All Forum Posts by: Zain B.

Hello BP

I am a new investor looking for some help. I have a property under contract which is foreclosed. "Title to the property will be conveyed by either Special Warranty Deed or Quit Claim Deed, or equivalent documents accepted where the property is located". Seller is a bank and has advised me that if I use their title Company (which I checked and the reviews are good) will provide owner's insurance policy at the expense of the seller.

I understand that I will not receive any legal advice here but this is a cash deal and a foreclosed property with good equity. Is it common to get a Special Warranty / Quit Claim Deed in a foreclosure process? 

Should I be worried about the Quit Claim Deed part of the clause above or am I over reacting?

Any help you can provide will be much appreciated. 

Hello BP NJ,

Looking at a property in the Northern New Jersey Suburb (Think Gillette, Warren area). Property is fairly old and part of an estate sale. Seems like the property never had any additions and neighbors have raised their roofs and added an addition in the back. Anyone here have any experience with increasing the square footage of the house. How expensive is it and what are the steps involved. Property is currently 2 bed / 2 bath but there is an easy potential to add a master suite with ~500 sqft of living space. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks

@Travis Lauchman can you share the empirical data? Have you made any tweaks to the letter? Any success?

All,

Thanks for all of your efforts to help out on this deal. Long story short, I ended up wasting $200 on an environmental scan and another $250 for my attorney only to find out about a incompetent agent not willing to do his / her job. I did learn throughout the process so not bad from an investment perspective. Thanks again.

All, 

Thanks for all of your efforts to help out on this deal. Long story short, I ended up wasting $200 on an environmental scan and another $250 for my attorney only to find out about a incompetent agent not willing to do his / her job. I did learn throughout the process so not bad from an investment perspective. Thanks again. On to the next one. 

@Jason Timmerman you are right, its a big red flag. @Tom W. was absolutely correct in his assessment. My lender just called me and said that they will not finance the property without knowing what's beneath the ground. I wish I knew that the seller will not allow me to conduct a soil sample and remove an oil tank if found. I wasted money on the environmental scan as well as my attorney review. For the experienced investors, should the attorney charge the full $1,500 for a failed contract. I thought $1,500 was too much to begin with but now that I will not be proceeding with this purchase, should the attorney charge the entire amount? 

Sorry for butchering your last name. Auto correct does it's own thing

@ Jay Hendricks, I wish it was as easy as that. I am just not sure whether there is an oil tank, if it's hot holes in it, if it has contaminated the surrounding area and the extend of the soil contamination if any. I am also limited by the fact that I cannot dig to get the information that I need to make an informed decision. A couple of suggestions posted by fellow BP members have been extremely helpful.

@Stephen Masek I am sure that the environment company that I hired did not review the permit files. I will call them and find out tomorrow. The consultant did not review the government databases either. I as told to contact the city to see if they had any permits on file. I understand that the biggest liability is the possibility that the tank leaked into the groundwater extending beyond my properties boundaries. Fortunately, this property was last sold in 2004 and I am assuming that if this property had oil which was leaking into the groundwater supply, the city would have notified Fannie to remidiate the issue right away. Property has been sitting on the market for the last three years.

@John Lopez, thanks for an insightful response. I agree with you that if there is clean up and it leads to an area beneath the structure of the property, tthan the clean up could be much more than the amount of equity in the deal. I proposed to Fannie to dig up the area with the anomaly, if there is a tank to remove it at my own dime and still purchase the property as long as the area is not contaminated. Which I thought was a no brainer. The seller's agent responds with "you cannot touch the soil". 

To answer some of your questions:

1. Property was built in 1955. How do I get access to a sanborn map? 

2. I will ask the environmental company to see if this is possible? Again, the seller does not want me to touch the soil which is ridiculous

3. Where can I get access to old site plans?

4. This is a solid idea, I will talk to the bank tomorrow morning.

5.I will check with NJDEP tomorrow. I was told that the town should have permits if the oil tank was removed but as @Kelly Arthur stated its really NJDEP that I need to call. Thanks for the insights. Please share any further insights you may have that will help me through this process.