Flip This Wholesaler

7/1/2009

Well, I got an offer accepted yesterday.

I actually made the offer on the 15th of June, and never heard back, so I just figured they were rejecting it. The property is listed for 30k, and my offer was 17k. I made the offer without seeing the property in person, as I am getting increasingly lazy when it comes to actually going and looking at houses. I’ve done a lot of deals in this particular area (the hood), so I feel fairly comfortable making offers site unseen, especially when there are plenty of pictures of the house on the mls..

Anyway, so the bank came back last Friday (10 days later) with a counter of 25k, and at that point I decided to go look at the house. It’s a 3/1 on a corner lot, and unfortunately, the neighborhood liquor store/prostitute hangout is right across the street. Not good. Also, the house has a funky layout, which is also not good. Two strikes on a piece of crap property in the hood is not good. (That was an accidental rhyme, btw)…

So, I told the listing agent that I wasn’t budging on my price, and I figured that was the last I would hear from her. She ended up calling late yesterday afternoon to tell me they decided to take my initial offer of 17k.

Go figure.

I’m meeting Murphy out at the house as soon as I’m done writing this post to get his opinion on it. I told the listing agent I wasn’t sure I still wanted to move forward with the deal, being that I made the offer 2 weeks ago, and now I have other properties to consider. This is kind of true, but mostly not.

I normally don’t like jerking people around, but when it takes the bank 10 days to respond to an offer, I don’t really feel too bad making them wait around a day or so for me to make a decision. Actually, I kind of enjoy it.

And that’s all she wrote for today. I’m off to the hood….

P.S.
I haven’t forgotten about the Power of Less Challenge for July. I’ll write a post about that mañana.

.

6/17/09

Well, I wasn’t able to save the deal, and it is now officially dead. I’m pretty sure that DB was just waiting for my time to run out, and I bet he’ll have an offer in on it today. With a little luck, maybe he’ll buy the property and the rest of the roof will cave in on his head. Just kidding. Kind of.

I got a counter back yesterday afternoon from one of the houses I offered on yesterday morning. This is shocking, as it usually takes them five years (give or take a year), to get a response from the bank. The bank countered @ 13k and I am trying to get it @ 10k. The house is in the hood, but it’s not in horrible shape, and I have a few guys who like this area, so I’m going to send both of them by today to see if they’ll bite. One of these guys bought a house from me on the same street last year for 27k. It needed a lot less work, though, and had 1 extra bedroom. We’ll see.

I’ve been trying to make at least 3 offers/day every day, but there really isn’t that much to choose from right now, so I’m continuing to work deals with a few of my wholesaler friends. I usually get at least one call/day from other wholesalers asking if I want to JV on deals with them. This is a good thing for me, especially when there isn’t much available on the mls…

Anyhoodle, that’s about all I’ve got for now. I’ve been a busy little bee working on stuff for the new blog (which should be ready to go by mid-July)…

Gotta run- I’m off to the gym. No excuses for me today..

P.S.
I found this video on the Zen Habits blog, which is my new favorite blog. Lots and lots of good stuff over there..

2/22/2009

Well, it’s 1:19 am, my flight leaves at 6 am, and here I am, still up, and just finished packing.

I was kind of bummed because I wanted to get another deal under contract before I left, and it didn’t look like it was going to happen…. I was in Ross today (I love me some Ross), looking for some last minute vacation flip flops, when I got one of those rare Saturday calls from an agent that I have been going back and forth on a property with for the last week….The bank finally agreed to my last counter of 22k (property was listed at 35k, I offered 20k initially, and they finally came down to 22k).

Anywho, I started to panic a little since I’m leaving tomorrow (today, actually), and won’t have cell access for the next week, so it will be really hard to try and find a buyer for this deal, and also, I don’t really feel like being stressed out about finding a buyer while I’m on vacation.

I had already called a few of my investors when I got the initial counter offer from the bank earlier in the week, and none of them were interested….. I did some quick thinking, called my friend Lee, and asked him if he wanted to partner on this deal with me (I get the deal under contract, he gets the buyer).

He went out to look at the property, called me back less than an hour later, and said let’s go for it. I talked to him around 7pm, and he said he already has it sold and should be getting the contract and deposit tomorrow.  Woohoo!

I guess I better try to get some sleep.

I promise to drink plenty of margaritas for you all while I’m gone.

¡Adios Amigos!

P.S.
I am officially almost a Cougar.

2/6/2009

It feels good to be back in the swing of things. Took me a day to get back on track, but now I’m ready to do some damage..

The deal I was working with Lee closed on Tuesday.

Still waiting on the bank’s title company to get everything ready for the duplex deal. This, of course, is the one I’m working with Murphy, and I’d like to just go on the record as saying that I think this deal is going to be added to the list of deals that we’ve worked together that have crashed and burned.

I get the feeling that something is awry, and every time the phone rings and it’s him calling, I just know he’s calling with bad news. Supposedly, the bank is trying to negotiate with the city to get a lien reduced (or something), but it seems to be taking an awfully long time, and I just think there is something else going on. Or maybe I am just paranoid because every deal that we have ever worked on together has ended up in the dumpster.

Yesterday, I got a call from an agent on a property that I offered on on (on on?) January 20th.

In case you don’t have a calendar handy- that’s over 2 weeks ago. Anyway, the property is listed at $29,900, I offered 11k (hehe), and the bank countered at $18,900.

Nice.

This house is a glorified shack, but if I get it cheap enough, I can sell it. Usually when they come down that far off of list price right off the bat, they will come down more. I’m pretty sure I can get 19k for this (famous last words), so I countered back at 13k yesterday afternoon, and hopefully will get a response back today.

I love getting good counters on Fridays, because then I have the entire weekend to get my buyers out there to look and give me feedback.

I’m back on the offer train, so today I’ll be looking at more houses, putting some signs out (in the cold), and blasting out some more offers…

Have a great weekend y’all…

P.S.
Countdown to Costa Rica, T-minus 16 days! Woohoo!