All Forum Posts by: Curt Smith

@Paul, Omayra, A decent public records search subscription can pull lists of MF's with purchase date range and sale price range etc. Everyone serious needs a public records search tool

I found agentpro247.com, gold service, $39/mo to be very good and the cheapest I've found. Some cost hundreds per month and are only available to title companies, lawyers, brokers etc. I've pulled <= 4 unit lists with 50% equity and sorted the spread sheet by state and mailed the out of state owners. Just mailed so no results. Same for >4 unit properties.

curt

Hi Joseph, Be sure to join at least one real estate investor association in Atlanta. There's 4. I find enough value that I belong to all 4 including Atlanta REIA and GA REIA. GA REIA has a great Deal makers email list and an Intown rehabbers email list where newbies ask questions about what contractors work areas, pricing and buying and selling deals. You can meet wholesalers at the REIAs where you can buy your first properties. I've bought 3 out of my 10 properties from Atlanta wholesalers for example.

curt

Bill Gulley

Bill I'm just trying to learn / figure this out... Earlier in this thread you shot down what sounded like a similar comment, rent for NN years then sign the title over. Sounds like your proposal. IE "terms" even by another name in a court room are still a licensed lending activity. What is the fine print differences? No mention of a sale, keeping that handshake?

How does your proposal differ from extending terms and this come under the Safe act and state licensing requirements?

tnx curt

Ken Rishel Might you over view how an investor who does 2-4 owner financed deals a year can follow the regs post Jan 2014? IE use your or some other company's services?

We did one 15 yr amortizing owner finance deal of a house closing 4 months ago. Used an originator that cost $695, but am not using a servicer. Sounds like post Jan 2014 I have to use a servicer? I researched the GA regs and we where 100% compliant: held title in a personal name (no entity), use an originator, closed at a lawyers office. We won't sell this note. It's like rent without the toilets, so why sell it? BTW my reason for not using a servicer is not to be cheap. For fear of having some bricks fall on me here, it was a strategic decision to keep my viability low from the regulators even though I did my best to be compliant. I did not want to make it easy for the Banking division to sapeana the servicer for the lender names, which I heard happened.

FWIW I called around in Atlanta/GA and only found 1, that's it, just one loan originator who'd do an owner financed deal. He spent 1/2 hr on the phone to the borrowers for that $695, no paper work, no credit checks (I had to do that part). A rotten value if you ask me.

I hope more orgs enter the market to help investors be compliant. They'd do themselves a favor by speaking at their local REIAs about SAFE act compliance.

curt

AC Cooley The other 2 are up I75, North Metro REIA, Cartersville, And Bill Cooks gig called North GA REIA. Both have different styles and info one can learn.

Bill Cook's REIA is a must go when the topic interests you:
http://reioutpost.com/ pay by the meeting. Always a rich learning experience. I will go to N Metro for specific speakers: lead generation or private lending.

But so are the other REIAs as Rachel mentioned re GA REIA.

curt

I've book marked this post!!!! There was another bird dog to wholesaling post of this quality a few months back, but I lost that link. Anyone?

curt

Hi Marcus, I've bought into their website service. Cheap and ok. Their back end is ok. It's 100% customizable but you have to be an IT techie guy to edit PHP templates they expose.

sweetgumproperties.com
sweetgumfunds.com

Neither are tops but they work. I'm slow to update content because it's not that easy. If you want a mostly static pre-setup site you'll be ok. They have lots of styles to choose and squeeze pages you can add. They can also handle many domains pointing to the same site through re-directs. They do email forwarding too. IE many email addresses per domain redirecting to a gmail account.

Brian and other wordpress users have a point, but there's no data base or back end. If one has to have a back end I've not found anything reasonably priced that competes with freedomsoft and those $97/mo and $500/$1k setup fee type sites.

I think there's still room for another RE/REI website service that has a flat one time fee and cheap hosting for someone to create an easy to update, hooks into FB, twitter, Linkedin by just editing a few files and has a back end and no $97/mo fee.

Best of luck, curt

Hi Wes, Alot of the local landlords who might sell their inventory, wholesalers etc are members in the local Atlanta REIAs. Some have email lists, some don't to reach these folks. I'm a member of all the Atlanta REIAs and see deals being sold all the time.

Atlanta REIA and GA REIA have the ability to stand up and say you are buying or selling something... etc.

Best of luck, curt

I agree with Kris. I'm a member of all 4 of Atlanta's REIAs. It's my experience though, that there's more face time meetings, trainings in GA REIA, gareia.org, plus they have their Deal maker's email list for real time problem solving, sharing contractors and buying/selling deals.

But I belong to all the REIAs because I find excellent value in all the orgs. I do go to more ATL REAI advanced trainings I admit and to GA REIA for starting out classes and their 8 Saturday boot camp series.

Look up the wholesaling and bird dogging forums and threads here on BP. Bird dogging takes the least knowledge just gumption to knock on doors and find sellers who are willing to drop their price. Then refer in a wholesaler who can close and get the contract. You'll meet wholesalers at the REIAs and on craigslist. Reply to craigslist ads advertising cheap cash only deals in your area and hook up with them.

Best of luck Iris.

curt

Brian, you'll be able to do a taxwise conversion of a prior primary residence to a rental and start depreciation. Your fix up costs up to 6 months prior to conversion are (I believe) can be considered fixup capitalization or expense depending on what you did. It'll help negate some of your W2 income and you'll probably do fine. This is a great time to start a landlording business. Just do a good renter check of the renter. Which is where accidental landlords go wrong by letting in some professional renter.

I use http://www.ctcredit.net Everyone has low fico and tons of debt. I look for all green on the on-time payments. Their paycheck being 3-4 x your rent.

- I screen for long term, kids to stay in the high school etc.
- I specifically ask: why this house and not the prior house you saw. I select for special reasons why they have to have my house.
- I walk out to their car and make sure it's neat, messy car they'll wreck your house.
- I schedule an odd meeting time like 1:15 Sat and say I'll only be there for 1/2 hr. No shows self edit in my process.
- No big dogs, no exceptions. I just lived through this mistake!!
- Get some local REI guys lease crafted per local laws, not the off the internet lease.
- Use postlets.com to push to every rental site except craigslist, and craigslist, lots of pictures are a must these days.

There's good helps in the BP landlording groups I suspect. Your local REIA probably have landlording classes.

curt