All Forum Posts by: Joshua Tobin

I’d suggest your best bet is to go to your local roofers supply and ask for references. I’ve found a lot of great contractors this way. 

@Elizabeth Harding I'd suggest 10% across the board with regards to capex, repair, mgmt and vacancy. At least thats how I run my business. Better safe than sorry is the way I look at it. 

I suggest using cozy.co for background checks and collecting rent.

I highly recommend cozy.co for not only collecting rent, but also taking care of the screening process. 

I'd suggest starting with: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/01/27/tenant-screening/

@Wayne Brooks no not really. I'm learning how this all works. Knowledge is power at this point. I've ordered a title search in the meantime but learned a ton along the way so it all worth it. 

Just an update with some additional info. I visited 3 different town/county offices yesterday and got bounced around to various people. This isn't a "zombie" property at this point. There are currently back taxes of around 8500 dollars. According to the records every few years just before the city goes to take ownership, a bank, in my case, US Bank swoops in and pays off the balance. According to the finance department this is common action so the county doesn't then take ownership. 

So what I'm left with now is a lien on the property from US Bank, going on 9+ years, and back taxes of 8500. Both the ex-husband and ex-wife don't communicate. Both of their names are still on the docket as owners of the property.

I've called US Bank and they won't talk to me without an account and/or social security number. The only way I can talk to them is if I have the registered owner add me as a third party. So I guess my only hope is that I can convince them to add me as a third party and try and negotiate a short sale?

@Brett Goldsmith @Paul Amegatcher @Account Closed  Any other bits of wisdom or other actions I could take? 

Hey @Brett Goldsmith - According to the city records the assignment (Mortgagor) is still in both the ex-husband/ex-wifes names. 

I'm heading down the the assessors office to see if they can give me any more information. When you say pulled title documents, do you mean run a title search? I have not yet run a search. I wanted to gather as much info as I could before I go and drop a few hundred bucks. When you mention the "courts", what do you mean? Where would I go to find out more info on that?

I'm unaware of what I zero demand letter is. I'll research that more today. To be honest when I called them I didn't really know what to ask other than the status of the note. 

Thanks for your help!

@Account Closed Wow, I wasn't aware of robo signing. Super helpful. Thanks!

Backstory:

A little less than a year ago I purchased one of two dilapidated houses on a lovely quiet street in upstate NY. The houses are literally next door to each other which is somewhat of an odd coincidence, but I'm now in a situation after completing a full rehab on the property I purchased and finalizing on a BRRRR that I can devote a bunch of effort into trying to obtain the unit next door. 

Throughout the past 9 months I've on and off I've been trying to get in contact with the owners of the property, who to my knowledge are since divorced and in foreclosure due to the paperwork on the front door. I've sent sms, facebook, tweets, etc trying to reach the owners, and finally this week I got a response from wife who ended up being quite helpful. She confessed that the house did go into foreclosure and she thinks at one point they did refinance the property. She does not however have any information in regards to the Loan, who it was through etc. She was however able to give me the address of her Ex-husband who has yet to respond to any of my inquires. 

Next I've been on the phone with one Mortgage Servicer after another trying to track down what the status of this note is. I've been able to run my own title search through the city and all leads keep coming up cold. I did have success contacting Bank of America, who directed me to Mr. Cooper who purchased the loan back in '09. After repeated multiple calls over the past 5 or so months I finally got a lovely talkative agent on the phone who was able to tell me that the note had been paid off in FULL in 2015? She noted that it was definitely not on their books. 

Lastly I've tried engaging multiple Attorneys to try and help me figure out here what is going on. The most recent piece of information I got from attorney was that its possible it never actually went into full foreclosure since the city has no record of a Referee's Deed? He was thinking it was possible that this title/deed is just lost in limbo, somewhere in the ether? The advice they both gave was "keep going". Whatever that means.

My next steps are:

* Continue trying to get through to the Ex-husband of the wife I've made contact with. Offering money in exchanged for information?

* I have an appointment later today to meet with a the town accessor trying to gain more information. Maybe tax records can help me?

I'd love to hear others input on this situation. What else can I do to figure out how to buy this property?