All Forum Posts by: Erin Elam

Hello BP,

So I am looking to get into the tax delinquent arena here in Denton county, Texas. I've read about the monthly live auctions, but I really wanted to get ahead of that list and try to market to the homeowners before it gets to the point of a sale. I courageously called the county, they told me they have attorneys who begin the collection efforts. I called the attorney she provided who told me they get sent the list from the county. I called the county back and told them I want a copy of the list - Sure she says, just send us an email and we'll send it to you. SWEET!!! All smiles I wait for the email.

The email comes almost immediately after I send my request. It comes with instructions that give me an FTP site, a username, a password, and mentions a programmer. I have IT people in my family, so after the first couple of hours of me trying to figure it out on my own (the instructions told me to use FileZilla, but when I went to do that, I got a security alert and when I googled the safety of FileZilla I didn't feel all that safe). So I searched for alternatives even coming across an option with FireFox - which of course no longer exists.

I reached out to the fam like hey what am I supposed to do. After looking into it, my bro (IT guy) said he'd have to call me because 'the way they did this is just stupid' - haven't received that call yet; my husband (IT guy) attempted to use a different FTP client to send the files to me ... didn't really work out that way, they are still coming up with .DAT extensions; my aunt (a programmer) said the county needs to tell me what software they used to create the file to figure out what is needed to open the .DAT files.  I've emailed the county and will look forward to their response tomorrow, however if there is anyone on BP that has already done this, I'd really appreciate the understandable instructions. I'm even willing to pay to get these files, but the only person on Fiverr that came up had only a 1 rating.

To further explain: I received an FTP site -> go to that site and get a directory/index of folders -> I click on the folder for the delinquent properties and get a list of zip files -> click on the file it opens in File explorer to extract -> I click extract and get these .DAT files. Opening up the .DAT with Notepad/Wordpad gives me mostly gibberish, I can make out some addresses and names but the format is all over the place and there are alot of 0's (which my aunt told me is some binary code).

SO... IF ANYONE has been through this and can PLEASE tell me who to call or what to use to get these files to a format that I can manipulate into a Word or Excel file I would be extremely grateful and I don't mind giving up some of these names if you want in on this arena.

HELP PLEASE! :)

TIA,

Erin

Hi Brandon,

Did you ever get a hold of any of these lists? I literally got my hands on the Denton county one yesterday and still can't figure out how to open the darn thing. Binary code and FTP and .DAT ... all things I don't understand. Let me know what happened with your endeavor.

Erin

Hi Arnie,

I happened to obtain the list of delinquent tax properties from Denton county. Well they easily handed over the list but the format is crazy to anyone who is not a programmer. I was given an FTP site and the files were zipped and unzipped they result in .DAT files; even opening up in NotePad gives me gibberish. Do you get files in this type of format as well? If so, how the heck do you open them???

TIA,

Erin

@Shashank Gokhale thanks for this thread!

Finally!!! I hope I get to finish it because if rehab comes in too high, I'm walking. I'm a realist not hooked on the flipping shows, I'm not going to stick with a bad deal just because. It's in Dallas and purchase is at $161 and ARV is at least $285; I actually believe closer to $300 but using $285. I have contractors setup to go look in the morning and depending on those numbers I either have a project or I move on!! Hope those #biggerpocketspodcasts have taught me something ha ha - jk I learn something every time I listen in. The contributors are great! Here we go...

Hi Kevin,

I have a current deal, close to Bishop Arts, are you still looking to partner in Dallas?

Did this bug come back? I can't download my reports and support can't seem to fix this...

What did you do to get this to work??? I've contacted support, they give me a suggestion then mark my issue as resolved. IT IS NOT RESOLVED. I'm using Google Chrome, cleared all cookies and cache and history, etc.... This is the main reason I even paid for Pro and suddenly it keeps giving me errors! #frustrated

Any new news on this?

Hi @J Scott, I really have enjoyed your original books and I look forward to these newer ones. I'm actually glad I saw this post because I was going to tag you in a thread I was going to start so THANK YOU for this opportunity!! Grab a cup of coffee for this one :)

I really appreciated your SOW example ... I am a new investor just put in an offer on a deal (waiting to hear back), I have some cash but I will be using a hard money lender. I see on BP (thank you to all the members who wrote posts I read about this topic, but I didn't get a chance to take down names so some thoughts going forward are not of my own originality, but those of more experienced investors/GC's) that several people use it but I could not find one post that described how to schedule a SOW (I'm in Texas and I've been getting GC's that are all requesting 50% up front) with HML draws, even though people are evidently doing just that. I'm probably over-thinking it but I like to be a few steps ahead so I know what options are available.

So... my thought is: GC wants to get paid, but HML charges for every payment, how do I schedule these items so the GC gets whats NEEDED to start and finish my job, without paying half my profit in draw fees? I was looking at your sample schedule of SOW and read some posts (I read one that suggested to front load the draws so you have access to a large amount of the rehab funds up front) saying what one side or the other wants but nothing so I can 'see the big picture'. So using your template and what I've read this is what I've come up with. Please let me know: 1. your opinion of my proposed schedule, 2. your experience with HML and SOW, and 3. most importantly the changes you would make to my schedule:

SOW: Initial down payment of $1000 or 10% (whichever is lower)

Demo, order and pay for materials needed for items to be completed before the first draw

Draw 1: Foundation, Ext framing, mold, pest, trees, septic

Draw 2: Roof, waterproofing, int framing, siding/brick repair, ext HVAC

Draw 3: gutters, concrete, plumbing, subfloor, ext electrical, ext trim, sheetrock, insulation, int HVAC, windows (I was told these take a while to get delivered but my thought is is framing, ext repair/trim are complete these would be a good time for them?)

Draw 4: Deck/porch/patio, carport/garage, int electric, int trim, fireplace, carpentry, cabinets, int plumbing, int paint

Draw 5: Ext paint, landscaping, countertops, tile, int paint, appliances, flooring

Draw 6: punch list, final payment from HML

This schedule will result in $900 worth of draw fees, but I want the GC to not worry about getting paid, as well as make sure the work is done right and doesn't have to be redone. I was trying to breakout each draw so that if something doesn't get done in time, the items that are done, can be paid.

Ok you can breathe now - and I look foward to all of your advice, concerns, jokes, and suggestions :).

Thank you!!