hi all. i was driving around my neighborhood and found two abandoned houses that are in fairly decent shape. i wanted to research them to find out if i can do something with them. the owner of one house died, but he was a loner and i don't think he left a will. the second house looks like it was just abandoned by the owners recently. guess they walked out on mortgage. how would i research who owns the house so that i can contact them?

I usually keep my rental rate at fair market value or even a little bit lower than that.

And, if both parties agree and get to the closing table and perform, maybe the promise of a snowcone at the fair would do

There may be a point where the difference in risk between holding X in reserves, and owning the property free and clear is fairly small.

Hey Ben A - I do these kind of transactions fairly often, so I'll share my thoughts. a.)

I told him to counter the guy with the number he thought was fair and see if the guy would meet it.

I think you need to manage a property manager, which can be cumbersome and expensive for just a couple of SFR's.Lending is much easier, and is fairly easy to make sure you don't make a mistake and do something prohibited.

So even though the earnings are not available until 59.5, the invested money is available fairly soon.

Michael Galloway How many of these type of deals do you do in a year or are they fairly infrequent?

I wouldnt recommend the DIY kits as I'd want the warranty offered by the specialty guys.Ive run into numerous scenerios where the tile surround was done fairly recently and in excellent shape, and the fixture had been replaced at that time as well, so there was no ready excuse to rip out tub and replace.