All Forum Posts by: Kevin Suksi

Thanks everyone for the replies - very helpful

We have a deal in principle with another investor and I'm wondering how others have structured similar deals in the past.

This is a retail flip project. The other investor located a short sale and was able to get it under contract where the numbers work. He is funding the purchase of the property. Our role is to fund and execute the rehab. Once sold the profit will be split between the two parties. The numbers all work as far as ARV, rehab cost, etc. We have strong and recent comps within 1/4 mile of the subject property above our target exit price.

My question is - how would you suggest securing our interest as the 2nd investor? I do trust the investor we are entering this deal with but you still want to structure things properly. We aren't bringing funds to the closing, we are funding the rehab as costs are incurred. I am not a builder so I don't think we can lien the property. Any ideas?

Interesting question. Has anyone had success with this?

We typically offer on about 8 properties to get 1 accepted and I think a lot of people here will say the numbers are even higher than that - if there is profit potential in a deal, others will see it too! Just keep making offers and be willing to walk away until you get the numbers that work for you.

I am researching probate marketing as another way to get properties; thus far we have been purchasing strictly REOs.

I am in Wayne County, Michigan. There is a public access system - http://public.wcpc.us/pa/. I assume the process is to start with death notices and then bump the names against this database? From there it tells you "case parties" which includes decedent, petitioner, personal representative, and interested parties. I assume personal representative is who I want to contact, and it looks easy enough to send a letter to this person by finding their address on whitepages.com.

This might be a stupid question - how do I know if there is actually real estate in the estate? Do I have to go to the courthouse and pull the file to find this out? It doesn't appear to be listed online.

Or do I just have to decide if it makes more sense to send the marketing letter to anyone who I can match up, guessing there might be real estate in the estate?

If those numbers are accurate, I wouldn't think a buyer would mind you passing closing costs along to them.

Haven't tried Spokeo before but might look into it. I work as a recruiter so have dabbled with Pipl a bit when trying to track people down. Have you tried Linked In?

What are you trying to do with it - track down absentee owners?

Quick update - we ended up approaching the buyer and asking them to split the difference with us and bring some more cash to the table in order to make the deal go. They agreed and we are settling for $105,000.

Also a couple of people mentioned sitting on the offer a couple of days - would this have accomplished much? Say for example an offer came in at 120K; the appraisal would have knocked it down and we'd be in the same place. Are you suggesting stalling in case there is a cash buyer out there and the whole appraisal process can be avoided?