All Forum Posts by: Victor N.

Really???  There are plenty of posts here about stock market investment… 

I have some units rented to section 8 tenants. There’s the annual inspection which is automatic every year at about the same time. A tenant can also ask for a special inspection if things are not working properly/ they have a complaint. Guess what? So can you!

So call the housing office and request an emergency inspection. They cannot deny your request. You and the tenant will both be notified of the date via mail. Be there for the inspection. Keep in mind that the tenant has the ability to re-schedule for whatever reason. Once the inspector comes and sees the condition, (s)he will report it and the tenant will have to move. Also ask to speak to a supervisor ( bypass the tenant’s case manager who I assume is the one telling the tenant not to move out) at the housing authority to explain the situation. This will make things move faster.

 You can also call the town where the property is located and ask for an inspection. They will condemn the unit because it is inhabitable. You will get a faster response from the town inspector than the section 8 inspector but still, the housing authority needs to issue a moving packet to the tenant so they can look for a new place. Call both the town and the housing authority and she will be out soon.

FYI make sure to provide her with heat such as  electric space heater or have them ready bc the town might ask you to while they look for a new place. Absolutely make sure what you provide is the kind that CANNOT catch fire/ is not a fire hazard. Finally, keep in mind that the town might ask you to move the family to a temporary housing ( hotel or short term rental) due to the current condition of the unit. I just want you to be aware of potential issues when you call the town. But then again this should be covered by your insurance. Good luck!

Im looking for recommendations for an estate planning attorney in CT who has experience working with real estate investors. Thank you!

Why can’t you do your own appraisal and compare the two? You can certainly contest the buyer’s appraisal.

I’m a member of CTREIA. I’m not active as I’ve only been to a few in person meetings before COVID but I can tell you that it’s a quality group.

A friend of mine wanted to get into real estate investing. They reached out to me and we sat down for a long talk. Their initial plan was to do flips. I’m a buy a hold investor and tried to explain the benefits of that strategy.

They signed up for the coaching program. It  is expensive but very reasonably priced ( read much much cheaper compared to other programs). It is a quality program. They leaned a ton. The coaches teach you how to find deals, how to raise money etc. Well, my friend bought their first rental a couple of years ago and did a full renovation. The coaches help them with selecting contractors etc. The program also helped them set up a legal entity for their rental business. That property is currently rented above market rate. This year they purchased their 2nd rental and have finished the renovation.

You could get into real estate without a coaching program but using one will help you a lot specially if you have no experience. In CT, there is only one program I will recommend and it is the one from CTREIA. Good luck!

@Wayne Brooks you are correct about the terminology. We do have a fully executed contract ( signed by owner, buyer and listing agent ( who is also in this case our buyer agent). That contract was already submitted to the bank prior to this latest one. 

I think that you are also correct about the owner still trying to salvage his flip by using a "friend" to win a short sale because he hasn't made a payment for 14 months and the interest rate is a whopping 22%. Im not dogging the owner. I actually feel for him but we've already invested some time and money (although not a huge amount of money in the big scheme but still... and if he hadn't signed our contract I wouldn't be complaining. 

@Lumi Ispas Thank you, you assessed the situation correctly. The listing agent had already presented our offer to the bank and we were waiting for the bank to respond when the seller signed the new offer. I totally get that the bank will be more interested in the higher offer now. We are still interested and willing to increase our offer to be higher than the other one. 

There's definitely a breach of contract from the owner but Im not looking for damages from him. I wish the demand letter route could work and force him to withdraw that other offer so that the bank can only consider our updated higher offer.

I think that the owner is doing some "shady" stuff with this new offer and might be in with the new potential buyer to rescue his flip. Off course I have no proof hence shady is in quotation.

Trying to purchase a short sale for the first time. This is a single family house that I'm hoping to live in. Current owner is an investor and was trying to flip the house but "ran out of money". The property is in foreclosure and the law date is July 7, 2020 ( the property is in CT where all foreclosures closed cases  law days were all automatically pushed to July 7 by the state due to Covid 19).

Owner owes more than current value and stopped working on property about 11-12 months ago. Still a lot of work left to be done but all the major ticket items were taken care of. Floors, paint, kitchen cabinets ( no counters), baths etc... well about a month or so ago, after the owner had finally accepted our offer, someone broke into the house and stole all the kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Neighbors called Police  and insurance adjuster came out. I do not have any additional info about the police or the adjuster.

We made an offer back in February and after about 2 months of waiting, the owner finally accepted our offer, which I think was the highest, and signed our contract ( there were multiple offers mostly from other investors). Now we were waiting for the bank to approve the short sale when I discovered that the owner accepted a second offer about 3 weeks after ours. The price is 10k higher than our offer. He hired an attorney to represent him and the new buyer. The attorney filed an appearance in court with their sale contract looking to extend the law date which was in June. They were looking to extend the law day to October but the court simply pushed the day to July 7, which is the date the state uses for all prior closed cases. This is a strict foreclosure because there's no equity.

The listing agent is also our agent. She was a tremendous help until this point but now it doesn't look like she can do much more with the current situation even though she said she is in contact with a bank representative regarding the short sale. The new offer was made via a different agent ( a buyer's agent). 

I contacted the attorney representing the owner and the other buyer to let her know that we have a contact signed by the owner which is dated prior to the new contract. All she said was that she was not aware of another contract and will talk to her client. I never heard back from her.

My fear is that their attorney is working with the bank to get their offer accepted and undercut me. The listing agent is no much help. So my question is, what can I do? What are my options? Does it matter that I have an accepted offer prior to the new one? Im currently searching for an attorney to figure out my options but hope you guys might have some insight to share.

@Karen F. my experience in CT was just like yours until recently. BTW I also received the same Zillow email. I used to go to Zillow and had decent luck finding a tenant. The benefits of being able to just activate and deactivate a listing are so convenient.

Recently though, I've had more hits and more luck with Facebook marketplace and will continue with them since it's still free. My last listing for a single family, I had a dozen Zillow inquiries while FB was over 100. Yes, a lot of those are people just kicking tires but that doesnt bother me. Also, you can see a LOT from the FB profiles of the people inquiring. For example, your ad says no pets and you see people with a lot of pics of their pets contacting you...

So for now, I will go with Facebook marketplace.