All Forum Posts by: Steve Nicewarner

I would suggest reading "Buy Low, Rent Smart, Sell High" by Scott Frank and Andy Heller. It's a solid overview of the whole lease-purchase model. Personally, I think they leave a lot of money on the table, but after reading the book you'll know the structure and you can decide where to change it.

Since HUD homes are generally sold "as-is," how good is their property inspection? [especially in NC] Can I generally rely on that for an estimate to get the place up to habitability?

I'm working through it now. Personally, I think he over-renovates his houses, but he's apparently a great marketer, which makes up for a lot.

Also, remember those homes are in SoCal, so the perspective [and numbers] are different.

When you find that real estate company, please let me know. I'm in Durham and I'll be getting my license in September, so I'll be looking for many of the same things you are.

I know nothing about your building, but how hard would it be to condo everything from the second floor up and make the first floor retail?

You meant to say "a whole new challenge". Positive mental attitude and all that.

I have an old boss who owns a mail-order company. He's pretty well off ($10M+). When he was looking for new challenges, he talked about opening a bank -- mainly because it was something people just didn't do. It's all about framing the challenge.

Hey R2, have you ever thought about just being a source for private money? You would still get to use your experience as an REI, but you would get the extra cool factors of being an "elder statesman," and you would get to see deals all over North America. Kinda the best of both worlds.

And if that doesn't work, take a look at privateislandsonline.com. Worth it just for the pictures.

Since I don't think "Give all your money to me" will work . . .

In the US we have an organization called Junior Achievement which tried to teach pre-teens and teenagers about business and money. I've always tried to support them because I think it is tragic to have the leader of the capitalist world do such a poor job teaching our kids about capitalism. I don't know if JA exists in Canada, but if it does, that is a worthy place to invest in the future.

RealtyTrac is a good start. You can take the info on RealtyTrac, however, and find a listing on the MLS which will give you more detail [remember, we're dealing with REOs, which are almost always filed with an agent]. And you can go to the county tax filings [my county's is online] and usually figure out who owns the property.

You can find out a lot of information for free if you're willing to hunt a bit for it.

That is certainly the way I see it. The only addition I can make is that the tightening mortgage market also makes lease-purchase deals more attractive, since more people will be in that gray area just shy of qualifying for a mortgage.