All Forum Posts by: Steve Babiak

Just voted for both posts - except my vote button is broken since my last post in the thread on "can't make the tenant happy".

So my votes will be forthcoming; the vote button always manages to fix itself eventually...

zip code
number of units (sfh/mfh)
bedrooms and baths
years that newest mortgage has been in place
out-of-state owner
tax assessed value (if there is some multiplier that gets this to be in the ballpark of actual value; worthless if actual value is all over for a specific assessed value)
your exit strategy

Those are some categories for sorting this data; what ones actually would lead to best profit could be very dependent on local factors as well. Your exit strategy is a factor. Because a house with high value may never cash flow as a rental - so, assuming a landlord's buy-and-hold exit strategy is what you are using, you would avoid that type of house.

Funny how one letter changed in a word completely inverts the meaning ...

Obviously you meant to say "plunging" from the original context, but just couldn't resist this.

Jeffrey,

If you have a form or checklist that you can share with everybody, and you're willing to do so, then see this thread for how to email it to the site maintainers:
http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/311/topics/37277-good-walk-through-form-checklist

Rich,

This sounds a bit like transactional funding, and I had previously PM'd you a bit of info regarding that. Except that no funding actually occurs from the transactional lender. I recall that some title company had issued a warning about transactions of that sort, where the end buyer's funds were used for the first transaction. Things like certain disclosures might be needed, but I only recall vaguely as this is not an area that I work.

Rich,

As the one who steered you to start the blog, you know my opinion on that already. And it really depends on what kind of information you are dispensing.

For example, the detailed content on taxation and apartment purchaisng is blog material without question. You get to put down a big chunk of info, and you have more "control" over what is placed onto the blog.

The forums are great when you are looking to stir up conversation or debate, since there is more of an equality among the participants.

So when you are the educator for the topic, I think it belongs in the blog; otherwise, the forum works.

Now, I am still a bit baffled about whether one is permitted to place a link to a blog onto the forums, and what the rules for that would be. Getting more traffic would happen by that crosslinking . I do understand why no crossposting (the copying of content verbatim into two or more places) is permitted. Maybe Josh can chime in here to clarify why Rich has been "moderated" as he mentioned in one of his posts elsewhere in the forums.

Just my $0.02 worth (some of this isn't worth much more).

Will,

If I were the seller, I certainly agree with what you say - I want to see true liquid cash in the form of an account statement, or at least from a real bank. And even then I want to verify that the funds are really there, and not just wired in on a temp basis, and I would want them escrowed too.

But I was just pointing out that these "play" POF letters are out there, and freely available, and people claim that they are being accepted ... So this might be a workable approach for the OP.

Will,

I use a mix of browsers as well, but I do occasionally have the voting problem even using Firefox. In fact, on this thread, I was just a moment ago able to vote on your first post, but then nothing after that.

As somebody in your state stated in the movies "I'll be back ..."

Jason,

Don't forget to vote on the posts that you find worthwhile!

I have received a sample POF from a couple of these transactional lenders; it is basically a letter, using the letterhead stock of the transactional lender, stating that there is a pre-approval of funds to a stated amount and under specified conditions, and with phone number and contact person to call to confirm availability of funds. Others have posted on the forums that they have successfully used such letters with their offers to purchase. I wonder if the REO sellers even bother to check any further than the reading of the POF letter.

One of these transactional lenders (Bob Norton) has a website set up to allow users to input transaction details and this letter POF is then produced based on the input from the user. I'm sure others do something similar, but I only right now recall the one where I retrieved the sample that I mentioned above. And I did not have to pay any fees at all to get that letter - that may or may not be surprising depending on how you view things.