routine check before submitting a tender

[welcomelm]

Hi Guys

What kind of routine check do you run before submitting a tender. I know a title search is a must. But how can you know if the property is a grow-op home, or a haunted house or a place, where somebody was murdered before. Anyways, can you share some tips to verify this sort of things? Thanks in advance.

[Matt]

Well said, Dave2.

If I may add a few things of my own...

I first try to determine if the house is currently occupied or not.
If the house is believed to be unattended and vacated for an extended period of time, I deduct a significant portion from my initial bid amount.  By doing so, I know I have secured at least some contingency fund necessary to later fix the probable structural damages.

I then look to see if there was any fire occurred in that house.
One way to detect is to look around the window frames with binoculars for any signs of smokes.  When the house is believed to be fire damaged, I know I have to expect a steep discount.

I also look for major water damages.
It is difficult to detect water damages from outside; however, you can look for any signs like a section of the roof cropping down, damages on roof shingles and so on.

Of course, I also try to find out if the house is a grow-op.
There are many articles published on how to detect grow-op facilities- google and read them...
I just walk away once I learn the property is a grow-op.

Finally, throughout the whole process, I constantly remind myself with this famous saying - "There is no such thing that you HAVE TO buy"

You can lose bids many times but don't want to lose your hard earned money! 

Matt

[welcomelm]

Thanks very much, Dave and Matt. Those are the greatest tips.

But what if the properties are really far and I don't have time drop by. You would suggest to pass it? BTW, the property looks very decent on google street.

[Dave2]

But what if the properties are really far and I don't have time drop by. You would suggest to pass it? BTW, the property looks very decent on google street.

All Matt and and I are trying to say is with tax sales you are often buying goods that are somewhat damaged.  How much damage and the cost to fix it are part of the art I referred to in purchasing and reselling.  One of the headaches is at this time of year you can't really tell because of snow cover.  I said it best on one last year around this time of year when I said I didn't know if we would be purchasing scrap metal heaven or environmental hell.  

Probably best to pick one that is up for sale now that meets your criteria and use it  as an example because the devil in this business is always in the details.  Of the two that meet your criteria of being too far to drive I will pick the closest one because it has the additional attraction of being an income property.  I am of course talking about the tax sale for the triplex in Cochrane.  I will not check legals but just look at the surface information.  First the good news.

a) It is on a main street in a medium sized northern Ontario town.

b) It has all town services.

c) If you could get it for the tax sale minimum you have an out of this world price of less then you will get in rent in the first year.  
(correction 4 months)

Probably because it is close to this guys   favourite place of Moonbeam  with its flying saucer.  A comparable place  in Toronto
will go for over 100 times that price.  

d) This is a reasonable sized dwelling of 3,000 sq. ft including garage.

e) It looks like a reasonable opportunity for a flip.  

e) we can probably safely ignore the ominous threat on title because even they would not do something crazy in the middle of a town.

Having done the good suff I will turn it over to my tag team members like in wrestling because  as any afficanado knows there is always a spoil sport to outline the bad stuff.  

PS:  just checked Cochrane rents.  1 bedrooms at 700 -800 and two bedrooms at 1100 per month currently listed.