All Forum Posts by: Mark Bradford

We have been giving out Christmas cards and gift cards for many years now. We try to give out gift cards to match the tenants. Like for my tenant that was a single mom with kids we would give a gift card for the local pizza joint. My older single man tenant loved to eat at a local restaurant called Richards so we got him a card for there. I think knowing your tenants and making it personal helps even more.

Thinking about buying our first "weekly" style vacation rental home. We are looking in the Pere Marquette area of Muskegon, MI. We love to vacation in that area along with Holland and Grand Haven. This would be our first out of state purchase as well. I would like to have help finding current owners of this style in these areas, property managers along with just general info of the area (Pere Marquette) mostly.
Some basic thoughts with this purchase... Thinking of using this as our "summer" home later in life (15-20 yrs)..... Use as a weekly or long term rental currently... Purchase price around 100k after any fees to bring it up to rental status.

Thanks for reading. Im just poking around with thoughts and gathering information. Im in the very early stage at this point.

Welcome!!! Its always go to hear from Hoosiers on here.

Welcome. Its always good to see more people from around our area! We are involved in the Kokomo, In and surrounding small towns. I look forward to hear what you have learned in your reading and how that works in your investing.

Update:
I'm trying to do what I can to get the owner to sign a purchase agreement with him providing clean title. So I'll see if he jumps on it! I'll keep you all posted.

Matt. Thanks for your input. Your comment didnt load until later so i didnt comment back yet sorry. But what is the escrow part. Who is putting money in the escrow? And why is it getting opened?

Marie. You might be right on the quote. So maybe I need to give Zig the credit. But I do like it. We use that theory in our business as PM's and rehabbers. It seems to work. Ill keep this thread posted as I learn more.

I dont understand these open or put into escrow comments. So dont know how this works. She might so Ill ask her tomorrow.

Thanks Marie
I did get i nfo from my realtor that the best option might be to pay for a title search and if it is free and clear go to the owner then. I might just stick the money out for that and see what happens. Every deal is one to learn something from! So you are right knowledge will be gained!

Ok this might help some. I just got a call from the county offices and they say. It went into a chapter 13 in 2010 and the property has not been released yet. They also show that there is no lender on file. So is my next step to call the owner back and ask if he can sell it? But if it is involved in the bankruptcy then what happens? Can he sell it ? Do I even care? Is that his problem? Back taxes are not huge a few thousand and I would be rehabbing and on holding this so purchase price would just have to be low enough to add back taxes, closing fees and rehab and not go over my idea of a good buy. So next step?

Thanks Matt DeVincenzo. I'm only familiar with traditional buying methods (one of the areas of my investing I want to iimprove on). So what does enter into a "P&S" and open escrow so I can have equitable interest in it mean. How do I do these things and remain unattached so I dont have to pay more than I wish to pay for this property?
Sorry but all my deals in the past few years have been through my realtor and standard transactions. So this way of buying is new but very exciting to me.