Flip This Wholesaler

So, the investors from up North sent Murphy an email earlier today telling him they would pay 75k for the vacant land that they were going to buy last year. We kinda figured their offer was going to be lower than what they agreed to previously (120K), but didn’t think it would be THAT low. Geeze Louise.  What do they think this is, anyway?  A down real estate market where you can low-ball the crap out of sellers and get great deals?  The nerve of some people.

The investor who owns the land told us to email him a contract once we were ready to make an offer, so we sent one over a little bit ago for 50k cash. My ESP tells me that he is going to come back with a counter of 75k. Just a little hunch I have. I’ll keep you posted.

I’ve also got another JV deal that I’m hoping to get locked up tomorrow morning. The buyer is a new guy who recently found me through one of my signs (have I mentioned how much I heart my signs?), and he is buying up all kinds of properties in Tampa. I imagine we will be doing quite a bit of business together this year. Just another hunch of mine.

I have a few other things I’d like to write about, but I’m seconds away from passing out on my keyboard. I’ve been getting up at 5:30 every morning and running 4 miles on the treadmill, and it is really kicking my ass. Also, the whole Spring Forward thing is really messing me up, too.  Not complaining, though- I’m ecstatic that Spring is finally here after the long, crappy, sunshine-less winter we had this year.

Jim is happy to see the sunshine again, too.  He spent the whole day on the patio soaking it all in…..

Lucky dog.

Do you guys like how I said I was going to start posting more frequently, and then I didn’t post a thing all week?

I had one of those weeks where I woke up on Monday morning, blinked, and then next thing I knew it was Friday.  And I’m not even really sure what I did all week- it’s all kind of a blur.

The buyer from NY that I was supposed to meet up with on Monday ended up blowing me off, which made me really happy because I just LOVE having my time wasted.  I probably spent an hour on the phone with the guy talking about the market here and the different neighborhoods, blah, blah, blah.  Then lined up some deals for him to look at while he was here.  And then he just up and blew me off.  Awesome.

What else?

Murphy and I are in the middle of a deal that we thought was in the bag last year, but ended up falling apart at the last minute.  I think I mentioned it in a prior post but didn’t go into much detail…..  He has been working with a buyer from up North that is buying up all of the properties in this tiny little section of Tampa, with the intent of knocking the houses down and putting some sort of commercial property in their place.  They’ve already bought 4 or 5 houses in this area, along with some vacant land, and they are paying WAY more than your average investor would be willing to pay.  This is good for us, obviously.

So anyway, I hunted down one of the investors who owns several pieces of vacant land in the area where this group is buying, and sure enough, he was interested in selling.  We had the deal negotiated last year with us purchasing the lots for 89k, and selling to the out of state guys for 120k.  Weeeee!!!  And then the buyers decided at the last minute that they wanted to hold off, although I can’t remember what their reasoning was.  I think it was probably just to piss me off.  It worked.

As luck would have it, the out of state guys called Murphy a few weeks ago and said they were in buying mode again and asked him to bring them anything he could get his hands on in this little neighborhood.  The guy who we originally negotiated the sale of the land with is still interested in selling, and told us to make an offer.  We are just waiting on the buyers to give us a price so we know where to start.  They are supposed to have an answer  by Monday, so we’ll see.  I’ll crap my pants if it actually works out.

So that’s what I’ve got going on.

My quest to become a famous chef is still not going so well.  My latest creation, which I like to call “Olive Oil Overload” (O cubed, for short), quickly made it’s way into the garbage can earlier this afternoon.  I was actually thinking of starting up a cooking blog, but someone stole my domain name: EverythingICookTastesLikeShit.com.   Oh well.

Alrighty then, that’s all I’ve got for today, folks.

Have a great weekend Everybody!

P.S.
Fan me up on Facebook! All the cool people are doing it. Hehe.

P.P.S.
Is anyone else taking the Red Pill? I think it is phenomenal so far.

Hi Guys and Gals!

How was your week?  Everybody making lots of offers and lots of money?

All is well over here in Tampa, minus the fact that I haven’t seen the sun in about 4 days, and also, I’m FREEZING MY ASS OFF.  I know many of you are buried under seven hundred feet of snow and are without electricity and you probably want to crawl through the computer and strangle me when I complain about it being fourty effing degrees here, but I can’t help it.  THIS WEATHER BLOWS. It’s no accident that I live in the Sunshine State, so I feel entitled to complain.

Anywho, enough about the weather- let’s talk real estate, shall we?

I thought I was going to be writing a post today about a new REO deal that I just got under contract, but that ain’t happening, apparently.  I’ve actually been negotiating with the bank on this particular deal since last week and thought it was in the bag.  The house has been on the market on and off  for over two years.  Two. Years. Seriously.  It’s currently listed for $25,000 and my initial offer was $12.2k.  The house is a piece of crap located on Piece Of Crap Street, but I’ve got a buyer who happens to like this little area and he’s looking for something in the el cheapo price range, and this dump fits the bill…

So, anyway, I offered 12.2k, all cash, no contingencies, with a 3 day closing.  The bank came down from $25k to 16k on their first counter, which was quite shocking, in a good way.  Nine times out of ten when they come off their list price that much right out of the gate, they will come down more.  So, I countered back at 13.5k last week and have been waiting and waiting for a response.  I already ran the deal past my buyer, who said he would be interested at 20k-ish.

I finally got a call back from the agent yesterday letting me know that they got a full price offer and asking  if I was interested in coming up any more.  HAHAHAHAHA!  Yeah, no thanks.

I figured it was a wholesaler who put it under contract, so I checked Craigslist a few hours later, and sure enough, the property was listed with a nice little 7k markup.  There’s no way in hell anyone is going to pay that much for that property, so I expect to see it hit the market again in the next 3-10 days, depending on how long the inspection period is.  I already let the agent know that I’m still interested, and I’ll be checking in with her every couple of days so she doesn’t forget…

Aside from that, I’ve got a few other deals I’m working on with my wholesaler buddies, but nothing under contract at the moment.  I’ve also got a few out of state buyers that are looking for deals in Tampa, as well as some of my local buyers who have been calling me looking for houses.

And that’s about all I’ve got for now, folks.  Gotta run- time to make the doughnuts.

Have a great weekend, Everyone!

P.S.
Things are not going so well for Chef Steph. My Scallops Parmesan turned out disastrous and had to be thrown away. Seriously, it was that bad.

Ewwwww.  I can barely look without gagging a little bit.

Hi Everybody!

Hope you are all having a great weekend so far!  

Are you getting ready to cheer on your favorite team in the Super Bowl? (Or as I like to call it- the Stupid Bowl. Hehe).  I’m not a big football fan (at all), but I do like to watch the commercials.

While all of you are eating chicken wings and drinking beer, I’ll be answering phones at my brother Niko’s pizza shop in Clearwater.  This is always a real good time, as you can imagine.  The phone literally rings off the hook for like 3 hours straight, and the majority of the people who call are hammered, don’t have a clue what they want to order, and can’t be heard over the 685 people screaming in the background.  It’s awesome.

So anyway, I told you earlier in the week that I had a guest post coming up from Justin McClelland (I call him Mr. Hustle, btw), which I had meant to post on Friday, but I felt so inspired about giving away the Douchebag Award that it didn’t happen.  So I’m bringing it to you today, on this lovely Stupid Bowl Sunday.

If you aren’t already a reader of Justin’s blog, I recommend you add him to your blog roll.  If you look up the word “Hustle” in the dictionary, I’m pretty sure you’ll find a picture of him staring back at you.

Please give a warm welcome to Justin as he talks about 8 different ways to find buyers for your wholesale deals (it’s broken up into 2 videos, as it exceeded the YouTube time limit)…..

Thanks Justin, for doing the videos for us!

If you guys have any questions or comments about any of these strategies, please feel free to ask away- we’ll both be happy to answer!

Enjoy the Stupid Bowl, Everybody!!

P.S.
If you decide to order pizza during the game, don’t forget to be nice to your order taker. Also, it’s helpful if you figure out what you want to order before you call. Just sayin…

P.P.S.
Don’t forget, The Flip This Book Club will be meeting back here tomorrow at 8pm sharp!

P.P.P.S.
Do any of you tech-y guys out there, have any idea why my Facebook Fan Page badge decided to break? I had to take it down today because this is what it looked like in my sidebar:

Then when I went to Facebook to try and get new html to put in the text widget, it looked like this:

Any advice would be appreciated- thanks!!

P.P.P.S
I’m going to be in pizza-order-taking hell for the rest of the day, so if I don’t respond to comments or emails ’til tomorrow, that’s why.

Hi Everybody!

Long time no post, sorry.

I’ve been a busy little bee over here these first few weeks of 2010. I managed to get my first deal of the year under contract and closed already. Woohoo! It was another JV deal that I did with a wholesaler buddy of mine. Not a huge payday (3k), but I literally had less than an hour of work into it, so I’ll take it.

I did a phone call with Alex Pardo earlier in the week where I go into detail about how the deal went down. The call is about 45 mins, and we also cover some other topics that I think you will enjoy (building your buyers list, staying motivated when you’re just getting started, etc). If you’d like to listen in on the call, click here. It’s not a sales call, just content. Hope you enjoy!

I’m writing this post from a restaurant in the Atlanta airport, as I’m en route to a last minute business trip to St. Louis where I’ll be meeting up with Charrissa Cawley and checking out her bus tour.  It’s going to be a great weekend, and I’m really excited about it.  I’ll explain in more detail when I get back on Monday.

Hope you guys have a great weekend!  Gotta run- my plane’s about to board.

Later Alligators!

P.S.
I just created a Flip This Wholesaler fan page on Facebook- I’d love for you to become a fan!

P.P.S.
If you haven’t listened to the Red Pill yet, I highly recommend doing so. It’s an hour-ish of really awesome motivational content. I’ve listened to it twice already. You do have to opt-in, but it’s worth it. Also, make sure to check out the recommend reading list and affirmations at the bottom of the page once you opt in. Good stuff! Click here to get it.