All Forum Posts by: Ryan Miller

My wife and I have been interested in getting into RE investing, and we have an opportunity where friends of ours are selling their rental property in the Sugarloaf/Saddleback area of Maine (they have access to better skiing in Tahoe).

Is anyone here involved in that area of the country? While we trust our friends when they say it rents well in particular months, I'd still like to get some different perspectives on what is possible in that area.

Thank you!

Thanks for the feedback, Wayne. 

I did find out recently that Florida is a judicial state, when it comes to foreclosures. It's not necessarily ideal for an out of state investor, but between the idea that most people are probably honest, and I'd be looking to recoup my original earnest money value via the original down payment - if someone defaults, it wouldn't be a total loss.

I was thinking the Port Charlotte area, but I'm not restricting myself to any place just yet.

Thanks!

Hi - 

I'm looking to get into land flipping, and I'm looking into Florida as a state to start in, partially because Florida allows closings to occur via a title company and a RE attorney isn't required at closing.

I'm looking to find a RE attorney in Florida who can help me navigate through some basic questions I have, and also eventually draw up contracts for purchasing land from motivated sellers I find, as well as contracts for when I go to sell the land to the eventual buyer. Of course I'd be willing to pay for the services rendered for said contracts. Any suggestions on where I should look to find an attorney?

Two example basic questions I have include:
- I'm looking to offer the option of seller financing to end buyers. Are there any state laws or restrictions I should be aware of for this that might cause me to reconsider right off the bat? 

- What options are available under state law that provides me with some amount of security, as the seller, once the deed is transferred to the end buyer upon signing of the contract, in the event that the buyer defaults on their payments?  I'd be looking to use a loan servicing company to handle payments and so forth.

Thanks for any help anyone can provide!

Thanks, @Linda Hastings!

I've done a bit more research and digging into things, and many of your replies are what my thoughts have been coalescing into - so thanks for the confirmations :)

1) Yeah, it seems to be the rule for real estate - it just depends. If a general area sees a lot of septic systems, chances are good a lot will have a spot that can pass a perc test. On the other hand, if the place has a high water table, perhaps not. Either way, it seems to come down to general area research. But at least now I have a bit of an idea of expectations and what to look into. I've also seen postings for land where it's made clear that the seller is making zero warranties, check with the county on various restrictions, etc.

2) Originally I wasn't thinking that people would have the APN handy, so come kind of coding system could make sense - but then it occurred to me that eventually, they would have to obtain that info to ever sell the property, and for me to proactively provide it and the motivated seller to just accept it would be completely silly, because there's no guarantee that the number I obtained is even accurate!

3) The lawsuit potential one is something I've found seems to differ depending on the audience. I spoke with my neighbor, who is a commercial RE attorney here in MA, and I got the impression that she felt land flipping would be very risky. Between not knowing what the eventual buyer would be doing with the land (I don't care!), liability concerns about the time when I'd own the land, and having to deal with some of the aspects of residential property vs her bread-and-butter of commercial - it sounded to me like it was a case where there were just a bunch of unknowns that made her uncomfortable. But I get it - it's not her gig. However, I know people do this, and it seems far less risky than fix and flips (which she said I should do instead - no thanks! at least not at this time), SFR's, etc. Seems like all the liability concerns would be even more-so with property that has a dwelling on it, etc. Anyhow, what I did learn from her was what you allude to in the next point - things with real estate vary a LOT depending on the region - so anything I do, I need to find an attorney in that area to get me started with how to structure things.

4) Yes, you are right - they vary quite a bit from state to state, and in places like CA, from county to county. I was hoping the contract part could be a relatively simple thing where I could get a template, make some minor modifications, and run with it - but clearly it's more complex and I'm going to have to invest a good deal of time learning how the area I decide to start in decides things like who does closings, conveyance, etc.
It's a good idea to look at a deed and use that as a template - or even better, several deeds. At least as a starting point.

5) It sounds like a loan servicing company is the way to go.

Thanks again!

Hi Charlie - 

To clarify - I'm not looking to flip land here in MA. It seems like the costs are a bit high for what I have for starting capital. I'd be looking to flip land in other areas of the country.

There are multiple reasons I'm staying away from fix and flip (at least for the time being). One is that the housing market in this area is so hot, it seems like getting into it now is an excellent way to spend a lot of money on learning and doing rehab's, only to have the market cool off before I can really capitalize on what I've learned. I'm not comfortable taking that kind of risk at the moment.

Additionally, fix and flip requires knowing contractors and dealing with all the logistics of doing a rehab. That's a whole other bag of knowledge that I just don't have at the moment. I'd like to possibly go that direction in the future - or do something like a fix and hold and rent - but at the moment, it's not in my wheelhouse.

Hello everyone - 

I recently got interested in real estate investing, and eventually found my way to this site, so I figured I should start at the beginning and say hello! I'm from Massachusetts, and I'm specifically interested in land flipping, at least to start - the low barrier to entry, the simplicity (vs rentals), and ability to do it while working a full time job and being a dad makes it appealing to me. 

I've yet to do any deals yet, so I only call myself a prospective investor, not an actual one. There's a ton of information to learn, and I'll be honest and admit that I can certainly see why many people start looking into it, only to fizzle out before too long.  It can be dizzying and in some ways discouraging when you see how all these other people already have their processes and systems in place, and I'm here like 'Well, poop - is it even worth it? How am I supposed to get any leads when all these other folks have experience and so many other advantages they can bring to the table?' 

But, then I remember that real estate is like anything else - things are always changing. Another investor may have hit a market the year before, but since then, some other people have become motivated sellers because their life situation has changed. Or maybe a seller ignored a mail campaign item from someone else, but on a certain day, they are more inclined to read and follow up with the one that hit their mailbox that day. Or, I look at the overall robust economy, the relatively strong housing market, and wonder if I'm entering at a bad time - but then realize that when/if things crash, that'll be another round of changes that provides for opportunity.Opportunity is born from change, and at 42, I'm old enough to know that the secret to doing something is to just get started, and to keep chipping away at it.

Anyway, my short term goal, once I have finished doing enough research and working on getting the overall engine in place, is to get a couple deals under my belt, and get an idea of what pieces of my process needs refinement in order to scale up a bit. The goal after that is to get enough monthly cash flow to basically make my monthly mortgage payment. Beyond that? Who knows - it's nice to think that after some time, I'll build up enough capital from land flipping to start investing in SFR's and branching out a bit into that direction.

So - that's my story. I'm looking forward to hearing from some other folks and learning more about this business!

- Ryan

Hi everyone - 

So, I'm new and looking to get into RE investing. I'm intrigued by land flipping for multiple reasons: low $ barrier to entry, overall simplicity (vs dealing with leases and tenants and property management, etc), and ability to do it while working a full time job. My initial goal is to develop enough passive income to pay my monthly mortgage payment, and then grow from there, depending on where things go and how scalable I can manage to make the workflow. I've been researching the process and digging into different ways people execute on how they do land flipping (such as listening to @Seth Williams interview several years ago, and reading the trove of information he has on his webpage, retipster.com), and determining what works for me vs what isn't really my style. However, my technical background compels me to dig into some of the weeds of the process, and there are a couple things I have been wondering that I haven't been able to find answers to.

To that end, I figured I'd start by asking some of them here, and see what sort of luck I have with filling in those knowledge gaps:

1) How much do other land flippers worry about things like land perc'ing? Obviously of a piece of land passes a perc test, that can influence the value of said land. Is this something that other folks screen for, or just not give a crap about? Or perhaps it depends on the area? (ie, some areas are virtually guaranteed to perc, whereas others may not be such a sure thing)

2) Do people identify the parcel on the letter/postcard that goes out, so that when the seller calls in or visits the website, they have the pertinent identification info handy? I wouldn't imagine average American Pat having that kind of information right at his/her fingertips. Or do you just do a cross reference of the name with the list that you've pulled so you know which piece of property they are calling in reference to?

3) One of the benefits of dealing with land is that it's simple, and I'd assume far less likely that anyone would get litigious at all - there are no living conditions that have to be maintained, promises about timely repairs, etc. So has anyone had any issues or heard of anyone having any issues with getting sued when flipping land? If so, what sort of issues could come up that could result in a lawsuit? (It's not like land gets broken or anything..) I ask this mostly to determine how necessary a RE attorney is after the first few deals, once I see how the process works - especially when the paperwork for each deal is 98% the same as other deals. Fortunately, my neighbor is a RE attorney, so I do actually plan on enlisting her help and paying her for writing up contracts and guiding me through the first few deals - but I'd imagine that after that, it's fairly cookie cutter and a full on attorney wouldn't be necessarily be needed.

4) Following on question #3, just to get a general idea - is the process and language used in documents pretty much the same regardless of state? I'm still looking at what area I want to start out in, and I'd imagine that when it comes to paperwork for a deed, its pretty standard across state lines, but just curious if there is something else that can be incredibly state dependent.

5) Is it fairly standard to use a loan servicing company when doing seller financing? If using one, does it matter what state its in? Like, could I use the same loan servicing company for all deals, regardless of whether they are in FL, TX, AZ, CA, etc - or is it better to find one for the state that the property is in?

Thanks for any information that can be provided!