All Forum Posts by: Teren Cooley

@Brady Richard No, I had to walk away from that one. It was a bummer because the margin would've been huge, but I exhausted all my options.  Even spent a whole day going through records and newspaper articles at the library of Virginia and still couldn't find anything.  Now I have a subscription to BeenVerified which is a pretty good service.  I use it to skip trace direct mail that gets returned to me or find missing addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and relatives, but if I can't find what I'm looking for there I don't waste any more time on it.

Hi everyone,

I've been investing in land for about two years now, so I filter my mailing lists to only include raw land/lots.  Every so often I'll get a call from someone looking to sell their house, but I've passed on all of those so far.  However, yesterday I came across what looks to be an excellent opportunity, and since I've been thinking about branching out to different types of investments, I want to figure out how to capitalize on this one.

The property is a 1300 sq/ft house on a half acre in a populated subdivision.  Most of the houses are single level, 2-3 bedrooms on similar size lots.  The owner still lives there but is looking for a new place.  I'm still waiting on pictures, but he claims it's in decent shape, just needs a few things (paint, new shower, etc.)  The reason I'm so interested is that he's only asking what I estimate to be 35-40% of market value.  There is some money owed in taxes, but not a ton, and the house is paid off.  I know there's a lot of due dilligence that needs to be done, which I'm digging into today, but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Next, assuming everything checks out and I decide to buy the property, I want to figure out the best way to put it to use, whether selling it as-is, fix and flip, taking a longer rental approach, or any other potential options.  I know a lot of this decision is based on personal variables, but I'm wondering whether there are any tell-tale signs that a specific property is better suited for one particular investment strategy.  Thanks as always and have a great day!

@Sarah Stamper Thanks for the recommendation, I'll definitely get in contact with Lindy Pond. As far as the REI meetups, I've looked into it and considered joining but just haven't pulled the trigger yet. Are you a member? If so, how often do they have meetings and do they have an active forum? I've tried to contact the admins via email with some questions but never got a response.

I'm a fairly new (2 years) investor with a few flips under my belt. Up until this point I've only been able to focus on one deal at a time but have done very well with ROI on each deal and have built up a decent bankroll. However, my focus now is on scaling faster and getting to the point where I can work on multiple properties at a time. I've gotten much better at finding great deals as well and feel like I'm leaving a lot of money on the table because of cash constraints. I'm currently looking for options to expand my buying power and in turn scale my business. I live in Richmond, VA and am currently looking for deals all over the state, but I have and will in the future be seeking properties out of state as well.

My business model is primarily raw land, although I've sold a couple houses.  Most of the hard money lenders I've looked into mainly finance rehabs and such for much larger loan amounts than what I'm looking for.  My question is, "Are there hard money or private lenders who will finance raw land acquisitions and, if so, is it typical to borrow $25-$50K, or does it need to be much higher?"  Any lenders feel free to reach out to me, I'd love to speak with you. Thanks! 

@Jason Turgeon, Yes, I tried that as well.  The vital records office is only helpful if you have a certain amount of information on the person.  Since I'm lacking year and place of death they can't do anything for me.

I'm dealing with a little bit of a tricky situation but basically the property I'm trying to buy is still titled to a deceased person.  It was never properly transferred to her only child, who lived there for years then willed it to his close friend before he passed away.  The friend is who I'm purchasing the property from, and I've already consulted a few lawyers about this, and it looks like all I'm missing is the death certificate of the mother to connect the chain of title and purchase the property.  The problem is that she has an extremely common name and I also have limited information on her.  Age/year of death, place of death, middle name, other relatives.  All I have is the information for her son (will, birth certificate, etc) and obviously the address where she owned a house and lived for a period.

I've tried calling some private investigators, using a few (free) online people search websites, I've even gone to the Library of Virginia to search their databases for obituaries and such, all with no luck.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I'm absolutely willing to pay for this, I'm just hesitant to subscribe to one of the paid online sites just because I have doubts that they will be able to help and most of them seem unreliable.  However if anyone has had success with any specific site I'd be glad to give it a shot.  Also any skip tracers or PIs out there that would want to contract this job I'd be happy to hire.  Thanks in advance for all the help! 

@Raphael Alexis will do, thanks!

@Stephen Mobley Yes, I would love to talk about your business. I definitely need some help in that area for a current project. Sent you a colleague request

@Heather Skowronsky Great, thanks! I’m very interested

@Lewis Anderson Cool, I’m also from Fredericksburg, but have been in Richmond for about 4 years. I also did my first deal in FL, Daytona Beach to be specific. Have you linked up with any other investors in the Fred/Nova area?