I have a couple of months to research and finalize our best course. 

A couple of questions to follow up on Brett's post: 

Since we've lived in our house already for more than 2 of the last 5....we can already avoid the tax penalties, correct? Were you suggesting to just stay living in our current place in hopes of values continuing to rise? I feel like we have a rare opportunity to capitalize on a sizable chunk of equity if we chose to sell. Also, your other suggestion for a SFR as a rental....would this be a turn-key property, or in need of some help? Finally, we're not opposed to moving every 2 years if it means an early retirement for us ;)

Thank you so much 

@Dawn Anastasi  and @Mark Brogan :) these next few months should be exciting. We fully expect that this will be a process that takes us several years at th very least. I'll post an update on which path we chose.

So, my husband and I purchased our home almost 3 years ago for 209k. It's BIG...4 bed, 3 bath 2600 sq ft. We don't need that much space for us and 2 daughters. The values have gone up quite a bit in our area. Similar homes are selling for $140/ sq ft. We'd like to sell in the next few months but are on the fence as to what to do with the 100k+ we'll have to work with. Here's what we're considering: a multi-family residence where we live in one of the units, a sfr that's needs a bit of help(we're pretty handy) to gain sweat equity, OR a rental in another market that we could get for cheap and hold on to.....OR, a combination of these ideas? We'd eventually love to live solely on income from real estate, but currently work as retail mgrs for around 100k/yr. We're looking for the fastest way to retirement ;)