All Forum Posts by: Laura Alamery

Have an attorney write a letter to the condo association "refreshing" the concept that if the condo goes to foreclosure they will get nothing, so they better accept $xx today or you (as the buyer) will cancel the deal and the foreclosure is on xx date.
I resort to attorneys in situations like this (some times the title company attorney can do this for free, if you are a repeated client) and I have had good success.

As long as you develop a buyer's list in Michigan (or anywhere else for that matter), you can successfully wholesale long distance. I would suggest you have a trusted real estate agent and contractor wherever you wholesale as your local "eyes" and point of contact.
But first and foremost ... have a buyer's list, so you know what your market demands and what type of properties to look for.

I would suggest in making that money work for you, increase your cash reserve and retain some properties at the same time. For instance, use the funds to buy some properties to flip/wholesale, that will give you some quick cash, and you can use those profits to buy houses at 50 cents on the dollar or less in foreclosure.
My suggestion is that at the end the $70k will remain intact, and you just use that money to create more money through buying and flipping. The money created through these types of investments is in turn used to buy properties to hold in your portfolio.
This way you limit your risk about having your HELOC money tied up somewhere and having to pay interest on that money.

The first deal is the most difficult. All the details, from research to writing the first contract and so many questions. It does get easier though, down to a routine: it will get to the point that you will write several contracts at a time and see which ones will work out.
If you can have a mentor that can help you in the beginning phase, that will definitely jump start your real estate career: you will be more confident and reassured.
As many books and courses that any investor reads, there are still questions and exceptions to the rule. A difficult first deal can scare a new investor away.
Real estate is not an easy and fool-proof business, but if you can get over the initial learning curve, it is definitely a very rewarding business with unlimited possibilities.
In summary ... any new investor should have a mentor for the first few deals.

I agree with Transactional Funding. The fraud issues could be detrimental. For your information, there are title companies that will do double closings without transactional funding, but they don't openly advertise it, and they shouldn't. They might do it for an investor that they have done business with, not a new investor.
The real estate industry got ruined by people not doing transactions properly, so as a new investor, learn the right way and you will go far :)

Yes you can. There are lenders out there that will loan on mobile homes and you should contact them to find out guidelines on buyers of mobile homes. I know Wells Fargo had a mobile homes division (they would also loan on complete mobile home parks).

You need to set your strategy upfront. If you want a private lender short term (you resell the property in less than a year), your lender usually will be happy with a percentage of the proceeds at closing, usually between 10 to 20%. If your private lender is more for a long term situation, than you should consider making him/her a JV partner, where he/she shares into the cash flow and the profits at the end.
Don't count on refinancing at this time, just either you sell the property or keep it for the long term with a JV partner (private lender.)

It really depends on the spread if I use assignment or flip/resale the deal. If your margin is really low, you might want to assign it and most of the buyers for this scenario would be wholesalers, who know how the business work. You basically should have a buyer's list of wholesalers that you contact when you want to assign the contract.
I usually charge anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 for an assignment. Again, I use assignments only if there is little spread. I have a contract that i use for Assignments, so it helps to avoid wholesalers going "around your back." Just contact wholesalers that advertise on Craigslist or other media. Go to local real estate investors meetings. Building a ready and able buyers' list is crucial for assignments or flips.
If you have a larger spread, sell the property as you would sell any deal. I would still price it well below market, to get it moving, but you can advertise on Craigslist or your list of investors buyers (who are not wholesalers). You don't have to disclose your purchase price.

I have been buying and rehabbing multi families (up to 4 units) for almost 20 years in St Louis and it has been a very lucrative practice. If you buy them with the intention of reselling them quickly, you just have to buy them very low, fix them up, get them rented (if you want to sell at retail) or wholesale them vacant (and also not fixed, depending on what type of wholesalers you are working with). Just rinse and repeat.
During booming years, together with my partners, we bought and sold over 60 properties in one year (great year 2002!) Nowadays it is more like around 15 or so a year, because we have to pick the ones really low and in stable areas in order to flip them quickly.
Do your homework and it will pay back fast.

I wouldn't tie up a limited cash amount long term. I would make that money "work" for you, like invest with somebody else in a property that can be rehabbed and sold (make sure you study the area and market potential first), or buy a property that can be sold at wholesale fairly fast.
That way your funds would grow fast: once you have a certain amount of capital, at least over $100k, you could consider buying some inexpensive property to buy and hold long term for cash flow, although I don't know how much you can buy in California for that, in the Midwest you can buy a whole block right now :)