I wouldn’t trust my offer to a letter or post card. My experience with people in this type of situation is that they are not johnny-on-the-spot about checking their mail.
You might want to consider knocking on the door and telling the guy that you are interested in buying property in the neighborhood and is he interested, or does he know if any of his neighbors are interested in selling their place? Non threatening and accomplishes what you want.
I need an advise as to how I should proceed with this. Here’s the story:
A friend of mine showed me the house, which looked to be abandoned. A few times I went over there, during the day, and there were no changes: everything is overgrown, fence is broken, two old cars, which appeared to be untouched for quite a long while, door bell is silent, even the trash bins looked at the same places, laying on a ground and always empty.
So I come over one evening to talk to the neighbors and… there is light in the house!! I was quite shocked. (I probably should’ve checked if the power was shut off beforehand, but it never occurred to me that somebody might actually live there.) I took a distant peek in the window and there was a man inside, and TV was on
I asked a neighbor, but she didn’t seem to be willing to talk (said she was in a hurry) only mentioned that the owner is such (I already knew that from the City Hall) and that the house is deserted. The other neighbor was more talkative and said that the owner himself lives there (and sometimes his son visits him) and that he is divorced (I forgot to ask how long ago it happened.) To my question why the house is in such a condition, he said “They just don’t care!” Before leaving I asked maybe he knows if the guy wants to sell it, he replied that he told the owner if he decides to sell it, come to him
I found out at the City Hall that neither taxes nor water bills have been paid for three quarters now. When I tried to get the phone number, 411 did not have it and the people search on the internet did not return anything (usually they have relatively old numbers though.) I did find in one place (knowx.com) that supposedly they have info on him, but did not show which one, so I decided to wait before paying for it.
I was reluctant to talk to the owner himself, because frankly I was’t prepared to find what I did, and I didn’t know what I would say to him. I thought maybe I should try to gather more info. What should I do? Should I try to find out if there is a mortgage on the house and if so, what the situation with it? How would I find this? Anything else I should do? Any advise is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Vlad.
Well, I don’t think you have to steal a house but at the same time:
You have done all this work on the house so why would you move onto another WITHOUT MAKING AN OFFER???
Send a postcard, a letter, hang a flyer make a phone call but do something.
You have done all this work and now there is an owner? Man, if you took the advice of some, and if you actually had to talk to an owner means go on to another house, you would never do a deal.
You know the numbers that work, if he likes you offer great if not, So What. Next. But at least you are not sitting around and wondering.
Heck, the neighbor may now be thinking HE is going to make an offer and it may get accepted.
You have done the hard work, don’t let something die without Making An Offer. He may be sitting there wishing someone would, and he is not going to sell to his nosey neighbor, and man he hates everyone around him cause they gave him grief all these years and he just wants out. You may be the answer to his dreams.
As Joe Kaiser says Get On the same page as the owner, but ya gotta get an offer or something to him.
Do a search on Joe Kaiser and look for his abandoned properties letter. It is a great one to help you out if you won’t knock on the door.
Go to the county recorder’s office, they will tell you all you need to know.
Send the guy a letter.
Most likely, he’ll say he needs a place to live.
But, don’t expect him to live there too much longer.
Did they shut the water off from lack of payment?
Or is it still on?
Cash is king! IT WOULD BE NICE TO STEAL THIS ONE IF THE LOAN IS NONE OR LOW!
The guy is a hermit and a slob. So what? Why does that mean he would be willing to sell you his home? (at a big discount no less). I dont understand your interest in this property. If you must persist, then knock on the door.
