All Forum Posts by: Paul Ohlson

Thanks Wayne. I appreciate you sharing your wisdom with me. I definitely won't let them leave stumps and yes I plan on paving.

I have just purchased a plot of land in a downtown area (with surrounding rural communities) that is starved for parking. I'd like to convert the land into a parking lot, but the land is full of trees that I need to clear. Anyone know of the most cost-effective way to do this? I'm trying to avoid/minimize/re-coop my clearing expenses. Will logging companies/tree service companies/landscaping companies clear the lot for free in exchange for keeping the wood and selling it as firewood or mulch? Should I have the clearing company split the logs and/or turn it into mulch and sell it myself in order to re-coop some of the cost of the clearing? Is there something else I could do? Advice from someone experienced with clearing properties would be most appreciated, although all suggestions are welcome.

Rod,

The update is I offered 50K for the place. The brother in California is greedy and didn't want to budge from their asking price. If I were more versed in structuring deals I probably could have come up with a workable solution, but since I'm new I just left it at that. I figure I'll call again at the end of the selling season and make a lower offer if they haven't sold the place yet.

Wow, what a video! A shorter version of it might be the future of the "360 Tour" we see now.

Hi Kevin,

Welcome! You'll find a ton of useful information and helpful people here.

Has anyone used the valuation reports on forsalebyowner.com to get property comps? I'm just wondering how accurate they might be compared to MLS.

Thanks Steve! :)

This is from the most recent NAR newsletter I received. I'm still new to investing, so I was wondering if someone could please clarify the last bullet point for me? What is the 6K credit and when are we, as investors, eligible to receive it?

Key Features of the New Housing Rescue Plan
The government’s newest housing rescue effort, which was announced Friday, includes these key tenets:

· As much as $14 billion of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) will be made available to pay for writing down second liens for loans whose borrowers refinance through the Federal Housing Administration.

· Lenders that facilitate refinances through the FHA will be required to write down the principal of the first mortgage by at least 10 percent so the home owner has a loan-to-value ratio no higher than 97.75 percent.

· Lenders of second liens will be offered incentives of 10 cents to 21 cents per dollar of principal they write down in connection with an FHA refinance.

· Borrowers who lose their jobs can apply to have their mortgage payments reduced for three to six months while they search for a new job.

· Borrowers with a payment still greater than 31 percent of income after they find a job will be considered for a permanent loan modification.

· To encourage more short sales and “deed in lieu†of foreclosure transactions in which the lender settles the loan for less than is owed, the government will double assistance to borrowers to $3,000 and increase incentives to subordinate lien holders and investors to $6,000.

Source: Reuters News (03/26/2010)

Ali and Steve,

These are all exactly the perspectives I needed to determine what my expectation should be in an agreement with an agent. Thank you both so much for responding. I appreciate the mentoring.

Thanks for the thread reference James :)