Herman David Battles - Flip This House

FLIP THIS HOUSE

Herman David Battles

Copyright 2017 by Herman David Battles.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 12/20/2016

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CONTENTS

When you are flipping a house, have fun while doing it.

This Book By

David H. Battles

McCormick Correctional

Institution

386 Redemption Way

McCormick S.C.

29899

In care of:

2932 SW Romano Rd

Port St Lucia, FL.

34953

Seeing these shows on TV or hearing about how to do this from your friends or other people has piqued your interest, or you wouldnt be reading this book. I am going to give you different stages of investing your money in real estate. These stages will depend on your lifestyle, how much time you want to put in, the money you want to invest, how quick you want to be a millionaire.

You dont have to have any knowledge or license in real estate to buy properties. Just follow this book to your way to prosperity. You will save thousands of dollars by not paying the so-called experts, who are more interested in putting money from you in their pocket. My advice will be better and more understandable. We will take step-by-step, easy-to-do introductions.

In the chapters to come, we will talk about tax sales, computer auctions, Federal Housing Administration (FHA) houses, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) houses, Veterans Administration (VA) properties, and most importantly on-site auctions.

I want to make these instructions so easy, that I could take anyone with drive or anyone who wants more for their familys future to understand this easy-to-do program. So let us get started.

A tax sale usually is posted in your county newspaper in February or March, with the auction in April. This sale will be at the courthouse. The reason for this sale is to collect back taxes on properties in this county. The county needs this tax money for improvements and growth. The county welcomes you to invest in these properties.

Before you attend a tax sale auction, you will need to be prepared. You will need a plat map of your county. These you can get at the county tax office. A plat map is a must-have item. It will show you the location of the plats that will be sold at the auction.

All properties are sold as plats. They will be listed in the newspaper as plats. When you sign up for the auction, you will get a plat director. Then you can mark the plats you want to buy.

By getting your plat map ahead of the auction, you can get the legal address of the plats and look at the properties on the computer. You will be able to see what the neighborhood looks like, see how much houses sell for in this area. Get an idea if this plat is what you would bid on.

Once you look at the property on your computer, you should be able to see how much the taxes are and have been. Youre looking for properties that the owners have lived on for a long time. These types of plats where the elderly lived usually mean that they have chosen a nursing home or have gone and lived with the kids. These plats are usually being kept up. If the owners moved out of state, see if the neighbors know anything about the property. There are a million reasons that could be the reason the taxes wasnt paid.

The worst-case scenario that could happen on a plat you buy, the owner had a change of heart and wants to buy back your tax plat. You get between 18 percent to 25 percent interest on your money. You cant make this kind of interest on your money anywhere; and this is the worst scenario, to make more interest on your money than anywhere else.

You do your homework on the properties you are interested in and this wont happen to you.

I truly want you to make a million dollars working this system. If you think tax sales are your way to financial freedom, I am going to go step by step with you. If being a millionaire is what you want to be, then let us get started.

Things you will need are a computer and a plat map!

Let us take one of the plats you have chosen. We want to pull up the block of plats and get a legal address. Now lets look up the address on the computer. This way we can see how much the tax has been on this property. We want to see how much houses in this neighborhood sale for and what kind of neighborhood does the plat set in. There are sites on the computer where you can get an overhead view of the plat and the surrounding houses. After you find out about this plat, the property length and width, you are ready for a visit to this property. This is an onsite inspection, walk around the property. Look at the electric meter to see if it has been tampered with, look at the air conditioner, see if it has a service sticker and the date it was last serviced. I always carry an eight-inch screwdriver in my back pocket that I check for rot with. Go as low on the wood as possible and stab the wood, if the screwdriver goes all the way, you have wood rot or termites. The base of a house is hard to fix and costly to replace. Next, look at the roof, see for any damage.

My next inspection is to find the water meter, it should be at the street, a couple of feet in. See if you have any damage. Remember your water meter and water lines to the house are on one side of the house and the electric lines on the other. Walk the side of the water meter, you are looking for sunken areas. The water line can break during cold weather or just being old. Find the sewage clean out, it will be a pipe sitting a little above ground level. See if there are any sunken areas around the sewage tank area.

I like to check everything I can see; I want to make sure the property is structurally sound and the roof doesnt leak. Now that the inspection meets your requirements, we are ready to put this piece of property on your bid list.

Most states have a two-year tax delinquent set up. To explain this further is, if an owner of a piece of property does not pay the tax on the property in two years, the person holding the tax paid deeds can file for ownership at the end of two years. You file a new ownership paper with a judge and he will sign the paper, then it goes to the courthouse to be filed with you as the new owner.

Tax sales are kept low-key by real estate agents and tax buyers because they are so much money in this system. You could own a $100,000 house in two years for as low as $2,000.

You can start off with bidding on your price-line properties and move up to higher price units later. For the beginner with not much capital, you will start with something in your range. But just to start means that you are on your way to financial freedom. I have put a guide in this section showing how fast you can move up the money tree. How fast you want to go is up to you.

After all the computer work and the going to the sites for inspection, you are ready to go to the bidding sale. The courthouse will tell you when the sale will be held. You will need proper ID, and in some states, you will need a cashiers check.

After all the work you have invested, dont overbid, stay in your price range. If the tax on the plat is usually $1,000 a year, you dont want to pay more than the $1,000. A lot of these units you will be able to pick up for a portion of that price. You will run into a piece of property that the neighbor is bidding on or maybe for his kids or just a rental unit. Dont get overwhelmed and dont bid no more than you wanted to bid at the start. This is the reason you picked more properties than you wanted to buy on the go. Let an overpriced unit go! After all, you are in this to make money.