All Forum Posts by: Ardie Mansouri

Late to reply here, but I am currently taking this approach.  Heard one of the podcast guests (Seth Williams podcast #39) discuss this strategy.  Oddly enough it seems like a strategy that not a whole lot of people discuss a lot on the site.  I have sent out about 150 mailers so far and gotten about 6 leads so far in the first 2 weeks.  Not all are as motivated as necessary to make it a feasible deal on my end, and the ones that are are for properties in less than desirable area.  So to answer your question, yes it is used!

Congratulations man! 

@Alyssa Baron Thank you very much Alyssa! I have gotten all of my leads using agentpro247.com You can filter by absentee/owner occupied properties, as well as distressed/non-distressed properties (which means tax delinquent).  

Following up on this lead though.... I called the owner to get a little more information on the property.  For whatever reason they were completely unwilling to tell me anything about the current lease (what it rents for, how long current renters have been there, when their current lease is through) and insisted that that had nothing to do with the value of the house (I guess I can see their point).  Also, would not allow me to come look at the house at all.  They did know about their delinquent taxes, but didn't seem to think that mattered.  Also threw out a ballpark number of around $100k for a asking price.  So unfortunately, it looks like this owner is not quite motivated enough for what I am looking for and this deal won't be happening.  Either way though, I did learn quite a bit from all of your feedback.  I really appreciate it! @Joseph Ball @Wayne Brooks @Account Closed 

@Wayne Brooks Wow thank you so much!  I had found that website a while ago, but for whatever reason completely forgotten it existed!

I did find that the deed of trust was issued in 1986 and the deed of release was issued in 2013.  I'm not an expert, but with the brief bit of research that I did it seems that this means that the mortgage company is no longer owed anything on the property.  Is this correct?  Thanks again!  I really appreciate your help!

@Wayne Brooks Great point.  A friend of mine mentioned that if they did own the property free and clear, they could have taken money out of it to pay down the taxes.  I'm sure there are any number of reasons for this though.  Unfortunately after a call to the assessors office (seemingly the only real estate department here) they told me that they don't have any information on whats still owed on a property.  Is this info that a realtor might be able to find from some sort of bank database out there?  Thanks for the input!

Hi everyone! I need advice!

Alrighty, I'll cut right to the chase.  I started mailing out letters this week to tax delinquent properties with absentee owners in my area.  To my surprise, I got a call from an owner within the week!  

Going into this, I had a very specific idea for how I wanted to start out my foray into real estate... hopefully acquiring a property on the cheap through marketing tax delinquent absentee owners, updating the property as needed and again HOPEFULLY selling for a profit!  It seemed to work for Seth Williams from podcast 39 anyway.

I'm not sure what I was expecting with an absentee owner though... of course they have tenants! So I get the call from the owner today asking what my offer would be on their place.  To make a long story short

-The property is a 1.5 story 2 bed 1 bath building that seems to be fairly well maintained based on the appearance of the front of the house.  

-The taxes owed are right around $10.5k, property was bought in 1986 for about $55k so it stands to reason that they have significant equity in the property.  

-They do have tenants, I was stupid (and nervous) and didn't even think to ask what they were paying monthly.  

-The properties around it are generally going for about $120k-$150k. 

-The city will not file suit until next july and around here the owners have a full year to pay before the property is auctioned off.  So they basically have a year and a half to pay off whats owed.  It seems to me that this would make them a little standoffish to a low ball offer, but then again I've never done a deal before and I have no idea!  

Any experienced investors out there willing to lend some advice or suggestions?

Thanks everyone!

Hi all!  I hope you are all doing well.  I have recently been looking into starting my direct mail efforts for acquiring my first property.  Listsource.com was brought to my attention through a podcast that I was listening to recently, I checked that out and was very impressed with the results!  I haven't bought my first list yet but hope to very soon.

My question is in regards to tax delinquent properties though.  An alternative property data list website called agentpro247.com that I came across during my research seems to be able to filter properties by whether or not they are delinquent on their taxes.  It seemed very strange that this was not a filtering option on listsource.com.  Am I missing some sort of filtering criteria?  Do you experienced marketers have any advice on whether filtering by tax delinquent homes is even that much more effective?  

I would just go ahead and use the agentpro247 website, but unfortunately they do not provide filtering for percent equity... which to me seems like a very critical aspect.  Thanks in advance for any of your comments!  

@Brian Haskins Thank you for the reply!  I have definitely taken most of your points into account, and have imposed some pretty strict guidelines on what I will accept for my first deal.  I agree that a rehab may be a bit of a gutsy first deal, but I have been sure to include all of the misc. fees that you listed.  One thing that you mentioned that I don't really have a good answer too though, is whether there is a strong retail market where I am planning to sell... I have been monitoring listings in the south city area (west of kingshighway mostly) pretty closely over the past 3-4 months, and it seems to me that the really good deals that I have seen have gotten picked up rather quickly.  I'm not sure if that is a good indicator of whether the market is strong here, but as far as I know within my group of friends it seems like south city St. Louis is becoming more and more of a place people want to live.  Thanks again for your help!

@Bob E. I had not heard of a 203k, but I will definitely be looking into it.  I'm curious if there is a minimum amount of time that one must live in the house to comply with the 203k fha requirements.  I'll have to look into it further, I will say changing residences every time I do a rehab does not sound too terribly fun.  But I suppose after the first deal I could roll my profits into the next, and not have to 203k. Thanks for the input!

@Ronald Perich I had not considered partnering quite yet, but coincidentally I was talking with an uncle of mine over the weekend and found out that he has done a few rehabs.  I may have to see if he would be interested.  

@David Krulac Much appreciated on your input.  I will definitely keep this in mind!

Hi everyone!  

I've been putting together my strategy for starting up my REI career and thought you all might have some input on a few points that I had questions on.

Just like most people, I am eager to start out on my first deal as soon as possible. Unfortunately though, I am fairly limited on my start up capital and am currently in saving mode for that first deal. In short, for my first move I plan on using an HML to fund the acquisition and rehab costs of a relatively low cost property. I have called around my area and found that the general terms seem to be 65% ARV, 3 points up front, 3 points back end, 12% annual interest, 6 months loan term, and another 3 points if loan needs to be extended another 6 months.

This is where my question to you all comes in.  As I said I am working with limited startup capital to begin with, and it is critical that a deal like this would be executed within the first 6 months of the loan term to avoid these extra points.  Working under the assumption that a newbie like myself could execute a rehab in 6 months (comments on this are welcome as well), is there a certain time of year that lends itself to purchasing properties for rehabs?  It is important to note that I live in St. Louis, MO which has been known to experience fairly harsh winters.  I have heard that selling a house in the winter time is a bad idea, but for whatever reason I had trouble finding any discussion on the topic anywhere on BP.  

On the subject of financing, I have read that I should also look into a portfolio lender through a local bank.  At this point though, I really just haven't been able to look too far into the details. Are these similar to HMLs?

Thanks BP! I've learned so much from all of you already, can't thank you enough for introducing me to REI.

-Ardie

@Matt Inman  I would like to focus on south city area as that is where I live, but I am not ruling anything out at the moment as I know that isn't a great reason to choose an area on.  

@Joe McCall Hello to the fellow engineer! Hope your vacation is going splendidly! That is great that you have been able to make REI your primary job. I know the day to day of engineering can wear on a person after a while!

@Ronald Perich I'm right there with you... I had to drive to louisville for work about 2 weeks ago and I listened to the podcasts the entire drive there and back!  I'm sure we will be talking in the future, good luck to you!

Thank you all for the warm welcome! I look forward to talking more with all of you as I get a better feel for how I want to get into this business.