All Forum Posts by: Robin Wilk

I'm looking for an investor friendly realtor in Pittsburgh, PA. I'm looking to get into doing lease options to get started. Let me know if you need more information.

I understand your fear, I am shy by nature but I realized that in this business it requires talking. A lot of talking, I have found a way to deal with this and that is to get out there a just do it. I am a problem solver by nature and I approach sellers with a goal of solving their problem. I enjoy the challenge that comes with helping people out. If you go into this with the aim of helping people first you can't go wrong. That's just my opinion.

That would depend on how your contract would be worded. You could make them a partner with a 25/75 split or a 50/50 split that would be entirely up to you.

You could do a sandwich lease option where you are basically in the middle between the seller and tenant/buyer. Ask him if he's willing to enter into a lease option agreement whereby he will get his asking price for the home and then tell him that you will work with him to find a tenant that he can then screen to see if they would be a good fit. Once you do that you can either do a sandwich lease option or just a wholsale lease option.

A sandwich lease option is where you have 2 contracts one with the seller and one with the buyer. I would see if the seller will agree to adding you as a "tenant in common" on the deed of the property basically making you co-owners. The contract with the seller will cover his price and terms. The contract with the buyer will cover the rent amount and anything else the buyer would be responsible for such as yard work etc. You have to be careful with this because of Dodd-Frank it cannot look like a disguised sale. This puts you in the middle thus the term "sandwich lease". 

With a wholesale lease option you only have one contract with the buyer once you've found one that the seller approves of and then you simply assign your part of the option to the seller so you're out of the deal. This works best with seller financing where the seller of the property basically becomes the bank. I'm not entirely sure if a wholsale lease option is entirely legal because you are assigning your option to the seller so if I were you I'd see about doing a sandwich lease option. Hope this helps you out.

You could enter into a contract with your friends to use their funds to purchase investment properties and give them a split of the cash flow from those properties. Almost like a JV contract of sorts.

I would say to attend any REI meetings in your local area and network with other investors. Congratulations on taking action at such a young age. Read about the different niches and strategies of REI, there are a lot of different ones. Take a look at the education tab and start with the beginner getting started guide. Study as much as you can and take action by implementing what you've learned. Don't be afraid to ask questions that's what this community is here for to help you out. Best of luck.

You can try going to the addresses on your list and talk to the neighbors to see if they might know anything about either the property or the owner. If worse comes to worse you may have to make a trip to your local county courthouse and see if you can find the information that way. Some county courthouses may not have their online records updated and they may have the information on hard copy instead. If you have access to financial resources you could also try using a skip tracing service (I'm not sure on the cost).

You can go to your local county courthouse and ask for a list of all the cash purchases for the last X amount of days and follow up with them via direct mail. You can also post ads on Craigslist for cash buyers in your area. You can also advertise on Postlets for cash buyers as well. Hope this helps you out.

I think I have a bit of insight into this due to the passing of my grandfather and receiving a post card in the mail (my fiancée and I were listed in the probate) to consider selling the house that he owned. Having said that I honestly feel that if you want to market to probate people who have lost a loved one keep it professional and I would wait at least 6 months to a year after the loved one's passing before marketing.

I remember getting the postcard from the investor something like 3 months after his death and to be honest I was pissed at the investor. Why? Because I was still grieving and dealing with his loss. After I received the 3rd postcard I broke down and called the investor. I explained that the property wasn't part of my inheritance at least as far as I knew and I ended the call there. I hope this helps you understand mailing to probate lists from the perspective of the grieving family.

Dan,

I just wanted to say welcome to the BP community. You can look up local REI meetings in your area by going to meetup and looking on Google and also by looking on here. There's a wealth of information here under the education tab. I also recommend taking a look at the books in the BP store. I also wanted to say thank you for your service.