Secure Your property for before Rehabbing!

After completing several property rehabs in Miami-Dade County, Florida, I wanted to try something out of the county but still in Florida. My parents lived in Sarasota, Florida so I thought this would be a nice place to start. Distance would be an issue but my father was down for the winter and he could check up on the progress being made on the individual properties. Also, my Dad is an electrical contractor which brings many rehab benefits but that is a future REIC posting.

I found a duplex FOR SALE fairly quickly on Debbie Street, Sarasota due to the advantage of attending Sarasota REIA group meetings on Florida's Gulf Coast. Other than the distance, four hour drive, I felt this would be like any other rehab.

I decided to start in February with a two week property visit. Well during that time, several problems arose that I didn't experience before, like:

• Most of the properties were on well water. Hard on the pipes, fixtures and tasted awful. Our duplex had city water service which was a blessing but caused me a problem I had to resolve.
• Septic Tanks! No county sewer systems had been installed. The drain field was the front lawn and it was clogged.
• Clothes Washer waste water line emptied onto the backyard lawn.
• Pine trees over fifty high. Pine needles build up on the roof and lawn.
• Gravel driveway that the neighbors thought they could use to park their cars.
• Drug addicts lived about 50 yards away in an apartment.
• On and On and On....

But the one problem that cost me the most in time and money was the city water lines.

Apparently it was very expensive to get connected to Sarasota's water system due to high impact fees. Impact fees are the city's way to tax you for hooking up to the water system network. You have to pay for the following:

• Impact fees
• Installation fee for digging up the street and installing the water meters.
• Hire a plumber to run lines from the city's water meters to the duplex's water system.
• Had to pay twice since it was two separate water meters, one for each unit of the duplex.

Luckily, my duplex already had these meters installed by a previous owner. The problem was the neighbors knew this and thought they could help themselves to the city water from our duplex. They would go to our outside water fixture and fill their 5 gallon water containers.

By the end of the month, I had a very large water bill which I couldn't figure out why? My rehab contractor said he never used too much water. I thought I had a water line leak from the meter to the duplex.

One day in July, my rehab contractor said he saw one of the neighbors filling up their containers and told me about it. I was flabbergasted but realized that this was going to be an ongoing problem!

Below is picture containing the anti-theft water system parts and installation video.....

Related Links, Blog Postings, Presentations or Articles:

• Section 8 Inspection Checklist
• Sarasota REIA on Facebook
• Sarasota Real Estate Investor Association on Twitter

Written by +Bob Burns.

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Life is a Beach. Go Find Yours! Real Estate Investor about.me/RobertKBurns Telephone #: 305-586-5280 email: sec8@planocho.com

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Ten Reasons Why Your Real Estate Deal Fails at the Closing Table!

Having bought and sold many properties I can tell you that deals can blow up right at the closing table.

When I decided to buy my first home in Miami, Florida due to my wife's pregnancy the deal blew up in less than 45 minutes into the closing. I was going to sell my 1 bedroom condo on Brickell Avenue and purchase a 3/2 home in Coconut Grove on the same day! What could go wrong?

Mistake!

The Buyer of my apartment came to the closing but could not close the deal due to late arrival of the bank funds. The Tile Company refused to close that afternoon and wanted to do it the next morning.

Well needless to say, I was MAD!

I was going to use the excess monies from that Brickell Avenue deal as a down payment on the Coconut Grove purchase.

The current owner of the Grove House threatened to take my $12K deposit since we couldn’t close on the contracted date.

Thank God I had an attorney draw up the contract. There was a "subject to funding" clause in the contract

Note: Always have a Real Estate Attorney review your contract template. Check our Service Providers List for our preferred real estate attorney in South Florida.

The next day we closed but I couldn't sleep that night.

Soooooo….just because you have a contract doesn't mean you're going to close!

Below is a list I put together with help from Joseph F. Suarez that provides Ten Reasons Why Your Deal Fails at the Closing Table! (Sellers Beware):

1. You Contract is not Correct – Too many mistakes can occur right here like wrong Platt numbers, improper property description, wrong dates, etc.

2. No Financial Commitment By the Buyer
   1. No Money in Escrow

3. Title Problems
   1. More/Different Sellers on Title
   2. Seller Not on Title
   3. Illegal Title Transfer

4. Buyer has Collections & Judgments
   1. Check out the Buyer

5. Deteriorating Market – Current Real Estate Market
   1. Deteriorating Market Value
   2. Deteriorating LTV Ratio .
   3. Deteriorating Interest Rates

6. Open Permits and Liens – Hurricane Andrew caused a lot of problems with Open permits in Southern Dade County. I can’t tell you how many times I have been nailed on this item!

7. Fraud/Foreclosure/Google – Again, Buyer Beware!

8. Water & Waste Lien – This problem appears a lot with commercial properties that only have one water meter.

9. Property Doesn't Qualify for Financing – Tax rolls list it as a 2/1 one but you think you are buying a 3/2 Uh?!

10. Uninsurable Property – Property in a Flood zone, property not up to current code, etc.

Related Links, Blog Postings, Presentations or Articles:

• Can't Find a Good Real Estate Attorney? Check out this list of Real Estate Service Providers.

Written by +Bob Burns.

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Yeah Baby! Real Estate Investor about.me/RobertKBurns Telephone #: 305-586-5280 email: rkburns@investmentpropertiesmiamiflorida.com

Our Internet Footprint: