All Forum Posts by: Steve Dussault

I just bid for and won my third Williams and Williams house auction. The latest one was last month for 3159 Sarah Ann in Lafayette IN. The sellers rejected my winning bid all three times. The first two homes were owned by Fannie Mae and the third was owned by a relocation company.

Williams & Williams used to brag about how 90-95% of their sellers accepted the high bids even though they have the right to refuse it. I see that they have removed this from their sales literature. Good thing because in my experience it is a joke.

Williams and Williams are a bunch of clowns whose sellers will reject the high bid. I will not be wasting my time in the future bidding at any Williams & Williams auctions.

Any other investors have any luck in getting their winning bids accepted at a Williams & Williams auction?

Dealing with BofA on a short sale is a total waste of time.

Hopefully things will go better now that they have switched to REOtrans to manage them, but I wouldn't hold my breath!

In my area the experienced realtors won't list short sales where BofA is the lender because they know that BofA takes 6+ months to approve a short.

Another tip - the closer it gets to the sheriff's sale the more likely the lender is to bend on their listing "requirement". Just tell them there isn't time.

Ed,

If she is a friend, get her to get the house listed to find a buyer for a short sale. If you get in the middle the short sale will be less likely to be approved, due to your profit requirements and that of your investor. Not the best approach if she is a friend.

The best bet for your friend is to find an owner-occupant buyer that doesn't need a huge discount to buy, just a fair market price that the bank would be eager to accept on a short sale.

Anthony,

I agree with Brian - the closer the better.

You also need to adjust for your area. For example, in rural areas people drive long distances without thinking twice about it, but in a highly congested area 5 blocks may put you in a totally different market. For example, near a college campus 5 blocks away is walking distance, but 10 blocks likely means a bus ride.

Put yourself in the tenant's shoes and decide what's too far and what's not.

I haven't tried that, but think it would be a decent strategy - especially if you have several homes for sale in the area. However, the apartment complexes are private property and may have rules against solicitation. The worst that could happen, though, would be for them to tell you to stop. Better to beg for forgiveness than ask permission!

I have received a Staples card in the name of my LLC with NO personal guarantee. My LLC was about 4 years old at the time.

I had to personally guarantee with Lowes and also with a FirstEquity Visa too. For the ones I personally guaranteed they do not show up on my personal credit report, but they do on my LLC report. Hope that helps.

Greg,

You definately want to talk to people before the auction if possible. The best spot to be in is working a short sale where you are the only buyer.

I have a course from Dan Doran (no affiliation BTW) about door knocking that I thought was good, but I never used it since I get good response in my area from letters and bandit signs.

If you have more time than money on your hands I definately would be knocking!

Mikey,

You can look up the liens at the courthouse if you know what you are doing or have a title report pulled from a title company like Raj says. This costs about $75.

This doesn't tell you how much is owed, though. In my area that info is private until the foreclosure judgment is entered - about 3 months before the sheriffs sale in my county. By the time the auction rolls around, though there will be more fees and interest added on to the judgment amount.

If you have all of the big stuff fixed the ongoing maintenance should be in the 5% to 10% of gross revenue range. I usually use the lower end of that range for newer properties and the higher end of that range for older properties that I expect to need more work.