All Forum Posts by: Lucas Bonasio

@Michael Seeker were you able to develop your "non-cloud-based" software? I know this is an old post, but I have been looking for the same type of software and even thought about building one myself...

Please let me know. Thanks!

Hi guys!

I am just starting on the game of bidding on foreclosed properties at auctions.

After reading many articles and watching several videos, it was made clear to me that, if I wanted to be on the safe (or should I say "less risky") side, then I should purchase a Title Search for the properties I am interested in before going to the auction.

This week I attended my first auction, at the Sheriff's office in Newark, NJ. The place was a meeting room packed with over 50 people. I would say that over 100 properties were auctioned in that day; most of which (about 80% of them) didn't receive any bids and went back to the bank.

Now here is the interesting part:

Title searches are $200 each. Might not seem like a very big expense but, if you are interested in 5 or 6 properties it definitely adds up FAST!

Since I'm no millionaire (yet), I purchased the title searches for 2 properties only prior to going to the auction. I also printed the list of all properties being auctioned on that day and brought it with me. To my surprise tough, several people there also had over 20 properties highlighted on their list. My instant thought was "How can this be?! At $200 per title search, there is no way these people are spending over $4000 in Title Search. But there is also no way they are all "risking it" buying properties without knowing much about the title... SO WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!"

I know people don't have to pay for a Title Company to do the search and can try to get the info by themselves, but there is another side to this story.........

I know for a fact that (at least in NJ) you can still "back out" of a foreclosure deal withing 10 days of winning the property on an auction. How do I know that? Well, the same title company that I used told me that, "in addition to the Tittle Search and the Judgments On Foreclosed Party Report, we also recommend doing a Chancery Abstract Report. But this can be done during the 10 days you get as a grace period after you buy a house at the auction".

I appreciated the information from the Title Company, since that would save me a lot, considering that each Chancery Abstract also costs $200. BUT THEN IT HIT ME:

Why can't I buy all the reports from the title company (INCLUDING THE TITLE SEARCH) AFTER winning an auction? This would keep me from spending a lot of money on properties that I don't even bid on depending on the upset amount.

What is your recommendation? Is it a sound plan to buy the title search after winning a foreclosure auction, based on the "10 day grace period" I have to back out of the deal? Is anybody here working this way?

Thank you for all the inputs!

Thankyou @Ben G. , I have just sent a PM to Lamar.

Looking forward to hearing back from him.

I'm looking to expand my portfolio of properties in San Antonio Texas and would like to know if anyone here could recomend a good wholesaller in the area.

Thanks!

@Michael Quarles 

I'm assuming you work for Yellow letters? Would you be able to offer me a quote if I send you an e-mail at the address in your signature?

Thanks!

Lucas

Great stuff! Thank you, sir! @Seth Teel 

Thanks, @Kathryn MacGeraghty . So any title company (I.e. one of the companies I used when buying these properties in San Antonio) should be able to pull the data for a whole area for me?

I do hope that fee is indeed very "nominal"... ;)

Thanks!

Lucas

Thanks @Seth Teel . That is definitely an easy and free way to get info - I just tried it out.

But the problem is that with this tool I have to enter the address for every house, one at a time, which makes it impossible to me, since I would like to get results for an entire street or neighborhood.

Any other ideas on how to get multiple addresses in one shot?

There has to be a way, since I continue to receive mail (little cards, etc) here in NYC from people offering to buy my properties in San Antonio.

Thanks!

Thank you @Michael Quarles . What do you mean by escrow company?

I currently have 5 properties which I bought in a particular neighborhood in San Antonio, TX (the medical center area), which I believe to be a great area to own rental properties due to the constant high demand generated by the large employers in the area.

I would like to buy more houses in that same neighborhood and, of course, don;t want to wait for the properties to hit the public multiple listing bucket. I want to contact the owners of those houses (via mail) and offer to buy their houses cash.

I believe the occupancy of the houses in the neighborhood is mixed (about half being occupied by owners, and half by tenants).

Could you guys share some ways to get a list of the addresses for the owners of the houses in a certain zip code? I could only think of one way: asking the HOA, which I'm not sure will work.

Thanks for the imput!

Lucas