All Forum Posts by: Shawn Abadie

Hello,

I'm posting for an extended family member who is going through a trying time and I think he has gotten some bad / incorrect advice.  My aunt and uncle are elderly, and have reached the point of requiring 24hr in-home care.  My cousin has power of attorney for his parents, and within the past three years, his father has signed over all the shares of the family business / corporation to him.  There's currently mortgages taken on the parent's house and his house to help pay for the care-givers, and the houses are not a part of the corporation at all. My cousin has worked in the business for about 25 years, and being an only child, he is the sole beneficiary of their will, including the business and personal assets.  Somehow, my cousin is convinced that if something worse were to happen to his parents (they are 90 and 88 yrs old with increasingly challenging health issues), and they would to be cared for in a nursing home, that the state of NJ would step in and claim all the assets to "pay" for their care.  My cousin keeps mentioning the "look back" regulation that requires transferred assets to be held for 7 years before he could liquidate them without the state "taking" everything.  Since the business has only been his for 3 years, he keeps telling me that he's killing himself to maintain the business for nothing, since he'll end up with nothing anyway.

None of this sounds right to me, but I haven't lived in NJ for 30 years.  He's going to see (more than one) estate / trust lawyer to find out what his options truly are, but I want to believe he could place all the business assets in a trust of some sort and liquidate them as necessary, which would provide the income necessary to care for his parents, plus some income for him while relieving him of the stress / burden of maintaining the business on his own.

Does that sound reasonable?  Any info / referrals would be appreciated.  Everything is located in Cape May County, NJ.

Thanks in advance.

Just got a notice today from a business partner of the lein holder, who filed intent to foreclose about 6 weeks back.  The property is vacant land in Yavapai County, fairly difficult to access, not much development / improvement going on nearby.  It's been held by a corporation for about 11 years, and they stopped paying the taxes on it about 4 years ago.  

The letter received states that "instead of obtaining a judgement and receiving the property that way, it might be better for all parties to mediate a purchase", where the back taxes and everything else is paid by buyer and seller received a nominal sum ($2500).

Question is:  Why would someone offer this if they are already on their way to obtaining the property through the lien foreclosure process?

Thanks.

Thanks for the advice. Is deed-in-lieu an option here?

Hello all,

I'm a member from AZ, but have a brother in NJ with a complicated issue. Small house, $6000 left on mortgage with 1st bank. Equity line of credit with 2nd bank. Brother doesn't want the house any longer, can't afford the 2nd's payments.

On the 2nd - outstanding balance is $87k, which includes $17k of taxes and penalites (the 2nd just paid to stop a tax lien foreclosure). House not worth that. Short sale was in works since Oct 2013. Buyer found, offered of $42k accepted, and he hung in there the whole way. 1st agreed, at the last minute, 2nd says "$20,000 more from buyer", now buyer has walked and short sale cancelled.

My recommendation was to tell the 2nd to go pound sand. FMV is about $55-$60k. Maybe $70k tops. Total rehab or tear-down, great lot, near beaches in Cape May County, but not AT the beach and not in Cape May.

I think the options in NJ are: Start a new short sale, let the 2nd start foreclosure, or deed-in-lieu. If if it was me, I think I would write a letter to the 2nd: "Don't want it, you can start foreclosure or do a deed-in-lieu, but don't call me again." Brother's credit already hosed, so he's not concerned about any fall-out there. Primary residence seems to be protected - 1st mtg current with another bank, 2nd (equity line) current. The only thing - the equity line on his residence is with the same bank that has the equity line on the problem property.

What are the valid options for him in NJ? Can the bank with the equity line on both properties somehow tie up his primary residence in all this mess?

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions or information anyone can provide. Brother at the "I don't want to know anything else about it." point.

It hasn't been often in my life that I've felt like a sucker and would say "they saw me coming", but after shellling out $7k for the FortuneBuilders JumpStart program, I can say "they saw me coming" and "I'm smarter than that." Went to the $200 3-day pitchfest ("Learn how to make billions of dollars working 20 minutes a week investing in real-estate right now in your own backyard!"). There were one or two nuggets given that I could of got off BP for free in 5 minutes. Declined the special semiar pricing of $25k for the "Mastery" program. Couple of weeks later, got the hard sell over the phone for the Jumpstart. When pressed for how much availble credit we had, and said about $7k, and the price was magically $7k. Basically to teach us how to "wholesale for fast cash" so we could then use that cash to pay the full $40k for the "mastery" program. A big box of materials arrived, chock full of information about how to be a very busy and successful wholesaler in New Haven, CT - circa 2008. Lots and lots of wasted time viewing webinars recorded in 08 or 09 that actually offered little to no additional info than what was in the printed material. I mean, 2 hours or more staring at a single power point slide while Than Merrill droned on about how busy he was making money in CT and now San Diego. Everything pretty much seems to indicate that to make any actual money you need to be re-habbing.

Also fell for the "you can do this on a shoe-string budget". We said, after paying the credit card bill, we have about $200 a month for to spend on this, it was "no problem". Step 1: Spend $400/month on bandit signs. Step 2: Spend up to $150 on a website. Step 3: Spend $500/month on other marketing. The coaching calls were kind of a joke, but the guy was so nice that I didn't have the heart to tell him I what I really thought. Way more current, way cheaper (and FREE) information out there. I might try and ebay that FB crap at some point, but unfortunately I just have to chalk it up to humbling mistake that I really knew better than to make at the time. The worst part is that the information, techniques, strategies are 5+ yrs old. Not even an attempt to update for today's market, and absolutely not even remotely concerned with any kind of local conditions. There's a big deal made about the Inc 500 award, but that is only recognition for revenue-growth, not value in what's being sold.

BTW: I meet someone at the local REI who paid for the 25k for the Mastery who was doing a couple of deals, but she hadn't actually made back her investment yet, and was offering up all the same things that the experienced wholesalers, re-habbers and flippers were already: "looking for private money partners, buyers, sellers, etc."

hmmm... I probably should have given it a great review and offered it up for $3500 and get something out of it, but I couldn't do that to someone else. It would almost be worth it to study their marketing and selling techniques, and then apply that to whatever it is you might want to sell.

We bought 2 rental properties from a wholesaler in 2008, already rented (below market at the time), but could still produce a small positive cash flow. The wholesaler had a deal going with 2 hard money lenders so we actually got into them, at wholesale, with no money down and then refi'ed within 30 days. Unfortunately, the rental market immediately became flooded, so we couldn't increase the rent, and both houses dropped about 50% in value, from the price we bought at wholesale! Just became a losing proprosition all the way around and we couldn't hold on to them.

Looking to get started wholesaling ourselves, but it seems like the market is pretty crowded, so struggling to get the first deal under our belts so we can start accumulating some capital to work with.

I'm pretty much a newbie at real estate investing for real income. These parcels were investments made (a 1031 exchange) by my wife's family some time ago. Not interested in developing them, they would just like to sell them now and get some liquid captial to work with.

There's one large 41+ acre parcel with electricit to the property, no perc test done, but there isn't an issue with water in the area. There's been one or two recent sales of some smaller parcels, but the area is a huge already planned subdivision. Good thing is that the area is becoming known as a destination for retirees, but as far as any major development happening in the area, it's probably 5-10 years off (based on discussions with local realtors).

Hello all,

I'm a not completely inexperienced investor in the Phoenix, AZ area, but I AM new to looking for contacts, networking and making use of all the great info and help available on BiggerPockets. Had two successes back east and two dismal experiences in AZ in recent years. Decided to invest in a real estate course, with the result now that I'm motivated to get something done and earn that money back! (Spoiler alert: there wasn't any secret sauce in all the binders, CDs, etc.)

Looking to connect / partner with other investors in the Valley of the Sun to make some things happen.

Thanks,
Shawn

I'm looking for some good ideas about how to market a large, family-owned parcel in an already platted subdivision in Arizona. The investment was made long ago, so we can sell at a discount (relative to some other recent sales), but don't want to give it away. Any suggestions appreciated!

Thanks,
Shawn