All Forum Posts by: Patrick L.

Ben Skove

I know governmental liens will survive, there are no IRS liens on the property. There were some lot clearing liens from the city mowing it but they'll get paid out of the surplus. Not really worried about liens.

Wayne Brooks

I did search around earlier and I saw the lawyer you are referring to (Henry Hicks) and was planning on calling him about doing the quiet title action. I really don't think anybody is going to come back and contest the sale but you never know. The owner was an "investor" that has 10 properties in foreclosure or already foreclosed on, I'm sure he had given up long ago. The bank started the foreclosure in 2008 and the last action on the docket was still from 2008 so they seemed to have moved in as well. It looks like the bank's property preservation company was in the house in 2008 according to the stickers on all the plumbing fixtures stating that the house has been "winterized" (it doesn't get below 50 here often in the winter). Pretty much the house has just been sitting empty for the last 5 years.

Jenkins Ramon

Thanks....double congrats to me when I drilled the locks and found an extra bedroom and extra bath above what I expected. The house is 1,200 sqft and from what I could see from the outside it looked like a 3/1, but it turned out to be a well laid out 4/2 (extra bath has no permit and isn't on record with the property appraiser, but for a $20k buy I'm fine with that). Most of the windows had intact blinds (my tenants never leave them that clean) so I couldn't see in the majority of the windows but I'm always up for a gamble.

Inventories are really dry here too, I'm hoping it's just a temporary lull. I've been watching the courthouse foreclosure auctions and they've been selling for full retail (at least what full retail was a few months ago) and the tax deed sales (selling for probably 75% of full retail). I was able to pick up one new rental at today's monthly tax deed auction and I have a pending short sale contract that was for the bank approved price that I'm still waiting on but that's it so far this year for me. Last year I was able to do 1 new rental a month. There's still a lot of homes that are in the foreclosure process so there will be more inventory.

Inventory has been pretty scarce the last few months for the type of properties I usually buy as rentals so I figured I'd take a shot at the tax deed auction. There were 3 I was going for and I was able to land one of them.

I was wondering if anyone with more experience with this could give me some advice. I'm in FL and I know people will usually do a quiet title action, should I wait for that to get going before I begin the rehab on it? I have the deed and the previous owner and mortgage holder were both given notice of the sale so I don't know what the issues would be, but I'd like any feedback from people that have done it before.

It just depends on the local customs. Here everybody expects kitchen appliances to be included with the rental. When I lived in So Cal rentals very rarely included a fridge but generally included a stove. I try not to provide dishwashers as they break constantly, a coil stove will last pretty much forever though (maybe you have to change some burners out) unless the rats and roaches destroy the wiring.

This is why I primarily buy single family, I can get a 20-35% cap rate. I bought one 5 unit property because I was able to see 20%+ on it and get an 800 sqft garage for my storage as a bonus. I'd love to leverage some of my equity to buy an apartment complex (~100 units) but the return just isn't there so I'll keep buying single family for now. Seems crazy to pay more for a triplex than I pay for 3 single family homes but that's what the prices are here.

There are a number of banks that put deed restrictions on reselling the house for 30 or 90 days. It's to cut back on the "wholesalers" that love to tie up contracts and not close. It's not just something in the contract, it's generally printed on the deed too so a title company will not do a closing in that time period.

How many properties were you trying to insure under the commercial policy? I have a commercial policy on mine and with a lot of properties it's about half what I paid for individual policies, plus I get $1M/$2M liability by default so it keeps my liability umbrella cheaper.

I would tell him the lease is signed, if there is something that is not functioning properly you will fix it but no upgrades will be made. If he wants to pay for the upgrades, he can do that. If he doesn't want his daughter to live there you can offer him fee to break the lease early (I use 1.5-2 months rent) and look for something else. Any upgrades should have been negotiated prior to signing the lease. His daughter and her roommate are liable for paying the rent now and if she doesn't do it she'll have an eviction on her record and daddy probably doesn't want her credit to start off like that.

From what I can tell verbal notice is fine. Nothing says the notice must be written.

In Arizona it's 2 days notice (not even 48 hours). You can provide the notice this afternoon and enter anytime Thursday (during a "reasonable" time).
http://www.azleg.state.az.us/ars/33/01343.htm