Either find some old lizard who's selling because he's tired of life and wants to move to Miami, and thus might be willing to hold paper. Or look for estate sales where the dearly departed's family are 500 miles away and might be willing to do the same for a year.

So I took a financial planning course last semester because it sounded like fun and I needed a break from the industrial technology department and we talked about this kind of stuff every day. Only things I can say about property are what my professor kept telling us which was when it comes to buying property, buy then wait, instead of wait to buy, and the other is a Will Rogers quote, "Buy land, they're not making it anymore"

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1982 300D Turbodiesel, daily driver. Mods so far: Fram 8038 paper filter, 4 brake light mod, Gen II w126 (front) rotors/calipers, boost turned up to 12lbs, non-egr manifolds, water/methanol injection, 4-speed manual
1980 300SD Turbodiesel, project car, nearly ready to hit the street

1974 240D, New paint

*If,* the professor can show you personal examples of what he has "bought in property, and is waiting" and perhaps turned for a profit - that is a good professor.

If he has no/zilch experience actually doing it - you need a different mentor to follow.

Find someone that can show you what he's done by viewing the actual properties - not tell you about what others have done...........as some here are telling you about what their *parents* have done.

Which is he.....?

BTW: It is possible to find college-level RE instructors that actually have done as they say - not just telling you about something from a textbook, or what Will Rogers said..........


(In my industry of 40 year endeavor - I had better be able to show a new client my body-of-work before being hired......not just talk about the theory of doing that work/accomplishments.)

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'06 E320 CDI
'17 Corvette Stingray Vert

Yeah he was a pretty cool cat, he only taught one or maybe two classes part time, and then he had a job as a cpa or something as well. I think he also owned some properties and stuff, so he seemed to know what he was talking about. Off topic but he looked like Admiral Chegwidden from JAG hahaa

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1982 300D Turbodiesel, daily driver. Mods so far: Fram 8038 paper filter, 4 brake light mod, Gen II w126 (front) rotors/calipers, boost turned up to 12lbs, non-egr manifolds, water/methanol injection, 4-speed manual
1980 300SD Turbodiesel, project car, nearly ready to hit the street

1974 240D, New paint

The best instructors I had in military school / college level actually practiced what they were instructing.......examples:

Salesmanship: this former fellow alumni/cadet at my military academy owned and operated his own mens wear, shoe shop retail store. He also was a former WWII POW. Lt. Col. (Ret) George W. Stier was shot down over Occupied France in 1944, this young bomber pilot survived and found lasting life values as a POW in two German camps and on a brutal forced march in sub-zero conditions. Before he died, he authored; 'From The Heavens to Hell -- and Back'

Business Law I / II: this instructor JG Lauderdale was a former County District Attorney, private practice attorney, and later a county judge in the state of Missouri.

After 40+ years - I still have in my possession many of my textbooks and page through many of the chapters I studied so long ago. There's several more I do not have the details of all these decades later - but the two I mentioned were memorable in their activity field experience - not just teaching theory.

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'06 E320 CDI
'17 Corvette Stingray Vert

If it was easy everyone would do it.

How many hours and effort do you have to work to earn $60k at a job?

Generating a return takes a lot of effort. I spent years building up the connections, experience and finances to be able to bang out deals like that.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Yeah that's the best way to do it, I just got an offer accepted on an estate where the family lives a million miles away and doesn't care.

I have been having good luck recently with bank owned properties they just want to get rid of. I closed on one today where they owed $189kish, and that's what it was listed for. House was flooded and needs to be demolished. I got it for $72k..bank took a nice loss. Foreclosure auctions which in my state take place on Saturdays are pretty much a total waste of time. I haven't been to one in 4 years, I'd rather be out in my boat. You have to wait for the bank to buy it, ruin the house for awhile and choke on it for a year. Good deals need to season a bit.

Most banks are dumb as can be so they let perfectly good houses sit vacant with the utilities cut off for a couple years letting everything freeze and leak. I love these because they scare away all the first time buyers and the people shopping with mortgages. Most banks won't invest a cent into a house to keep it up, they just rather take a big loss.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Don't let the paperwork or manual work scare you. Houses can only be so scary.

The stuff that's going to cost you are title problems, and big stuff like foundation or sewer work.

Interior stuff isn't a big deal, you can get a crew right in to gut a house down to the studs for pretty cheap, than just start fresh.

Go make some insulting offers, if you don't have a down payment look for older people who will consider owner financing for a bit. You would be amazed at the ones who would.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

There are two kinds of foreclosure auctions. One is a sheriff's auction "on the courthouse steps" -- or in a conference room in the courthouse. I think you're talking about these.

There are also private REO auctions, where banks sell off properties that they already bought back at the sheriff's sale, after letting them "season" for a while. Also bankruptcy auctions -- some auctioneer in Brooklyn managed to get himself appointed by the bankruptcy trustee of the Federal courts in NYC.

Banks do the strangest things. They had four properties go bad and bundled them into a package. There was nothing really wrong with the properties. The bank was just paranoid. We still own a couple of them.

This was the good circumstances type of thing rather than the smarts. I was interested in one of them. They offered the four of them at a price I could not ignore.

There where no complications other than they could not find title to some extra property that went with one so we made a financial correction and a couple of water heaters were rentals that got another very small correction.

The additional property that they could not find the title for I aquired from the owners wife after they had gone bankrupt. It cost a flat fee to open up the bankrupcy. Hold the required meeting and pry the title out but the lady involved wanted nothing for the piece of land. She and her husband had broken up and she just wanted clear of any rememberance of that time in her life.

Yup this right here.


Hatty, how complex is the foreclosure work for a first time buyer? I'm not afraid of moderate repairs (like you mentioned) so long as the timber in the house isn't rotted out.

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$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
$110 OM606 Blank Exhaust Flanges
No merc at the moment

Buying a foreclosure is no different than any other property. In my state CT you go to the auction and have to outbid the bank which is stupid since they always owe more than its worth. You have to bring a check for 10% of the minimum bid which is the mortgage amount. None refundable, close in 30 days, etc.

The best way to do it is to buy from a bank, and other than once in awhile having to fill out some different forms its no different than buying a house from anyone else. Most bank owned properties are listed on the MLS like anything else.

Either way you need to get your mortgage pre approval before you start looking. No agent worth anything will show you houses without one.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Yeah I was gonna say, how is that with mortgages? Then there are renovation mortgages as well, I'd guess that you have to buy the house first, assess, and then get the reno mortgage. I'd be mortgaging quite a bit, though 10% of the MINIMUM would be pretty easy since they start pretty low. Guess the sequence is a bit weird to me. I am not scared by any drywall, electical, plumbing work. I just need the money

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

You need to sit down and talk to a good mortgage broker. They have mortgages that will give you money up front for renovations.

I just don't deal with those kinds of mortgages so other than knowing they exist I really don't know much about them.

Also a lot of states have pretty good first time buyer programs where you either get a lower interest rate or don't have to put much down. 3% for example and you can get the seller to pay closing costs.

If your a vet they have the VA which is a horrible loan program, but FHA can be pretty good. I think in more rural areas they have farm loans too which might be worth looking into. VA is only good if you can strong arm the sellers into paying your closing costs up front.

If your credit is good, you have pretty low debt and good income you can get into a house without much out of pocket.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Taking on a house that needs major renovation. You really should know what you are doing and geting involved with. Sometimes they can be had really cheap though can offsett things.

One place of ours should be gutted and redone. We will try to sell it as is later this year first. It would be a good buy for a young guy with some ability.

Some of our best deals overall over the years where when realtors where not involved in the transactions.