All Forum Posts by: Mark Limke

I am not a fan. I sometimes have sold them, but I always give my frank opinion about them. They are a 'hold your nose and buy' purchase, because buyers value them, and sometimes they make a house sell more quickly.

Don't forget to read about all the exclusions in the pages of fine print. And don't forget there is a deductible. And make sure it applies to rental properties, not just residential.

Do they charge you to change filters? Curious how much that option costs.

You will hear people say how they saved money this way. Consider that people widely report things that make them look smart, and tend to not mention things where their purchase turned out to be money wasted or misspent. 

Minimize it. It means nothing. If you met this person in line at the grocery store, or at Starbucks, you wouldn't be nervous. Just listen, and relate to them as a person. Which you are. Walk in and think "I don't give a damn about this, I'm here to have fun and learn something." And if later you end up with a deal, hey, sweet! Like said above: you got this. 

Lots of state-specific provisions, even local. I personally would find an attorney expert at this, and pay for their services. Find one who is good at evictions, too. There are many minefields these days for landlords, and you don't want to end up in court. A reasonable legal fee will later look like a bargain, if you get sued, and some tenants are masters at manipulating the legal system.

How do you figure into all of this? If your friend buys the house, lives in it, then later rents it, what's his motivation to share it with you? I ask that in the friendliest way I can!

Another issue is, if you transfer ownership, you will trigger the due on sale clause, i believe. That means the lender can demand payment in full. Not sure they would, if the borrower is paying, but they can.

What's your thought on needing to deed half to you? Not sure what the motivation is. Kind of goes back to the first question, above. I think we need more info.

Part of the "value add" you as a wholesaler are bringing to the deal is letting the sellers get rid of their problem. You are a problem solver, so the problem is yours, or really, the end buyer. As a wholesaler, you may not even be taking possession of the property, or if you do, only momentarily. What you have to do is make sure your buyer is fully briefed on the situation, and that you have priced it so that if it goes "worst case scenario," they will still make money (your customer). If you can't make that work, then it's probably not a deal. My two cents, anyway.

Your lender is just the messenger. I would contact the taxing authority, such as the county, and find out what happened. Could be it was a mistake, and if not, you should be able to look online and see what is different than earlier years. You can also check nearby properties, and see if the same thing happened. Don't waste time, the protest windows are normally not open-ended.

I would advice NOT doing that. A five bedroom house can be a valuable property. It's been my experience here that families newly immigrated to the U.S. often times have family structures I sometimes wish we still did here, that is, multi-generational. Aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, they all live together to save money, and they need bedrooms. I could sell these all day long, and love to find them. There is a market for them, in a lot of areas.

In our area, when we do market analyses on properties, two houses with the same number of square feet, the one with more bedrooms is normally counted as more valuable than the one with fewer bedrooms.

I'm sure there are other perspectives that would go the other way, so mine is just one viewpoint, not right or wrong. Wait to see what other ideas come up!

I would say, since HVAC triggers it, and your quote mentions bad habits of HVAC people, you should call an HVAC contractor. A reputable one!

Juan, I wonder if you don't mean hard money lenders. Private lenders are people you know who believe in you and trust you, and who invest in your real estate projects because of that.

Hard money lenders are business people, initially strangers to you, who invest in your deal because they believe in the deal, not you so much.

I think you will have a hard time finding one who will go 100 percent LTV (loan to value). You will likely have to invest your own money for the 20 or 30 percent gap, or find other financing, such as seller financing, or even a combination of hard money and private money, if you don't have any of your own. Read @Brandon Turner's  book on no/low money investing, for tips.

And if by chance you DID mean private lenders, the answer is, you'd have to ask them. They are your friends and family and acquaintances, and no one is going to be able to suggest one to you.

Of course, the ultimate answer is, whatever you both can agree on. Right?

But my thought, in practical terms, is to find out what sort of return on investment the funding party would need to get them interested in choosing you over other alternatives. That depends on your market, to a great extent, such as what kind of cap rates your local investors get.

Good luck with your deals!