All Forum Posts by: Michael R.

Say I buy a house with 13k delinquent property taxes. If I buy the house and then pay off the taxes can I deduct everything? Even if the taxes were from when I did not own the property?

Did a search but cant find any relevant posts.

I buy properties that have tax owed on them. Most of the liens are third party and some are very high. Sometimes the property is worth only 2k and the liens might be 13k or higher, which is why the property just sits vacant. I was wondering if anyone has tried to negotiate down what they owe. Some houses I look at have liens from 2006 to current so I am guess if the lien holder wanted to foreclose they would have but they might not see any reason to foreclose as they wont make more than a few thousand on the property sale.

Has anyone successfully or unsuccessfully tried this?

See how motivated he is. Maybe you can lock it up cheap and sell it to one of the neighbors to expand their property. Without knowing your area or market this is where i would start.

Maybe the lot had a house that was demoed. This happens alot when I run my campaigns.

Is it in an area where there is development? Lots of land in my market is probably worthless as there is enough cheap houses it does not make sense to build new. If it is out in the country does it have utilities to the site and is it on a road? Some plots I have looked at in the past had no services or way to access the property. Do you have buyers for this type of property? Seems like a small piece of land maybe in a city or something?

Dont rely on assessment nor zillow. Look at what has actually sold in the area. Try getting with a realtor to get comps or see if your county has a website that lists recently sold properties.

From a cash flow perspective I would pass up this property.

I buy these types of properties. Might cost you 3-5k depending how bad it is. I have a guy that will install a used gas furnace for 800$ or less. 500$ for plumbing. Would probably just fix the windows and keep them. Looks like a tiny 2-3 bedroom so costs should not be to high.

Thanks for the heads up on that site. They are lots cheaper than HD or Lowes. I also prefer the sticks, much cleaner and easier than the rolls.

pay about 400-500$ to do an entire house here in upstate ny

I use pex and sometime cpvc. The cpvc shut off valves are really cheap I bought they online for 1.50 each. which is a big savings over the sharkbite/pex valves which are 5.5-6$ cpvc is easy to work with too you dont need the ring tool just a pipe cutter and glue.

Sorry to hear about your situation. You can cut your loses not and sell at a loss or let it continue to bleed you of money each month. For insurance try getting a cash value policy as it will be most likely cheaper than your replacement cost policy. I just did this and cut my insurance bills in half. By the way here in NY where my properties are I pay about 140$ a year to insure them.
I would look for a new manger if it has been empty that long. Have they given you any feedback as to why it wont rent? There must be something your not seeing, they are not advertising, house is in disrepair, or maybe rent is to high?

If it was me I would get a new manager who is aggressive (or seems to be) in getting it rented. If things still dont get better I would cut my losses and dump it. At least then I would not have to worry about what the next major repair will be and what it will cost me. It was just an expensive learning lesson but everyone on here most likely had one before. good luck