All Forum Posts by: Robert Davidson

Divorce records are public records, so I would do a quick trip to the county records office. You will get both addresses and possibly phone numbers.

First, in California there is a law that people are required to carry identification. Failure to show it to police officials is grounds to be arrested. Think what would happen if you are pulled over for speeding and refuse to show the officer your ID. It wouldn't be pretty.

As to looking like breaking and entering, if a house has been vacated, even if not in foreclosure, a lender has the legal right to break the lock, enter, change the locks, and secure the house to prevent damage and vandalism. Including winterizing to prevent water damage. Thus, protecting their interest.

One possibility Is that the son is not the Personal Representative. I've seen long time friends, other relatives,(sisters, brothers, grandchildren, etc.) be named as PR by the decedent. If you're really interested in the house, and it sounds like you are, I would look up the decedent's name in the online Superior court records and with the file number go to the court records office and look at the probate file. If the PR is someone other than the son, you have a new marketing plan.

The tax lien database is perfect for finding non-owner occupied houses for a direct mail campaign. If the mailing address is different from the house address you have an absentee owner.

For foreclosures or pre-foreclosures in California there is a specific contract, by law, that must be used. Called an Equity Purchase Agreement, the law specifies the specific minimum language and the font size. Also required is a Right of Cancellation notice and a five business day waiting period when the seller can cancel the contract with no penalty. A buyer is prohibited from paying any consideration/deposit or recording the contract until the five business day period has expired. Saturday is a business day, holidays are not. Whatever state you are in, many states have passed foreclosure laws so look them up in your state.

In my experience in California, in virtually all (I can't remember one that didn't) of the wills the decedent stated the name of the Personal Representative and alternates, and stated it was the decedent's desire to have the estate administered under the Independent Administration of Estates act. So no court confirmation is required (unless one of the heirs files a dispute.) One of the main reasons the Act was passed many years ago was to relieve the courts and judges of the paperwork burden for estates where the will clearly stated how the decedent wanted the estate handled.

To avoid, or at least be able to sue a scum buyer who goes around your offer after he/she learns of it, use a document common in corporate transactions. First, in your advertising to your buyers' list, never give out the address. Just give financial details. ARV, your estimate of repairs, and comps without addresses, and your price. Then require three things from your potential buyer. First acknowledgement he can provide funds in five days, second a hard proof of funds (meaning bank statement or stock statement) but not a pre-qual letter. And third an NCND. Non-Circumvent/ Non-Disclosure agreement. Only upon receipt of the NCND and hard POF do you give out the address. If the buyer doesn't want to give that, your response is simple - NEXT. By the way, this is not a Non-Compete/Non-Disclose agreement; different animals. Have your real estate attorney give you one. They have it in their Word docs. Honest buyers (there are many) have the attitude that if the numbers are what I'm looking for, then I don't care what you get out of finding the deal. Your problem comes up often when advertising on Craig's List or Facebook where you haven't worked with that buyer before.

There are various levels of asset protection. Insurance mostly provides payment of legal expenses to defend you. If there is anything left, then It would pay damages only up policy limits. You're responsible for the rest. Plus, your insurance will then be non-renewed. LLC's are more tricky than many assume. In some states (California being one) if you have a single member LLC (husband and wife are considered single member) courts have held that the LLC protection can be pierced to get to your personal assets. Most important, don't believe that just because you don't have many assets now, that you are judgment proof. If someone sues and gets a judgment against you, that stays in place (recorded in the county records) for a long time, especially if the plaintiff renews the judgment every 10 years. Any asset you acquire in the future can be levied against plus if you or your spouse have a job, the wages can be garnished. The above isn't my opinion; it's what my attorney taught me. This is one area that spending money on a good attorney (personal, real estate, or trust) is well worth it. Ask you CPA for a recommendation (you do have a CPA don't you.) There are ways to minimize the chance of lawsuits. There is no way to totally prevent a lawsuit.

I agree with Rick that how you answer is critical. If you use an answering service, someone once suggested to me that I call the service periodically to test the way they handle calls. I was using a well known, expensive, national answering service and when I called a few times I learned that they weren't always using the script and a few of the people came across as curt and impatient. I reported that to my contact person at the service but a month later the same results occurred. I no longer use that service.

Alanya. Foreclosure Radar (now called Property Radar) does not provide lists for Missouri, just western states. There are two possible ways to get the data. First is to go to the County Recorder's office (not the court records) and they should have a search capability for their database of recorded NOD's. In California, for example, I can search a date range for all recorded NOD's. The problem with this is that list won't show which properties have equity vs being underwater. A nationwide service is RealtyTrac, a monthly subscription service. It's not too expensive.