All Forum Posts by: Travis White

Anyone have any experience purchasing a property from a seller that has an ongoing eviction? What are the considerations? Would I be able to proceed with the eviction process he started or would I need to start a new one? Do owed rents need to be assigned to me as the new owner during the purchase process? Anyone know a good attorney with experience in this area? 

Long story short, I've got a tired landlord that is overwhelmed and exhausted by the eviction process and being able to take the property off his hands mid-eviction could be valuable to him. 

Thanks!

@Brian Foster - that's fantastic link, thank you so much!

@Sammy G. - thanks for sharing your experience. It sounds like there's still the ability to do a deal, just gotta be a little more careful. 

Everyone knows the market right now is, um, indundated with homes damaged by Harvey. Lots of neighborhoods also took on water during Tax Day, Memorial Day, Ike, Allison etc etc etc....obviously Houston is no stranger to flooding. 

I know its very case dependent, but does anyone have any feedback/experiences/opinions with flipping or reselling homes that have flooded more than once? How has it affected DOM? Price? Other considerations? These day, I feel like a house that just got hit during Harvey doesn't affect buyers nearly as much as homes that have taken on water multiple times. 

My interest, obviously, is looking at a potential flip that has flooded twice and trying to gauge how to account for the impact of flooding in my analysis. FWIW, the events were 1" on Tax Day and 5" during Harvey. Moreover, I'm thinking a general discussion on the topic could be a resource for this ever-so-soggy investing community.

I have some experience, my previous home was located in oft-flooded Bear Creek neighborhood. It flooded in Tax Day and a few of my neighbors sold roughly 6 months after the flood. The neighborhood was in decent shape by that point and the homes were remodeled. In both cases, the sellers got near asking (0-5% less) but did have DOM of 30-45. Lots of lookers, many viewings, but many buyers that were scared away when they learned the house had flooded. After Harvey, most of my neighbors (including myself) sold As-is to investors but the neighborhood has been much slower coming back and many of those flips aren't completed yet, so I don't have a lot of info on how the market is rebounding this time. Again, FWIW, many of the investment offers came from international interests and/or through a local representative negotiating for international buyers.  

Cheers!

My experience with them is limited, but so far City Bank has been good to work with. PM and I can give you a name of who to contact. 

@JerryPuckett- how do you manage an inspection, rehab estimate etc when taking over an eviction? 

(anyone out there have an idea why the blue @ isn't working for me?)

If I can ask, what's the conversion for baseball offense to %ARV.....what's a home run and what's a single?

In general, I think I'm ok with a trying to put men on base more than swinging for the fences as a beginner. 

I'm hoping some of the brighter minds here can help me think through this sub2 deal I've been offered, both in terms of analyzing the numbers and also some advice on taking on a sub2 purchase (I've done about 1-2 hours of reading on the subject....enough to be familiar but certainly no expert). 

Here's what I know of the numbers: 

House is 4 bed/3 bath, 3100 sq ft

$55k is owed to bring everything current (HOA, mortgage, fees)

$8-12k for rehab - general cleaning, landscaping, 1500 sq ft of carpet, interior paint in some rooms

$164k - current loan balance, $155k after bringing loan current, PITI is currently $1076 @ 3.5%

$1800-1900 current rents in the area

If the loan were called, I would be able to pay it off. 

My thoughts right now are:

- $700-900 per month in cash flow is outstanding

- $67k to get into the deal is a lot, but it would garner ~$100k in equity

- I'm split between keeping the killer loan rate and using the property for cash flow, potentially flipping the property, or actually moving into the property myself (coincidence here, but decent timing/location for a possible move for me)

I'd love to hear some thoughts on this.....good, bad, ugly or whatever. If I can provide more information or answer any questions, let me know!

@David Meier - I've seen other discussions here on BP about folks trying to work an evictions list in CA and the overall feeling is that it's difficult/impossible to get the eviction information before the situation is resolved, just like you said.

An anecdote and a suggustion - In 2014 my wife and I were renting in Oakland CA and had a dispute with this crummy landlord. Long story short, I started taking a look at the rights I had as tenant and, if I stopped paying rent that month, it could take the landlord 18+ months to have me removed from the property. Now, Oakland has even more tenant rights than the rest of the state but eviction is still an painful process.

Anyway, I wonder if you could get in touch with eviction lawyers around the area for leads. Doubtless, disgruntled landlords get frequent consultations about how painful the eviction process can be and could be open to another way out (eg selling to you). That could still leave you with the eviction to carry out but it would also be a pretty hefty bargaining chip to get a discount. 

Maybe a landing page type website could work too.....as folks google eviction attorneys, evictions etc etc etc, they could find your site offering to solve their problem by just selling the property. Come to think of it, a change of ownership might give you additional leverage in removing the non-paying tenant, making the eviction much less painful for you than the seller!

@Sharon Vornholt - absolutely agree about looking for tired landlords. I feel like my target seller is an inexperience investor or someone who "ended up" with a rental and never fully intended on being a landlord. I expect the pros to be savvy to the market worth of their property, realistic about the hardships that go with landlording, and clear on potential exit strategies should they want to get out. 

Given the short time frame of the eviction process, it seems like I'll only have the opportunity to get 4, maybe 5 touches if I hit their mailbox every month for four months. Is more than once a month obnoxious? Is it worth it to send out quarterly or semi-annual postcards after that? 

First off - great thread! Thanks to everyone who's contributed....this thing is a gem. 

I wanted to see if I could get some opinions on mailing frequency for an eviction list.

I'm getting 80-100 fresh leads each week that are produced when the landlord files the eviction. From my understanding of the eviction process, the legal proceedings usually take about 4-6 weeks to be resolved at which point, I assume, the landlord is most likely left with a vacant and damaged property that will need to be rehabed (or at the very least a make ready) before beginning the search for a new tenant. 

My thinking is that the eviction problem is short lived and there are specific points of higher motivation:

- week 1 (just after filing the eviction)

- week 4-6 (after the eviction is done and landlord is faced with the task of rehabbing and a tenant search)

- week 10-12+ (when the rehab/make ready is done but the tenant search isn't going very well). Alternatively, by week 10-12+ some landlords have a new tenant in place and motivation basically goes to zero for the foreseeable future. 

I'm definitely hearing plenty of advice about persistence here, especially from pros like @Dev Horn and @Sharon Vornholt

@Sharon VornholtGiven that the eviction problem is basically a short term problem, any thoughts on how frequently to mail these folks? 

My strategy so far is yellow letter week 1 and a postcard for week 4, 8 and maybe 12. After that, I'm thinking that most landlords have resolved their eviction problem and no longer have the motivation I'm looking for. I'm contemplating doing a quarterly postcard for the next year or so. 

I'd love some feedback/thoughts...either on this specific list or just addressing direct mail strategies for situations that are time limited in some way like evictions, foreclosures, etc. 

Cheers! 

In the real world, the campaign is definitely in its infancy. Yesterday, I sent out 200 letters to the first two weeks of leads. I'd be happy to provide updates on the campaign's progress over the weeks if anyone is interested