All Forum Posts by: Kyle McCorkel

The key part of the question is “at a glance”

I really hope some of you don't try to figure out IRR for every "at a glance" property. Even if you have some really sweet tools that could be really time consuming.

For me, if it’s a multifamily, I use price per unit, combined with rent to value ratio.

I know most MF I’d be willing to pay $30k-$50k max per unit. And I know most MF rent to value needs to be at least 1% ideally closer to 1.5%.

You can figure these things out in 10 seconds to 30 seconds, then decide whether to dig deeper.

@Jake Ernst

You've already gotten some really good replies.  I agree that the agent probably thought you were wasting his time.  I'd take this as a learning opportunity rather than taking offense.  It's important to respect other people's time.

Here's a few things I do, all before seeing the property:

- Run the property though multiple filters, such as location, price, price to rent ratio (must be 1% rule or higher)

- Unless the price is ridiculously low (i.e. never) I don't look at houses right after they're listed. Every property will have 10+ showings in the first few days.  I don't want to get caught up in the frenzy of other buyers.

- Target listings that have been on the market for 30, 60, 90 days.  These will typically need work and/or be over priced.

- I don't use a buyer's agent, most of the time.  Maybe this won't work for a newbie, but once I learned how to navigate contracts/negotiations (probably better than most agents), this became obvious. If you deal directly with the list agent, they are more motivated to show you the property and deal with you because they get double commission.  Benefits include: more motivated agent, less middlemen, agent is more likely to (accidentally or intentionally) divulge information, you aren't overwhelming one single buyers agent.  So look up the list agent, call them up/email and say "I'm a real estate investor and I'd like you to represent me if/when I submit an offer".

@Brenden Mitchum

I've been doing more research into the Cumberland County records, and the property is definitely a single family house in their records.  There's other houses in the area that look like they were also mobile homes a long time ago, and they sold as single family houses (for single family prices).  So I think I'm in the clear.

The foundation is very permanent.  And from my experience with appraisers, they wouldn't notice the crawl space, and even if they did, they wouldn't know what they're looking at.

 Thanks! Yes, I would say that the foundation is permanent.  

I just bought a single family house in Central PA (Cumberland County, near Harrisburg).  The plan is to flip it.  Bought it for $95k off market, planning to put in about $43k and sell for $190k.

We walked through twice and the seller told us there was no basement and no crawl space.  Well, after we closed and brought our rehab team in, they discovered a small door in the back of the property (covered with siding, so it blends in).  The door opens up revealing a small crawl space.

Now here's where it gets weird.  In the crawl space, there's steel beams running across part of the structure, almost like it used to be a mobile home.  After seeing the structure under the property, it appears that a long time ago it was a mobile home, and since then there's been additions added on.  So PART of the house is on a block foundation.  The other part, with the steel beams, is resting on cinderblock piers, which are resting on poured concrete piers.  We couldn't see any of this initially because there's cinderblocks covered by siding around the perimeter of the house.

Note: the county classifies the house as "Single family detached".  I checked other properties that are definitely mobile/manufactured and they are classified as "Manufactured".

So, it's not a MOBILE home anymore... the house is quite stationary.  Our concern is the implications with selling.  Do we need to worry about an inspector flagging an issue, or worse, do we need to worry about the future buyer being able to finance a house that a lender might classify as still a mobile home? Would this/should this affect comps?

@David Krulac

Got it, thank you so much.  Maybe I'll see you at 10 AM tomorrow ;)

@David Krulac I have a quick logistical question.  Let's say I have a property I want to buy at the tax sale, but I don't know what my winning bid will be.  Let's say upset price is $8,521 and I figure the max I would pay would be $50,000.  But I might end up getting it for $30,000, or $40,000. Or maybe I won't get it at all.

How do you bring funds for the purchase? Do I wait until I win the bid, then run to the bank and get a cashiers check for the right amount?

What an awesome thread. So many cool hobbies. Most of mine are repeats:

Wife, kids and dog

Love to hike although kids are still a bit young. My wife and I hike on our own when we can find child care.

Travel with my wife, mostly to natural attractions like national parks. Went to Yosemite last year and hiked 15+ miles a day for 7 days. It was awesome. Yellowstone/Grand Tetons this year.

Daily exercise. I’ve been doing P90X, p90X2 or other Beachbody programs for nearly 10 years

Love video games, when I can find the time. Typically when the rest of the family is sleeping and I can’t sleep due to thinking about work :) Currently loving Red Dead Redemption 2 Online

PSU Football and wrestling. Will miss football this year...

Cooking, grilling, smoking. Just got a smoker a few months ago and I’m in love with it.

Local Craft beer. I’ve really gotten into Troegs (based in Hershey, PA) since the start of COVID

Reading (or audiobooks) many different kinds of books. Currently into sci fi/fantasy books. Brandon Sanderson is an amazing fantasy author.

@Chris K.

What you mentioned about the big players buying tons of properties makes sense. And now that explains why I see several properties owned by the big players popping up on tax sales. They must buy a ton of properties at tax sales, knowing some of them will turn out to be duds, and let the duds just go to the next tax sale.

@David Krulac

Another book all about tax sales sounds fantastic.  I was just browsing through all the tax sales in your first book before I decided to try to post some questions.

So let's say I buy a place at a tax sale for $30k (and let's say the upset price is $10k), and the sale gets disputed and overturned in court.  Do I get my $30k back?