All Forum Posts by: Matthew Bailey

Does anyone have a good title company/closing agent that they enjoy working with in Hawaii? Specifically Hawaii County, HI?

Hello!  I live in the SF bay area, renting half a duplex in Sunnyvale ($2500/mo) and I'd like to find some way to live in this area long term buy obviously I've got to be clever about it.  (I have a girlfriend who doesn't want roommates so buying and renting the rooms is off the table and of course we need to be on the same page.)  A duplex/multifamily could work but the tenant friendly laws in the bay area have me concerned that an extended eviction process would kill any reserves and risk losing the property.  I've been considering learning more about a condo conversion (ideally with a partner who has done condo conversions) in the past.  I don't have the cash but I've been actively investing with my vacant land business for over 2 years now, so the hustle isn't an issue.  I'd be willing to live in it which appears to have some benefits for a condo conversion depending what town you're in.

The thought being that we could buy a duplex/triplex/quad, convert it to a condo, and sell off the remaining units leaving me with (at the end of the day) an affordable housing option.

Here are the condo zoning laws that I found for Sunnyvale: https://www.huduser.gov/portal...

My understanding is that they don't do condo conversions with <3% rental vacancy rate, but it looks like it was 3.1% from the most recent HUD market analysis for my area that I could find: https://www.huduser.gov/portal...

Does anyone know someone who has done a condo conversion in the Bay Area?  I'd be open to most towns in the south bay, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Cupertino, etc.  Both myself and my GF work in MV so if the numbers work we'd like to stay nearby.

Thanks for all of the replies!  Sorry I meant to say thanks sooner.  I think @Ryan Nichols nailed it, thanks for clearing that up!  Direct mail campaign in 3..2..1!

Hey everyone! Does anyone have a good title company that they prefer to work with in (or around) Indian River County, Florida?

Thanks in advance!

Sincerely,

Matt

I would like to send a direct mail marketing campaign into South Carolina to try to purchase properties.  When I try to download the data I get a notification from RealQuestPro: 

"South Carolina law prohibits the use of personal information obtained from government agencies for commercial solicitation. See S.C. Code Ann. § 30-2-50(A):

A person or private entity shall not knowingly obtain or use personal information obtained from a state agency, a local government, or other political subdivision of the State for commercial solicitation directed to any person in this State.  “Personal information” includes, but is not limited to, name, home address, and home telephone number.  By accessing any records, reports, property information, or any other informational products and services from CoreLogic for the state of South Carolina (“South Carolina Information”), you hereby certify to CoreLogic that you do not intend to, and will not, use such South Carolina Information for the purpose of commercial solicitation."

Then when I searched for that legal code I found at https://law.justia.com/codes/s... for South Carolina"

"(A) A person or private entity shall not knowingly obtain or use any personal information obtained from a state agency for commercial solicitation directed to any person in this State.

(B) Each state agency shall provide a notice to all requestors of records pursuant to this chapter and to all persons who obtain records pursuant to this chapter that obtaining or using public records for commercial solicitation directed to any person in this State is prohibited.

(C) All state agencies shall take reasonable measures to ensure that no person or private entity obtains or distributes personal information obtained from a public record for commercial solicitation.

(D) A person knowingly violating the provisions of subsection (A) is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be fined an amount not to exceed five hundred dollars or imprisoned for a term not to exceed one year, or both.

(E) This chapter does not apply to a local governmental entity of a subdivision of this state or local government."

I'm not a lawyer but I have to think that getting data from RealQuestPro (or any other data aggregator) who almost certainly gets their data from the assessors office, which is a government agency, has to fit that bill.  

Bottom line (for me): Unless someone has found a lawyer who has found some precedent of a court case with a real estate investor sending direct mail and that being ok, I see no wiggle room in the SC law. Which is a bummer cause I'd love to mail there haha.

Does anyone know if you can use direct mail marketing in South Carolina to try to acquire properties?  Besides folks who have been doing it without getting caught haha.  Does anyone know if it's allowed?

Hey everyone, can I get another pair of eyes on this deal. I have it under contract at 28k but I'm having second thoughts the more I look into it. It is about 1 acre in a small HOA community. As far as I can tell, homes in the community sell around 500k (the ones that sold after the crash, no real recent comps) the HOA owns a bunch of the remaining lots and has them priced at 75k, a few owners have their's priced higher. At first glance I thought I could target a sales price around 60k, so 28k purchase would be good. However, now that I see that the HOA is the one with most of the "for sale" lots, I'm concerned that they may be setting the "market value" and propping it up and/or they have too much control on what the market value is since they have such a market share. One lot in the community sold at 85k and one sold at 62k recently. This lot is on a steeper section of the community overlooking a creek. There is a home built right next to it on a comparably sloped lot. What do you think about my pricing and would you proceed with this deal as is or try to renegotiate?

My exit strategy would be to sell to a builder but I haven’t worked in this county yet. I’m currently looking for builders or developers who I could get to weigh in on it but I thought maybe the BP community could give me a few nuggets about this area or what to expect. How would a builder/developer view this property? What are the building costs per sqft, how does the slope impact the pricing, etc.

Feel free to check it out, Catawba County, NC, APN: 375304734463, 2757 Trent Dr NE, Conover, NC

It’s about an hour outside of Charlotte and 30 min west of Statesville.

Hello, I'm looking at a 0.36 acre parcel of vacant land in Columbia, SC.  A home used to be on it that burned down a few years back and it appears the land has been brought back to "raw land" status minus the sprinkler system.

I could use a hand evaluating this deal from a spec builder's perspective since that's who I imagine I would be selling to once I purchase it.  I often buy and sell rural vacant land but this infill lot has me questioning my pricing.

I see a few other lots in the surrounding area that are for sale for 10k but one (0.26ac) is from a tax sale so I don't think you can build and get title insurance so that's why it's priced like that.  Another is 10k (~0.25ac) that still have the foundation.  There's one for 12k (0.43ac) but it looks like it's in a wetlands area.  Then some more 0.25 ac lots that also appear to be affected by wetlands.

Besides those ones that I think have issues, there are two that are on small ponds that are for sale for 25k (both ~0.25ac).

I see that there are a bunch of new construction subdivision builds going up with houses selling between 200-220k.  I've heard that for a spec builder they generally want to spend 20% of the sale value for land, so for this property that would be about 40k.  I'm thinking I could buy this lot 10k (currently under contract) after closing costs and sell for 20k.

Is anyone familiar with the area?  Does that seem like a good plan?  I'd love to talk to some home builders but the ones I've called only do contract work, nobody buys land and builds that I've talked to.

@Matthew Bailey darn BP app lol

@Rainer Otte @Rainer Otte I’m a land investor and I buy and sell parcels of vacant land, if this lot doesn’t have road access (ie there are properties between it and a county maintained road) then it’s what is called landlocked. You’ll need to look at the deed to verify there are easements that give you access and utility right of ways. Just because you can physically get to the lot doesn’t mean you can legally put a driveway and utilities across other people’s land. This has red flag written all over it. Call the county recorders office and get the deed from them. You’ll also want to talk to the utility companies to see what it’ll cost to get water lines run to the property. You can also truck in water and have a water tank in some areas. Sounds like you don’t need to worry about a perc test or septic system. Make sure it’s out of a floodplain and it’s not in a wetlands area. Also also, you ought to be able to get this significantly cheaper than comparable lots that have road access. Make sure you do your homework and don’t jump the gun, lots of potential issues here.

@Rainer Otte I’m a land investor and I buy and sell parcels of vacant land, if this lot doesn’t have road access (ie there are properties between it and a county maintained road) then it’s what is called landlocked. You’ll need to look at the deed to verify there are easements that give you access and utility right of ways. Just because you can physically get to the lot doesn’t mean you can legally put a driveway and utilities across other people’s land. This has red flag written all over it. Call the county recorders office and get the deed from them. You’ll also want to talk to the utility companies to see what it’ll cost to get water lines run to the property. You can also truck in water and have a water tank in some areas. You’ll probably want to perc test the property to make sure it’s suitable for a septic system. Make sure it’s out of a floodplain and it’s not in a wetlands area. Also also, you ought to be able to get this significantly cheaper than comparable lots that have road access. Make sure you do your homework and don’t jump the gun, lots of potential issues here.