All Forum Posts by: Misty W.

Thanks Charles! I figured that would be the case. COVID has definitely been considered, as it is with everything right now, crazy issues with clients in residential with most of my lenders not doing renovation loans currently, so just want to cover my bases venturing into commercial now. 

Completely new to commercial, looking at a small church for use as a wedding venue. Are there commercial lenders that touch anything under $100k, or even under $50k? What are they looking for?

I agree, being up front is the best way to go. My contracts actually have a line that states I intend to make a profit, and they must initial it right there. Yes, they might still get annoyed if they do the math and see how much you are making, but if you are honest from the beginning, it won't be as awkward when they call you up, and some of them will do that. Greed takes hold in a lot of people unfortunately, even if they knew exactly what you planned to do and they had no problem with it at the beginning.

Learning what is the most effective for a specific area comes from just trying it out. The only issue with choosing those two types of marketing is that mailings take awhile to start getting deals, figure at least 4 months of consistent mailings to the same group, and bandit signs don't always last long, usually a weekend. You need consistent marketing you can do daily. Think of other things you can add cheaply or for free like calling FSBO's on Craigslist, door knocking on 10 doors a day, etc. The key is doing something every day.

Welcome! We kept a second home in Doylestown until a couple of years ago, great area! BP is a great place to learn and network!

It is due to the prior owner, however most state laws say the agency only has to notify them at the last known address, which is likely the house that was just sold and they don't live there anymore. So they send the notification, it doesn't reach them, and in a certain number of years the state gets to keep the money. In PA I believe it's 5 years. Some counties in PA are good at finding the owners, others not so much. There are investors and other companies that do this as a business, they find the owners and help them collect the money for a percentage. Look up tax overages investing.

Another trick is looking up evictions notices, you'll find most of the property owners own a lot of properties in the area.

I agree with @Joseph Konrad

Door knocking is great, take some hand written post it notes with you to leave on doors where no one answers. Call on FSBO's and FRBO's on Craigslist. These are all free other than time and gas, and it gives you practice talking with sellers.

Awesome!

Check your county or city court records online, that's where I find my evictions. I can check hearings each day and I just look for Unlawful Detainers. Code violations I haven't been able to find anywhere, I think most people just call the code office and ask. Sometimes I can find them in the newspaper, some cities publish repeat offenders.