All Forum Posts by: Sue In Denver

Jon, I second Patriot's post.

It has taken us a very long time to find someone who can shoot us REO's before they hit the MLS. Any realtor here can feed you what's already on the market. We found someone here in Denver that does nothing but REO's. Sometimes we only have a few hours to scope out a property and get an offer in. In a few cases the listing realtor holds putting up the listing because our agent is sending an offer through. Unfortunately, even when we have the first offer in, the bank will sit until several offers come in and then pick the best one. It's a crap shoot most of the time.

We do have a broker who is putting together packages for us that are pre-MLS. Since we're both in Denver metro, I'll send you a PM and maybe we can chat about it and help you get on board as well.

Twenty, you've seen the TV shows - there are plusses and minuses in every property. Thumbs up or thumbs down.

If the realtor is representing the seller, they are concerned with getting top dollar for their seller and is going to point out all the plusses while downplaying the minuses. If the realtor is a buyer's (your) agent, then they can help you do the due diligence that's needed. You also want to know what the market rents are in the area and if possible, how many people are looking to rent in the area.

You definitely want to know how long the unit has been on the market as that will give you an indication of how long it may take you to rent the place out. If other similar properties are moving more quickly and yours has been sitting there for months, then no matter how great the location, you may want to pass on this unit and look for another one with better amenities in the same area.

High end properties can bring a nice return. If you really like the place for yourself or for a potential rental, you may want to come back to the building alone and talk to the neighbors. Ask them what drew them to the place and if not having a garage or elevator is a hassle (think moving in time and carrying a refrigerator up 4-flights of stairs, having company over, your 80-year old mother comes to visit, etc.).

Your location sounds great. You may also want to do your own comps (here again I don't know if your realtor is seller or buyer agent). You can usually find recent sales at the assessors office, many of which are now online.

If you have a local REI club in your area, I would seek out another investor and ask them to coach you through the deal.

With such a high price tag, you definitely want to be careful, however it could end up being one of those "smokin" deals!

Good luck!

Hi AJ,
What is your motivation or purpose for wanting to refinance?
Your first mortgage is at a great rate. Your second being a line of credit is just that - it's liquid and you can tap it whenever you need it and only pay interest when you use it. You can also tap into it to invest in other properties.
With the volatility of today's lenders and the stricter qualifying they are demanding on new loans, you may not qualify for a new loan or would have to come up with the requisite 20% down.
Would need a little more information to know how to provide better insight here, but hope this helps a little!

Interesting article Richard. Thanks for sharing it.

This is a tough one as I do a lot of domestic violence counseling and am also a landlord.

I too would have to take a middle of the road position. If a perp. kicks in the door of a victim, he/she is not an "invited guest". He's an intruder. And to evict someone because some jerk is stalking her was just plain stupid. Duh, let's further punish someone who has had a crime committed against her.

If someone needed to break a lease so as to move to another place that hopefully the perp didn't know about, I'd likely let them. A person's life isn't worth my momentary inconvenience and my insurance would cover major damages. I'd prefer to be able to sleep at night, rather than knowing someone lost their life because I was losing a profit in the short term.

Just my two cents!

Ron, this is a very unfortunately situation and sad that someone took their own life.
I agree that you should seek out the advice of an attorney. Don't try to save a few pennies here. Let an attorney guide you. You should also call the authorities who removed the body and ask them if it is alright for you to clean up the apartment and if they are done with their investigation. I can't believe they haven't been in contact with you since removing the body. If they say yes to the clean-up, then ask them if their department or another takes possession of the personal effects of the deceased. They should be able to tell you where they go.
As for the wife who took off, it's pretty easy to find someone these days via the internet. You don't know how long she's been gone. If it's been over a month, likely she's put a forwarding in at the post office (for $2.00 or so, you can get the forwarding address from the post office). Or for $20 you can get a 24-hour pass to Intellus on the internet and do your own skip trace. Put in her name and last known address and it will show you if she's registered a new phone or new address on her driver's license.
If the wife is on the lease, follow the same procedure for evicting her as you would if she were still living there, posting the requisite notices and filing the necessary court papers to evict. Even though you don't have a new address, that's her problem. Here in CO, you can mail the summons and complaint to their last known address which is your apartment they were living in. It's pretty quick thereafter.
Once you have the eviction, you can remove the personal effects, again posting notice that they have to move or be physically moved out at which time the sheriff watches you move everything out.
Check with your attorney on personal effects and the authorities on whether they're done at the scene.
Hope this helps some!

Luz, I agree with Rich. Likely you have an attorney at this stage and can run the scenario past him/her. Since the deposit was accepted pending a criminal/credit check, I assume you didn't deposit their check? That might let you off the hook.
They were honest about the credit history but didn't disclose the arrest for possession. Does your application specifically ask if they have any criminal/felony history? If so and they didn't disclose, then you may be off the hook with just returning their check.
In any event, the best route is to check with your attorney.
Good luck!

One other thought.....
One of my long range goals is to buy an apartment building and then do a condo conversion. Big bucks there. If the buildings you're looking at are in good shape with minimal fixup to bring up to speed, you might want to do a little research on how to go about getting a rezoning from multi-units to single family. Let's say you are able to buy at $30k/unit but then turn around and sell them for $75k/unit, you'll be close to retirement when it's all said and done.
Just a thought! :type:

Tim, If you're buying in Breckenridge, I'd jump at the condos!
Either investment would bring you a nice return, especially if you rent them out during the year to the vacationers. Don't know where you're looking to buy but if it's in Breck., you can't loose either way!

REO, I was just thinking those very thoughts earlier this week. How can the banks keep writing off billions without it having some depression type effect? It's like putting a bandaid on cancer! While it's good for we investors at present, I think we're going to see a huge collapse sometime soon. Now I'm not a prophet or anything but if you take a wholistic world view and how this bank situation is effecting the world's economy, we'll be looking to China, Iran, North Korea and other not so friendly nations to bail us out! Scary!