All Forum Posts by: Richard D.

Myself and @Angel-Ty L. work in the social media marketing field for real estate. I focus on platforms outside Facebook to target demographics that are most likely buying their first home or beginning their investment strategies.  Angel-Ty focus is on Facebook advertising, together we can assist you in social media marketing question you may have.

You will need to obtain a copy of the suit that was filed in the county's district clerk's office. If the home is named on it, then you may have unintentionally bought both. The home would have to be identified by it's label and/or serial number. There is also a prevision under Occupations code 1201.217 where if the home was abandoned you may take procession of the home. Check with the to verify if you are eligible to claim possession of the home or if you need to wait out another four months before you file claim. If the home is occupied, you may have bought their land, and they may be willing to pay rent to you or try and redeem the property for a 25% profit.

Don't worry if you need to wait the four months, once you have filed for abandonment, the liens against the home are extinguished under the Occupations Code.  If the home was sold separately, contact the new owner and inform them that they need to pay rent of $XXX.XX or move the home. If they fail to pay or move the home, begin the countdown to the abandonment process; the whole process takes 6 months, and is about as long as the redemption period most likely.

@John Harrell you may need to research the case and home further, because under the Texas Tax Code, the redemption period is based on the status of the exemption at the time the lawsuit was filled against the property not at the time of sale. Also, because of the federal bankruptcy code, title companies have become less willing to provide title insurance for anything less than two years. Simply because federal law will supersede the tax code and it's allowing for the taxes to be included in the filing of the bankruptcy.

is an example of a property that was returned to the owner of a property in bankruptcy after the redemption period ended. Which caused the buyer not only to lose the property but cost him an excess of $50,000 to try and defend in court.

Often times, title companies do not want to write a policy if they feel there may be a risk of a claim. In the event of a deceased person with no will, it comes down to if there is an heir. Just because an attorney is unable to locate one, doesn't mean that there isn't one. Since most title companies are run by attorneys, they understand that they collection attorney may put forth an effort to locate the heirs as the law requires, but nothing more. Which may result in the heir not being properly notified of the sale of the home. 

Yes and No. There may be privacy laws in the state that prevent them from disclosing such information. In Texas, they can give you names and addresses, but not phone numbers or sales price on the property. Ethically speaking, the agent may not want to violate their customers privacy even if allowed to share the information.

Think about it this way. You bought a house from the agent, then he just starts giving out your number as a reference, and you have random strangers calling you. What would you say? Do?

I would look at Yelp or the BBB for references and testimonials. Follow your gut, for sure though. 

@Andrew McManamon, 

Your SOI, is your long term project as @Ted Kuhlmann outlined earlier. You need to step outside the SOI, and interact with people you don't know. Ask questions about them, that they want to answer. Go beyond, what do you do for a living; are you married and so forth. Find out if they like something that interests you, like for example, water skiing, baseball, hunting, etc. Then discuss that instead of "hey did you see this house?" Let the old hunters tell you about the 14pt Buck that peed on them, to get that perfect shot. The objective is to build a rapport, and learn what you need to show and sell to a buyer, not a talker. Trust me you will learn to hear the key words like, "I wish" and "I can't...."

You need to post more on social medial. Marketing analyst say that you need to engage in meaningful exchanges at least 7 to 25 times a day, per platform you are on, to be effective. Being young will give you a digital marketing advantage over someone who has been selling for years. Although, they will beat you by word of mouth. Trust me, it is like the car salesman that never works on the floor. He just sits in his office getting referral after referral. Referrals will happen; it takes time to build them up, with hard work. In the meantime hit your social media networks hard. If you are in a REI group on Facebook, you are in the wrong place. Unless you are looking to buy property.

Being in between Detroit and Lansing, watch the business news. See which companies are moving to the area, or which are leaving the area. Target their employees. @Lynn McGeein had a great suggestion of becoming a rental agent. It circles back to what Ted said about renters become buyers who become sellers and then repeat it.

I have always found tiny homes interesting. Especially if the home is upcycling materials previously used. I am about to start my first tiny home project, with expectation of selling once completed. The current layout that I have planned is 20' by 8' (about 160 sq. ft.) and able to be placed on a 20' or 24' trailer for easy moving. My target sales price point is 40-50K depending on additional features that my buyers would want. My price would include the trailer for moving. I will tell you generally, tiny homes rent like smaller apartments, almost like efficiencies. So unless you are in New York City or San Francisco, I don't think you would get $1000.00 unless you can put it on beachfront property.

While, I can see the premise that @Angel-Ty L. puts forth, is an excellent choice if you are strictly targeting 40+ year olds on Facebook; by strictly limiting advertising on both Facebook and Google AdSense you are placing limitations on your reach and target demographics. Spending $1000 on Facebook alone I would call a waste, especially since the fastest growing demographic on Facebook right now is people over the age of 65. How many more homes are the baby boomers going to buy, unless they REIs as well? What I think Angel is suggesting, is that you need to target people with the money to buy with your advertising.

But by ignoring the other platforms, is to give up on a prime demographic of 20-30 year olds that are most likely seeking a new home. This demographic is largely no longer exclusively on Facebook, and are using google less and less to find what they want. Studies have shown that the younger demographic the more likely they are on another social media platform other than Facebook. 

The Real Interesting Part of the Future:

The average Tech lifespan is 3-5 years before you either need to revamp or go down in flames. Facebook just did their most recent revamp. People who look to capture their targets using mobile app content will fair far better than those who don't adapt. Even better yet, if you can capture the market using an audio application that can be accessed through Amazon's Alexa or Google Home, will out perform the competition; period. Think about it. 

John and Jane are arguing...."Blah, Blah, Blah....I want a divorce....Alexa, find a realtor." Or "Google, where can I locate a home to rent?"

Sure, this may seem far fetched now, but in 5 years, you will have to overcome huge obstacles to reach your target with Google AdSense and Facebook ads. It would not surprise me if Facebook went the route of searching or engaging by voice in the near future....

Thanks to social media you now have a glimpse I how people will treat and respect your investment. I look at their pictures for visual clues, such as clutter and messes. I love the bathroom standing in front of the mirror selfies, if they show me how the bath tub or sink are maintained. It is a great indicator of the cleanliness habits of the person. Similar thoughts on how often they throw parties. Is it every weekend, once a month, every so often?

Mobile homes depreciate over time, usually pretty quickly at first then they will slow the level of depreciation after about 5 to 10 years. Depreciation will slow to a crawl, even if the home is deemed unlivable at about 20 years. I have seen homes built in the 1960's and 1970's still be taxed at about 10K value per year.

@Kyle M. states; taxed as real property. They will be assessed each year based on the location of the home on January 1. If the home is delivered from another county in mid year, you may have to prepay the taxes to the previous county for the year to obtain a title from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) and be able to obtain the permits to move the home. If the home was in dealer inventory or newly manufactured you may not pay taxes until the following year. 

If you need more information on liens, titling, or taxation of homes you can refer to the  I have worked with mobile home taxation in Texas for the past five years. The entire process is usually clear as mud. Best of luck.