I’m an active CA investor but have missed out on some extremely good deals offered through the HUD website in my area. There are some properties that I’ve seen go through there that are only listed as available to ‘non-profits’ or ‘government agencies’ and then someone scoops them up and they are gone. I’ve watched the MLS in my area and the person I have seen that represents the buyer in a couple of these is most likely the investor himself who is buying the home, as he is active at courthouse steps and at other auctions and doesn’t really represent buyers other than himself. So I’ve assumed he has a non-profit company that he set up and somehow is legitimately buying these without any competition from others. Anyone have any experience with this type of situation? Is anyone currently doing this and if so, how is it working for you?
I’ve mostly seen this strategy with county run property tax sales in CA, where non-profits get the first shot at properties. Seems to be viable, its been around a long time. Just be sure to talk to an attorney to setup your non-profit in a manner that does not run afoul of the rules. While you can likely extract some of the “profits” as a reasonable salary for running the entity, this is no get rich quick plan and you aren’t going to be able to transfer large gains to yourself.
Aaron-
Here is a HUD link offering some details about the FHA Approved Nonprofits as well as other helpful information:? http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/housing/sfh/np/np_home