Flip This Wholesaler

Well I got another deal sold yesterday! Woohoo!

It’s a JV deal with another one of my wholesaling buddies, and it’s actually closing TODAY which I’m thrilled about!

The lady who is buying it is a new buyer of mine that I found on Monday.  I went out to look at a property in one of the neighborhoods that I’ve done quite a few deals in, and while I was there I decided to spend some time driving around and writing down all of the numbers on the “For Rent” signs that I saw.  This area is probably 80% rentals if not more, so there were quite a few of them. Initially I was going to write down 10 numbers and then go home, but I decided I might as well get as many as I could while I was there, so I ended up with 24.

Usually when I do this, I will take the list of numbers along with the corresponding property addresses, and research the owner in the tax records and on the county clerk’s website to see what the scoop is. If, for example, the owner only bought one property in 2006 for an astronomical price and they have a lis pendens filed against them….. I cross them off my list. This usually narrows the list by at least half, which is good because cold calling sucks and I hate doing it, so the fewer people I have to call- the better.

Monday, however, was the day of my first Toastmasters meeting, and I decided it would be good practice to cold call all 24 of the people on my list.

Good times, let me tell you.

One of my first calls went like this:

ME: Hi, my name is Steph Davis, and I saw your For Rent sign in front of a property on Main St. I was just wondering if you were looking for any more rentals in the area……

Angry Guy: (Silence)

ME: Um….Yeah, I’m a wholesaler and I was just calling some of the landlords in the area to see if they were looking for more rentals.  I’ve got a property for sale over on X Street for 37k and thought you might be interested……

AG: Oh you’ve got a property for sale do ya?  Gee, what a surprise!  SO DO I!  SO DOES EVERYBODY!  NO, I’M NOT INTERESTED!!!!!!!!

Click.

Awesome.

15 calls later, I was considering scrapping the whole mission, but forced myself to finish the list.

Long story short, the 24th call (seriously) ended up being the lady who is buying the deal that is closing today! How do ya like them apples?  And she’s also buying the crap out of properties in this neighborhood right now, so I’m sure this will be the first of many deals I sell to her.

Glad I finished making those calls.

That’s all I’ve got for now.  Have a great day everybody!

Over and out…

P.S.
Just a friendly reminder to those of you who are participating in the Flip This Wholesaler Book of the Month Club …… you’ve got two weeks left to finish up!  January 1st is right around the corner.

So it’s been quite the busy/productive December so far over here at Flip This Wholesaler HQ.

I managed to put a deal together last week with one of my wholesaler buddies (W00t!).  It’s not a home run by any means, but I only have an hour or so into the deal and I’m making a few grand, so I’m happy.   I ended up bringing the buyer to the table on this one.  I’ll give you three guesses how this buyer found out about the deal….

#1) Handwritten Sign

#2) Handwritten Sign

#3) Handwritten Sign

If you guessed handwritten sign, you would be correct.

I actually have a picture of the exact sign that my buyer saw- she pointed it out to me as we were on our way out of the neighborhood to go to Amscot and make copies of the contract and deposit.

Here it is…..

I wasn’t even going to put any signs out at all for this property, as it is priced a little high for the area, and I figured it would be a waste of time.   Turns out this lady was the only phone call that came in from this batch of signs, and she ended up buying the deal.  Nice.  She’s also looking to pick up another property in the area ASAP, so I’m on a mission to find her another one before the year is up.

This deal is supposed to close next week, and the bank is actually using a local title company that doesn’t suck, so we won’t have to deal with the hacks over at Watson title.  So that’s a good thing.

What else?

I got two really nice counter offers Friday afternoon from REOs that I offered on earlier in the week.  I’m going to counter back first thing this morning and hope that I get at least one of them under contract before someone else beats me to the punch…

As I mentioned in a prior post, I set a goal of finding 20 new buyers to add my list, and I accomplished that over the weekend (woohoo!), so now I’m just going to hit up the MLS and start making offers like a crazy person.  There are still almost 4 weeks left in 2009, and I plan on taking full advantage of every single day.  And then I am going to CRUSH 2010.

Speaking of crushing it, I’ve been kicking some serious ass in the gym as well.  I’m sticking to my goal of running 84 miles before I go up North for Christmas.  Yesterday was day #9 that I’ve ran 3.5 miles, which brings my total to 31.5 miles.  9 down, 15 to go!  I’ve been marking my calendar with a big red dot every day when I get back from my run.   It helps keep me motivated.  Check it out….

December is going to be one red hot mess when I get finished with it.  Hehe.

Other than that, I’ve been spending a lot of time working on my goals for 2010.  Yesterday I spent about four hours making a “Mind Movie”, which is something that’s been on my to-do list for about 6 months now.  I already have a vision board, and a list of positive affirmations that I go through every morning and night.  A Mind Movie basically combines all of them together into a slide show of what your perfect life looks like.  Pretty cool if you’re into that kind of stuff.  I created mine for free using Windows Movie Maker, but actually hijacked the idea from a Mind Movies product that I stumbled on while I was surfing the net…

So, anywho, that’s what I’ve been up to.

Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Later Alligators.

P.S.
I got an email over the weekend from a girl who bought my Flip This REO! eBook and just closed her first deal . She’s been working her ass off for the last 2 months and just made $7300! Woohoo- congrats Meghan!!

P.P.S.
If you have a success story you’d like to share (doesn’t have to be from an REO deal), please send it my way. I’m going to be adding a “Success Stories” section to the blog soon and I’d love to have yours to add to it.

Happy Friday, y’all!

I’m pleased to announce that I found my Mojo and am up and at ‘em again- woohoo!

I should be good to go for another six months or so,  so don’t expect any more 2 week hiatuses (hiati?) for awhile..

Anywho, I’ve got some possible deals cookin’ that I should be finding out about by the end of the day.  One of them is a deal that Murphy got under contract 3 weeks ago.  I thought it would be a no-brainer deal for a buyer of mine that I have done quite a bit of business with.  The house fits his buying criteria perfectly- neighborhood, price, beds/bath, all that stuff..

I sent it to him 3 weeks ago and he wasn’t interested because it is too small.  He gets pickier and pickier every time I talk to him, and now he’s only buying stuff that is 1200 sf or more, concrete block, in nice neighborhoods, and 3 bedrooms/2 bath minimum.  Smart guy.  He’s got over 20 houses right now, and wants another 30.  He’s going to hold all of them as rentals (all are producing positive cash flow), and I’m guessing he’s going to be sitting on a freaking gold mine 10 years down the road..

So, anyway, he passed on the deal, but called 2 days ago to ask if it was still available.  He’s now working with a group of investors from outside of the US who want to do the same thing he’s doing, and apparently they want the property.

Long story short, we should be getting a contract for 64k by the end of the day (contract price with the bank is 58k), but I’m not holding my breath.  The title work on this one is ready to go, so if all works out, it should close by Friday of next week.  There are a few too many “ifs” and “shoulds” in that sentence for my liking, but we’ll just have to wait and see..

The other deal is a duplex that I offered on last week and just got a counter back from the bank yesterday.   I picked up a new buyer earlier this week from one of the signs I have out (I’ve got about 60 signs out right now),  and he just so happens to be looking for duplexes in this neighborhood.  He just bought one right up the street from the property I offered on, so I know he’s interested in this area.  Right now the bank is at 41k, and I need to get them down about 5k more.  I countered back this morning and am hoping to hear back from them by the end of the day.

If I don’t end up getting this one at my price, I’ll wait 2 weeks and have Murphy put in an offer and see if they will come down a little more.  Half of something is better than nothing, ya know..

Oh, before I forget, my buddy Patrick Riddle, AKA P-Rid, is holding the first annual “Battle of the REI Blogs” starting this coming Monday.   I’m up against some heavy hitters, so I really need for you guys to put on your game faces and help me out.  Some of the contestants are already starting to talk smack (not mentioning any names, TREVOR MAUCH), and I would really like to put them all in their places!

I’ll be back Monday morning to explain the details of the contest, so make sure to check back here bright and early.  I’m actually heading off now for a weekend long Top-Secret-Ninja-Blog-Battle-Boot Camp (it’s known in the industry as TSNBBBC), to brush up on my skills.. I hear it’s some pretty intensive training, so wish me luck!

Have a great weekend, Everybody!

Later Alligators..

P.S.
If you’re ready to get off the fence and learn how to flip REOs, grab yourself a copy of my Flip This REO! eBook today- click here to get it now!

P.P.S.
Don’t forget to check back here Monday morning- I need all the votes I can get!

P.P.P.S.
This has nothing to do with real estate, but if you’re into nature-y stuff like I am, you’ll appreciate this GINORMOUS dead snake they recently found in South Florida. Crazy!  If you look really close at the end you can see his fangs.  (Sorry to all my Facebook friends, I know you’ve already seen this a time or two)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-dB0Itcf30[/youtube]

7/8/2009

So, I ended up finding another buyer for the property that I just got under contract. Actually, I found 3 buyers, but this guy was the first one to cough up a deposit and sign a contract. We met at my title company earlier today to get everything squared away.

This guy called me a few months ago when he saw one of my signs advertising a deal I had at the time. It took him a few days to go out and look at the property, and when he called to tell me he wanted it, it was already gone. I hadn’t heard from him in awhile, and he just happened to call me on Monday to see if I had anything available. I told him about my current deal and he went out to look at it immediately (apparently, he learned his lesson about lolly-gagging) and called back within a half hour with an offer of 19k (I was asking 29k). I told him that was too low, and he said he would think about it and get back to me. Long story short, he ended up calling me back 3 times with higher offers (this is always a good sign), and yesterday we agreed on a price of 25k net (meaning he pays all closing costs).

It’s 1k lower than the previous offer, which sucks, but I’ll take it. I’ve got a lot of other stuff on my plate at the moment, and I just want to get this one squared away so I can focus on the other stuff… Also, this buyer is what I like to call a “Jackpot Buyer,” so I’m willing to take a little less just to start building a relationship with him. He’s got deeeeeep pockets, lots of properties, and best of all, he’s not a douche bag. These are all qualities I look for in a buyer. My guess is that I will make a lot of money with this guy in the long run. Just a hunch.

Now I just have to get the bank and their title company to actually do their job. I’m a leetle bit scared that I haven’t even received the executed docs back from the bank yet. Usually when it takes them several days to sign the contracts, it’s a sign of what’s to come. Also, this is the same freaking asset management company that was in charge of the last deal I was working on, that I ended up losing. This time, though, I have the asset manager’s contact info (the listing agent accidentally sent it to me when she sent the bank’s addendum), so I can personally harass the shit out of him if he doesn’t get things signed in a timely fashion. Also, they are using a local title company, so if they suck (and chances are, they will), I can actually go into their office and harass them in person. Definitely a bonus.

That’s all I’ve got for now.

Later Alligators.

P.S.
A big congratulations to Shae, who just closed on her first rehab, and also to Craig, who just closed on his first short sale! Both are shining examples of where PERSISTENCE and MASSIVE ACTION will get you!

7/2/09

Sooooo….I got a deal under contract and sold yesterday! This is a different deal than the Hooker House I wrote about last time, which I am going to pass on.

I’m pretty sure this was the fastest I’ve ever sold a deal. And it was all done via text.

Here’s how it went down….

2:32 pm- Phone call from listing agent of a property I offered on this past Monday. It went to highest and best, and I offered 21k (10k over list). She said there were 20 offers on the property, and they had it narrowed down to 3, one of which was mine. She told me if I verbally agreed to their new terms, she could get my offer pushed through. They wanted 10% in escrow instead of the 1k I offered, and everything else was the same. I agreed to the new terms.

Oh, and she also wanted to verify that I was giving her both sides of the commission, including the 3k bonus to the selling agent. I’m sure this had nothing to do with me getting the offer accepted.

5:07 pm- Email from listing agent telling me they are taking my offer, and that I need to sign bank’s addendum and return it within 48 hours, along with earnest deposit.

5:50 pm- After going to look at the house one more time, sent the following text message to my favorite buyer: “Hey Favorite Buyer, I just got a house you are going to like. 123 Main Street. 1200 sf frame, carport, fireplace, comes with extra lot. Nice street. Lock box 8590. Asking 29k.”

6:35 pm- Text from Favorite Buyer: “20k.”

6:36pm- Text to Favorite Buyer: “27k.”

6:36 pm- Text from FB: “24k.”

6:38 pm- Text to FB: “26k. Work with me here.”

6:39 pm- Text from FB: “OK. 26k.”

6:39 pm- Text to FB: “Cool. It’s scheduled to close on the 24th. That OK?”

6:40 pm- Text from FB: “OK.”

6:42 pm- Text to FB: “If you’re around this weekend, we can meet to sign everything. Just let me know when.”

6:46 pm- Text from FB: “OK, no problem.”

And there you have it.

I probably could have found a buyer for more than 26k, but I’m always one to take the quick nickel, especially if it is from one of my solid buyers. This will be the 4th house I’ve sold to this guy this year, and the 6th since last summer.

Just to give you a little insight as to how important it is to make clean offers when you’re bidding on a hot REO property….. the agent told me there was an offer of 30k on the table, but they wanted a 7 day inspection period. My offer was 9k less, but had zero contingencies.

It also helps to bribe the agent by giving them both sides of the commission. Especially when there is a 3k bonus being offered..

OK, Gotta run..

Have a safe and fun-filled 4th of July!

P.S.
I just added Patrick and Trevor’s Private Money Blueprint to my list of recommended courses. If you have time this weekend, check out the free videos- there’s several hours of quality content for your viewing pleasure…